NO may make transfusions safer

June 25, 2013 Barbara Payne

People who give blood are a blessing to the world. Who knows how many lives are saved because the Red Cross and others are able to preserve blood and have it available for emergencies? But transfusions don’t always work the way they’re meant to.

The fact is, stored blood doesn’t have the vitality and the oxygen-carrying ability it had when first collected – even after a single day in storage. Giving a bunch of stored blood to a person already in serious trouble can sometimes even result in hypoxia – starving the person’s tissues and organs of oxygen. Certainly the opposite of the intended effect.

Nitric oxide (NO), a naturally occurring substance in the body, is known to attach itself to hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying component of red blood cells. When it does, it forms S-nitrosohemoglobin (SNO-Hb), which “causes blood vessels to dilate, making it easier for oxygen to reach cells,” according to this article in MedExpress.

A group of experimenters thought maybe if they added NO to stored blood it would carry oxygen better. They found a way to add it and called the resulting product renitrosylated blood. So far, they’ve tried it with mice, rats and sheep and found that in all cases, using the renitrosylated blood in a transfusion improved oxygen supplies to tissues and organs.

Next step will be setting up clinical trials with people who need transfusions. Sounds very promising.

P.S. NO is an amazing substance. Check out some of my other posts about nitric oxide.

BiomedNews

CoQ10 improves functionality and mortality in heart failure – and statins decrease CoQ10

June 12, 2013 Barbara Payne

The jury was out for a long time on the effectiveness of taking CoQ10 supplements for people with various heart

English: The illustration shows the major sign... — English: The illustration shows the major signs and symptoms of heart failure. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

conditions. I used to take it because I’d read many doctors’ favorable accounts. However, my cardiologist never recommended it specifically, so I stopped when I realized how much I was paying for it.

New research points to the idea that this substance may be even more valuable than previously thought by its proponents. CoQ10 is said to improve every measure of functionality – and now to dramatically decrease mortality – in heart failure patients, according to an article on FireEngineering.com. I’ve included the article’s references below.

Further research shows CoQ10 levels decrease naturally as we age, and they actually decrease further when patients take statins. Statins are those over-prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs that gradually damage people’s livers and can produce other nasty side effects such as blocking the effects of cardiovascular fitness training and inclining patients to develop diabetes.

Compelling reading.

References

Heart Failure 2013
SA Mortensen, A Kumar, P Dolliner, et al. “The effect of coenzyme Q10 on morbidity and mortality in chronic heart failure.” Results from the Q-SYMBIO study. Presented at Heart Failure Congress 2013 Final Programme Number 440.
The full title of the Q-SYMBIO study is: “Coenzyme Q10 as adjunctive treatment of chronic heart failure: a randomised double blind multicentre trial with focus on changes in symptoms, biomarker status with BNP and long term outcome.”

BiomedNews, health dangers

Statin drugs lead to memory loss, muscle pain and block benefits of exercise in obese

May 17, 2013 Barbara Payne

Cholesterol. It’s had an up-and-down history in terms of medical recommendations. I remember when my dad had his open-heart surgery and his doctor demanded that he eat only 1 or 2 eggs a week. This was killer for my father who adored his bacon-and-eggs breakfast. But he stuck to it… For six years. And then his doctor told him, well, it looks like dietary cholesterol doesn’t really contribute that much to the cholesterol levels in the blood. Can you imagine how angry my father felt?

The structure of Cholesterol (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yes. Now here’s a man who’d religiously (pun intended) adhered to the Catholic Church’s ” no meat on Fridays” command – on pain of hell and damnation. And then, suddenly, it was no longer a mortal sin to eat meat on Friday? My dad stopped going to church for many years because of that one.

For many of us it’s becoming increasingly clear that statins can have novel types of negative side effects – with far-reaching consequences for the ingenuous patient who is following the doctor’s insistence on taking this medicine. Here’s one about how statins disregulate the cholesterol balance and thus cause swelling in the brain that leads to memory loss (American College of Cardiology).

Here’s one about how statins are associated with unexplained muscle pain (American College of Cardiology). I actually knew a woman who was going through this – she could barely walk for the pain in her feet. Her doc took her off statins and the pain disappeared.

And my favorite today, a study that shows a pronounced connection between statin therapy and the reduced ability of the body to benefit from exercise (Disease Models and Mechanisms). Can you imagine the dilemma for docs here? On the one hand they’re insisting their patients take cholesterol medication and, on the other, they’re telling them to exercise. But oh, too bad, the exercise won’t do you any good because of the medicine.

Please.

Thank God they didn’t have cholesterol medicines around when my dad was alive.

BiomedNews, nanotechnology

Nanotech may deliver bloodless diabetes monitoring – and lots more

May 6, 2013 Barbara Payne

Nanotech is performing miracles on a lot of fronts. Now they’re using it to develop new ways to treat diabetes and even to monitor blood sugar without the painful blood-letting currently required.

This scholarly paper discussing new fronts in nanotechnology gives you an idea of the scope of the investigations. A quick rundown of the contents:

“…polymeric nanoparticles, oral insulin admin-istration using polysaccharides and polymeric nanoparticles, inhalable insulin nanoparticle formulations, and insulin delivery using BioMEMS [biomedical (or biological) microelectromechanical systems]. In addition to ceramic and polymeric nanoparticles, studies on gold nanoparticles for insulin delivery and treatment of diabetes-associated symptoms are discussed.”

I had to look up “polymeric,” so I’ll share. Polymeric just means made out of polymers, which are already in everything from synthetic plastics (your kitchen storage stuff) and other things we use every day at work and at home, to natural biopolymers (like in RNA, DNA and amino acids) that are critical pieces of our biological selves.

Carbon nanotubes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And here’s one about nanosensors that could selectively measure glucose concentrations. Glucose would alter the current flowing down the conductive nanotubes. That data would then be fed to an embedded microchip which would send it wirelessly to a wearable computer. The technology’s not there yet, though. They’re still working on making these things compatible with staying inside the human body for long periods of time – not a small problem.

And then there’s something that’s closer to becoming a reality. Put on the diabetic patient like a tattoo, a solution of nanoparticle sensor molecules reacts with sodium or glucose, creating “biomarkers”. Ultraviolet light makes the tattoo shine. They’re thinking they can use converted iPhones to make the light that’s needed. Though this probably won’t be a complete solution, it may help diabetes patients spot dangerous changes in between regular monitorings, according to an article on AZOnano.com.

BiomedNews, health dangers, nanotechnology

Finally – Official safety standard for nanotech workers

April 27, 2013 Barbara Payne

I’ve written about the similarities in asbestos and nanofibers before – and therefore the similar dangers of the two substances. Asbestos was in use – and slowly killing people – for many hundreds of years before the connection was made between breathing it and dying of asbestosis or mesothelioma decades later. Nanofibers are incredibly strong and tough fibers of microscopic width – like one-one thousandth the diameter of a human hair – that are used to make supertough and strong composite materials.

The problem is that nanofibers, like asbestos fibers, are so tiny that people can easily breathe them deep into their lungs or ingest them (say, when eating a sandwich on the job). Inside the human body these fibers eventually cause scarring and disease and death.

Now I’m happy to report that the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has finally published a safety standard for the length of nanofibers. Workers involved in manufacturing items that use nanofibers must now be protected from exposure to nanofibers. The standard is set “as low as we can measure” according to Andrew Maynard, chair of environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In other words, they want literally no loose nanofibers to be allowed in the air of a plant that uses them.

It took centuries to stop companies from recklessly exposing workers to asbestos fibers. Now perhaps all the asbestos lawsuits now being filed all over the world are serving as a warning to companies – and nanotech training schools – that they can’t pretend there’s no danger to people working with nanofibers.

BiomedNews

$14 billion could have been saved on health care spending with common minimally invasive surgeries

March 29, 2013 Barbara Payne

Hard to believe but true. Not only does minimally invasive surgery mean less pain and suffering for the patient, it also means fewer days off work and lower costs – an estimated $14 billion in health care spending could have been saved in 2009 alone. Check out the four types of surgery where minimally invasive equals big savings.

Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic both now do minimally invasive versions of several heart surgeries. Won’t it be grand one day when we can all expect to receive minimally invasive versions of surgeries – but only if earlier treatment with stem cells hasn’t worked.

And one fine day, perhaps, no one will have to face going “under the knife” at all.

BiomedNews, nanotechnology

Nano help for stem cell rebuilding hearts

March 28, 2013 Barbara Payne

English: Diagram to show how embryonic stem ce... — English: Diagram to show how embryonic stem cells are differentiated (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m excited to report news involving three of my favorite topics: nanotechnology, stem cells, and fixing hearts. Past efforts using stem cells to treat heart attacks and heart failure haven’t been very successful. And the worst part is, they don’t know why. Apparently they inject the stem cells into a patient but then don’t know where they end up. Do they stay in the targeted part of the heart or wander off somewhere else? If the treatment doesn’t work, up til now there’s been no way to determine why not. Now if only they could tell where the stem cells go and what they do…

Enter this new visualizing technique. Doctors at Stanford University School of Medicine have designed a way to use nanotechnology to track stem cells after they’ve been introduced into a patient’s body. The thought is that once they know where the stem cells have gone, they’ll be able to see more clearly what’s happening with them. The tracking technique, which also allows doctors to guide the stem cells more precisely to their intended location, involves marking the stem cells with nanoparticles and a gadolinium-laced contrast agent and following them with standard ultrasounds (Yay, non-invasive!) as they enter the body and move around. The hope is the docs’ll be able to see exactly where the stem cells take up residence and watch what they do. Do they stay in the targeted area or do they diffuse away from the heart? Do they develop into the desired cells or into something else entirely?

I know that gadolinium as a contrast agent ingredient is known to cause people who have kidney problems to develop a terrible and disfiguring disease known as Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis. It’s certainly good to hear that the substance can also be used in this new way to potentially help people with serious heart issues.

Unfortunately, this exciting discovery has at least three more years before it can be used in humans. But as with all life-limiting conditions, those of us who live with them are always looking for reasons to hope.

BiomedNews, health dangers, nanotechnology

Nanotechnology’s been around forever. And…?

February 26, 2013 Barbara Payne

Nanotechnology has been around for thousands of years, says Nanofilm CEO Scott Rickert in an article for Virtual Strategy Magazine. He wonders how it got tagged as something new and unknown – and therefore, impliedly, worth being careful with.

Stating, as Mr. Rickert does, that nanoparticles have been around for four thousand years, and that humans have, for the most part completely unknowingly, been using nanotechnology for things like fighting bacteria, does not a defense make that using nanotechnology for any purpose is inherently and automatically safe.

After all, it’s well known that asbestos, which occurs naturally in pockets all over the world, has been being used by humans for thousands of years. Flame-proofing tablecloths was just one of the reasons ancient Romans used asbestos. And yet early history reports Roman slaves who worked with the material as sickening and dying of respiratory problems. Yet science didn’t make the definitive connection between asbestos fibers and deadly diseases of the lungs until the early 20th century.

When you consider it can take 20, 30 or even 50 years for the effects of asbestos fibers to result in killer diseases like mesothelioma, asbestosis and other cancers, it’s easy to see how companies that stand to make a mint from manufacturing such a material might be hesitant to publish any evidence that working with the material can eventually lead to disability and death.

It costs big money to put appropriate safety measures in place to protect workers from inhaling or ingesting the type of sub-microscopically tiny fibers that make up asbestos and nanotubes and fibers. And there’s plenty of evidence now that certain nanomaterials are indeed made up of the same-sized fibers as asbestos.

While no one wants to stop science from continuing to research what wonderful things we can do with nanomaterials, no one on the other hand needs to make a killing – financially or otherwise – by taking on such work and sacrificing workers’ health in order to make a bigger profit.

BiomedNews

Nitric oxide – the natural anti-aging compound?

February 13, 2013 Barbara Payne

Oh, I like this one. A new study says nitric oxide is not only good for cardiovascular health but can actually prolong life. As regular readers know, nitric oxide is one of my favorite blog topics.

Leaves and flower of Watermelon, Citrullus lan... — Leaves and flower of Watermelon, Citrullus lanatus, Citrullus vulgaris…Hoa và lá c?a dây d?a H?u … (Photo credit: Vietnam Plants & America plants)

A huge percentage of the Google News alerts I get about NO focus mainly on the hype among bodybuilders about taking NO to get bigger muscles and among aging males about taking it for better erections.

While NO can be helpful for those things (yes, it plays a big part in Viagra), this study seems to show that it actually contributes to longer life by signaling genes to go easy on the aging process. Granted the initial experiments were with roundworms, but hey, we gotta start somewhere.

The first question I had was, of course, what can we eat to improve our NO concentration? Here’s what the article says about the two substances that are needed to create NO:

L-Arginine is found in fish such as tuna, shrimp, scallops and anchovies. It can also be found in pine nuts, almonds, pistachios, oats and wheat germ. Citrulline can be found in vegetables called cucurbits, such as cucumbers and cantaloupe. Watermelon contains the highest level of natural Citrulline. Natural, whole food sources of both L- Arginine and Citrulline can also be found in some nutritional supplements.

And here’s a doctor’s simplified explanation of what things work together to facilitate production of NO in our bodies. Are you surprised that they all point toward fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and lean protein sources?

I’m game. Watermelon, anyone?

BiomedNews

IBM nanogel explodes bacterial invaders – could replace antibiotics

January 27, 2013 Barbara Payne

According to a report on Britain’s Daily Mail website, computer giant IBM announced the discovery of a radical new nano-gel that “attacks microbial biofilms” (bacteria groups that stick together in diseased cells and are present in 80% of all infections).

These bacterial biofilms are often resistant to antibiotics, which has allowed nature to develop super-resistant bacteria. IBM believes its new gel may eventually replace the use of antibiotics – and eventually lead to eliminating modern-day hospital superbugs.

: Staphylococcus on catheter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Antibiotics continue to become less effective. And while bleach and alcohol still can kill germs on surfaces, they don’t often work well in applications involving human tissue.

IBM and The Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology teamed up to address these issues by developing this new synthetic hydrogel, reports Bloomberg BusinessWeek. They say the gel is “the first-ever to be biodegradable, biocompatible and non-toxic” – and is exactly what’s needed to begin protecting hospital workers, visitors and patients from serious infection.

Considered a radically new hydrogel, this substance, when applied to contaminated surfaces, results in its “positive charge attract[ing] all negatively charged microbial membranes, like powerful gravitation into a black hole.”

But whereas “most antibiotics and hydrogels target the internal machinery of bacteria to prevent replication,” this gel kills by disrupting cell membranes (exploding cells) – a method that doesn’t allow the bacteria to develop resistance.

This sounds incredibly promising – another moment when human discoveries may save us from decreasing effectiveness of previous inventions. Having just read an article about how using anti-bacterial soaps sends more “stuff” out into the world that helps bacteria develop resistance, I’m especially excited to hear this method of fighting bacteria will not contribute to that problem.

Cross your fingers that this discovery can be followed through quickly and made available before you need, say, open-heart or joint replacement surgery. It’s hell to have to worry you might recover fine from your operation but die of an infection you caught in the hospital.

BioMedNews.org

NO may make transfusions safer

CoQ10 improves functionality and mortality in heart failure – and statins decrease CoQ10

References

Statin drugs lead to memory loss, muscle pain and block benefits of exercise in obese

Nanotech may deliver bloodless diabetes monitoring – and lots more

Finally – Official safety standard for nanotech workers

$14 billion could have been saved on health care spending with common minimally invasive surgeries

Nano help for stem cell rebuilding hearts

Nanotechnology’s been around forever. And…?

Nitric oxide – the natural anti-aging compound?

IBM nanogel explodes bacterial invaders – could replace antibiotics

Looking at how bioscience news affects business, higher education, government – and you and me

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