Technology for accelerated wound healing

Researchers at Uppsala University and SLU have found a new way of accelerating wound healing. The technology involves using lactic acid bacteria as vectors to produce and deliver a human chemokine on site in the wounds. The research group is the first in the world to have developed the concept for topical use and the technology could turn out to be disruptive to the field of biologic drugs.

Treatment of large and chronic wounds are a high cost burden to the health care system since effective tools to accelerate healing are lacking. Wound care is today limited to mechanical debridement, use of different dressings and significant amounts of antibiotics preventing or treating wound infections. With the aging population, occurrence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and the alarming global spread of antibiotic resistance, a treatment that kick-starts and accelerates wound healing will have a significant impact.

There have been many attempts to solve the problem of chronic wounds that have failed. Drug candidates currently in late stage clinical trials comprise of growth factors, which are traditional protein-based biological drugs associated with high costs, and some trials have been prematurely terminated.

Researcher have developed a drug candidate, a next-generation biologic medical product, and are now publishing the fantastic results from the preclinical part where wound healing was strongly accelerated in mice," says Mia Phillipson, Professor at the Department of Medical Cell Biology, Division of Integrative Physiology, Uppsala University.

The acceleration of the healing process occurs due to changes in the microenvironment in the wound, which change the behaviour of specific immune cells. With the newly developed technology, the researchers can increase the level of a chemokine, CXCL12, for a sufficient time period through continuous delivery directly to the wound surface.

Bioavailability of CXCL12 is synergistically increased within the wound as the bacterial produced lactic acid causes a slight pH drop that inhibits degradation. The chemokine, CXCL12, is endogenously upregulated in injured tissue and by increasing the levels further, more immune cells are recruited and are more specialised to heal the wound, which accelerates the whole process.

The potent effect on acceleration of wound healing is demonstrated in healthy mice but also in two models of diabetes, one model of peripheral ischemia as well as in a model using human skin biopsies. There were clear differences in the composition of immune cells in the wounds and the immune cells present produced higher levels of TGFß at earlier time points. The treatment was local without systemic exposure.
          haleplushearty.blogspot.com

Sperm-sorting device could improve IVF

Women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) may become pregnant with fewer treatment cycles by using device developed by a team of researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Stanford University that uses an "obstacle course" to sort and select faster and healthier sperm cells for use in IVF treatment.

This new device was created by a team co-led by Erkan Tüzel, associate professor of physics, biomedical engineering, and computer science at WPI, and Utkan Demirci, professor of radiology and electrical engineering (by courtesy) at Stanford University.

The microfluidic device, which can be used in clinics, is dubbed SPARTAN, short for Simple Periodic ARray for Trapping And IsolatioN. It uses a field of three-dimensional posts that create an obstacle course for the swimming sperm cells. The strongest and healthiest sperm get through this array the fastest and then are collected at the outlet to be used in the IVF process.

Traditional sperm-sorting methods used in IVF treatments select sperm that are the fastest swimmers. The SPARTAN device collects sperm that are the fastest and also the healthiest because it culls out those with malformations, such as bent necks or larger heads, which can slow their movement.

The device select sperm with excellent motility, but also with normal morphology and better DNA integrity, helping families worldwide by reducing the stress of multiple IVF procedures, while potentially increasing pregnancy rates.

The SPARTAN device is about 4 millimeters wide and 12 to 16 millimeters long. Sperm are simply injected into one end and the fastest and healthiest are collected on the opposite end for immediate use in in vitro fertilization. The device also prevents the type of damage to cells that can occur with traditional sorting methods, such as those using high-force centrifuges.

Because SPARTAN can be used in the fertility clinic, sperm do not need to be frozen and shipped to a lab for processing; the in-clinic sorting procedure takes between 5 and 30 minutes. This new sperm-sorting device could mean that patients will spend less on IVF treatments,  because with the new sperm sorting technology they could be able to become pregnant without going through as many treatment cycles.
          haleplushearty.blogspot.com

Long term use of electronics gadgets hinders brain development

According to neuroscientists, long term use of smartphones can hinders brain development, the use of technology is reducing hard work and accumulation of knowledge.

Human brain has a ‘use it or lose it policy’, the ability to store facts may become diminished through lack of regular practice to recall information without checking the internet.

Time spent in a screen-based world displaced time spent ‘learning, playing and socialising in the real world’.
Outsource thinking to smartphones and other digital devices will leads to loss of brain muscles.

 Technological dependence on internet for information could have profound effects on how we routinely make sense of complex arguments, logical reasoning and creativity.

          haleplushearty.blogspot.com 

Tissues nanotransfection device

Researchers have developed a new technology called Tissue Nanotransfection TNT, it can generate any cell type for treatment within the patient's body. This technology can be used to repair injured tissue or restore function of aging tissue like organs, blood vessels and nerve cells.

Researchers reprogram skin cells to become vascular cells in injured legs that lacked blood flow. Within one week, active blood vessels appeared in the injured leg, the leg was healed at the second week.

The technology also reprogram skin cells in the live body into nerve cells that were injected into brain-injured mice to help them recover from stroke.
The device delivers new DNA or RNA into living skin cells to change their function.

This technology can convert skin cells into elements of any organ with a touch. It takes less than a second and is non-invasive. The chip does not stay permanently in the body after use and the technology keeps the cells in the body under immune surveillance.

TNT technology has two major components: nanotechnology-based chip designed to deliver cargo to adult cells in the live body and the design of specific biological cargo for cell conversion.

 This cargo converts an adult cell from one type to another. TNT doesn't require any laboratory-based procedures and may be implemented at the point of care.
          haleplushearty.blogspot.com

How artificial intelligence predicts patience lifespan

A computer has ability to predict a patient's lifespan by looking at images of their organs. Scientists used artificial
intelligence to analyse the medical imaging of 48 patients' chests. This computer-based analysis was able to predict which patients would die within five years, with 69% accuracy.

Predicting the lifespan of a patient is useful because it may enable doctors to tailor treatments to the individual.
The accurate assessment of biological age and the prediction of a patient's longevity has so far been limited by doctors' inability to look inside the body and measure the health of each organ.

Instead of focusing on diagnosing diseases, the automated systems can predict medical outcomes in a way that doctors are not trained to do.

Our research opens new avenues for the application of artificial intelligence technology in medical image analysis, and could offer new hope for the early detection of serious illness, requiring specific medical interventions. The researchers hope to apply the same techniques to predict other important medical conditions, like the onset of heart attacks.

haleplushearty.blogspot.com

Heart rate app on your phone may not be accurate

A study has discovered a huge variability between commercially available programmes installed on the gadgets. Many readings are not correct
and pose a significant health threat to users if they believe the readings to be correct.

Dr Christophe Wyss, a cardiologist at the Heart Clinic Zurich, said: 'Heart rate apps come installed on many smartphones and people use them and compare their results with others.

'The problem is that there is no law requiring validation of these apps and therefore users do not know if the results are correct. 108 patients had
their heart rate measured using four apps on two different iPhone models.

Two clinical methods were used for comparison, including an ECG and fingertip pulse oximetry, which uses similar technology to that of the apps.
Half of the apps adopted allowing placing  of fingertip on the phone.

The researchers found substantial differences in accuracy between all of the four commercially available apps.
In some there were differences of more than 20 beats per minute compared to the ECG readings.

The researchers added that despite being relatively easy to use, the non-contact one performed the worst and had a tendency to report higher rates.
However, the performance of the two contact-apps was also different, with one providing similar results to pulse oximetry, while the other didn't.

Dr Wyss added: 'The difference in performance between the contact apps is probably down to the algorithm the app uses to calculate heart rate which is commercially confidential.

'It means that just because the underlying technology works in one app doesn’t mean it works in another one and we can’t assume that all contact heart rate apps are correct.

Artificial womb developed for premature babies

An artificial nutrient-rich amniotic fluid has been tested on foetal lambs equivalent to 161-days old foetus.

The artificial womb can give foetus the same protection woman womb can give; synthetic amniotic fluid that is full of nutrients flows in and out of the temperature-controlled container, it creates womb environment for premature foetus to develop their vital organs like lungs from 23 to 28 weeks.

Director of the Center for Fetal Research at the Children's hospital of Philadelphia, US, said the artificial womb will prevent illness suffered by premature babies by providing a medical technology that can create womb environment.

According to Dr Alan Flake, six preterm lambs were used to test the artificial womb, they could breathed and swallowed normally.

The animal grew wool and developed properly functioning nerves and organs, the artificial womb cannot replace woman's womb, the aim of developing artificial womb is  to help premature babies

Fast diagnosis for tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is an infectious bacteria disease that usually affects the lungs, it can also affects other parts of the body. It spreads through the air when an infected person talks, coughs, sneezes, yawns or laughs.

British scientists have discovered better ways of diagnosing tuberculosis by the use of genome sequencing to isolate different strains of the disease this leads to better and faster diagnosis  of tuberculosis and quick recovery.

Use of modern technology for treating tuberculosis  makes the patients to spend days for treatment instead of initial spending of months. This new development  can blot out tuberculosis from every parts of the world.