Monthly Archives: July 2012

'Most real' robot legs developed

Posted: Published on July 6th, 2012

5 July 2012 Last updated at 23:58 ET Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Experiment footage showing the robotic legs in action - Courtesy Journal of Neural Engineering US experts have developed what they say are the most biologically-accurate robotic legs yet. Writing in the Journal of Neural Engineering, they said the work could help understanding of how babies learn to walk - and spinal-injury treatment. They created a version of the message system that generates the rhythmic muscle signals that control walking. A UK expert said the work was exciting because the robot mimics control and not just movement. The team, from the University of Arizona, were able to replicate the central pattern generator (CPG) - a nerve cell (neuronal) network in the lumbar region of the spinal cord that generates rhythmic muscle signals. The CPG produces, and then controls, these signals by gathering information from different parts of the body involved in walking, responding to the environment. This is what allows people to walk without thinking about it. See the article here: 'Most real' robot legs developed … Continue reading →

Posted in Spinal Cord Injury Treatment | Comments Off on 'Most real' robot legs developed

Diabetes drug helps brain growth, makes mice smarter

Posted: Published on July 6th, 2012

SACRAMENTO, CA. - A drug used to treat diabetes encourages the brain to grow and repair itself, afinding with far-reaching implications for the treatment of Alzheimers and brain injury, a new study published in Cell: Stem Cell reports. The widely used diabetes drug metformin comes with the unexpected side effect of causing the growth of new neurons in the brain and makes mice smarter, the July 6th issue of Cell Stem Cell, a Cell Press publication, said. The study has potentially wide-reaching implications for the treatment of Alzheimers in humans and brain related injury. The discovery has important implications for brain repair because it works not by introducing new stem cells but rather by spurring those that are already present into action, said the study's lead author Freda Miller of the University of Toronto-affiliated Hospital for Sick Children. And since the drug is already so widely used and so safe it means doctors could quickly begin using the drug for brain therapy treatment. Earlier work by Miller's team highlighted a pathway known as aPKC-CBP for its essential role in telling neural stem cells where and when to differentiate into mature neurons, the report said. Other researchers had found before them … Continue reading →

Posted in Brain Injury Treatment | Comments Off on Diabetes drug helps brain growth, makes mice smarter

Rare disease treatment hope

Posted: Published on July 6th, 2012

Queensland scientists have moved a step closer to new treatments for a rare degenerative brain disease. Ataxia telangiectasia is an inherited disease causing severe disability, a weakened immune system, susceptibility to infection and an increased risk of cancer. It affects between one in 100,000 and one in 300,000 people and is ultimately fatal. Patients are frequently confined to a wheelchair by their early teenage years and generally die by their 20s. People with the disease can develop cancer and brain degeneration because a gene that recognises and repairs DNA damage is defective. Researchers from the University of Queensland's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology have found a way to develop brain cells to study in the lab from the skin cells of children. By reprogramming the skin cells into stem cells, then brain cells, researchers hope to be able to correct the genetic mutations and demonstrate that they can replace the defective cells that cause the problems in the disease. Replacing the defective cells with corrected cells, or developing new drugs using the cells in the study, could help treat the disease. The researchers could start screening medicines in one to two years, but testing in animals would have to … Continue reading →

Comments Off on Rare disease treatment hope

Risk factors associated with the epilepsy treatment gap in Kilifi, Kenya: a cross-sectional study : The Lancet Neurology

Posted: Published on July 5th, 2012

Background Many people with epilepsy in low-income countries do not receive appropriate biomedical treatment. This epilepsy treatment gap might be caused by patients not seeking biomedical treatment or not adhering to prescribed antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). We measured the prevalence of and investigated risk factors for the epilepsy treatment gap in rural Kenya. All people with active convulsive epilepsy identified during a cross-sectional survey of 232176 people in Kilifi were approached. The epilepsy treatment gap was defined as the percentage of people with active epilepsy who had not accessed biomedical services or who were not on treatment or were on inadequate treatment. Information about risk factors was obtained through a questionnaire-based interview of sociodemographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, access to health facilities, seizures, stigma, and beliefs and attitudes about epilepsy. The factors associated with people not seeking biomedical treatment and not adhering to AEDs were investigated separately, adjusted for age. 673 people with epilepsy were interviewed, of whom 499 (74%) reported seeking treatment from a health facility. Blood samples were taken from 502 (75%) people, of whom 132 (26%) reported taking AEDs, but 189 (38%) had AEDs detectable in the blood. The sensitivity and specificity of self-reported adherence compared with AEDs detected … Continue reading →

Comments Off on Risk factors associated with the epilepsy treatment gap in Kilifi, Kenya: a cross-sectional study : The Lancet Neurology

The Brain May Aggravate Chronic Pain

Posted: Published on July 5th, 2012

Chronic pain, which affects millions of Americans, may be linked with emotional brain patterns as well as physical injury, researchers say. A study conducted by experts at Northwestern University showed that the level of interaction between two areas of the brain, which govern emotional and motivational behavior , determines whether pain from an injury will become chronic. The two areas are the frontal cortex and the nucleus accumbens. For the first time we can explain why people who may have the exact same initial pain either go on to recover or develop chronic pain, A. Vania Apakarian, senior author of the paper and professor of physiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a statement. The injury by itself is not enough to explain the ongoing pain. It has to do with the injury combined with the state of the brain.It may be that these sections of the brain are more excited to begin with in certain individuals, or there may be genetic and environmental influences that predispose these brain regions to interact at an excitable level. The study examined subjects with no history of back pain who suffered an initial episode of that condition. It predicted with … Continue reading →

Posted in Brain Injury Treatment | Comments Off on The Brain May Aggravate Chronic Pain

Botox: The new MS treatment?

Posted: Published on July 5th, 2012

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT)- Botox its not just for wrinkles! Its been known to reduce fine lines, help chronic headaches, and reduce sweating. Now, it can help those suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS). According to new research, the Botulinum toxin may help prevent shaking or tremor in the arms and hands of people with MS. "Treatments in use for tremor in MS are not sufficiently effective and new alternatives are needed," study author Anneke van der Walt, MD, consultant neurologist at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and research fellow with the University of Melbourne in Australia, was quoted as saying. The study included 23 people with MS that were given botulinum toxin type A injections or a saline placebo for three months. Then, they received the opposite treatment for the next three months. The scientists measured the tremor severity and their ability to write and draw before, during and after receiving the treatments. They also took video assessments every six weeks for six months. The study discovered that people saw significant improvement in tremor severity, writing and drawing at six weeks and three months after the botulinum toxin treatment compared to after placebo. In tremor severity, the participants improved an average of … Continue reading →

Posted in MS Treatment | Comments Off on Botox: The new MS treatment?

Groundbreaking discovery of mechanism that controls obesity, atherosclerosis

Posted: Published on July 5th, 2012

ScienceDaily (July 5, 2012) A*STAR scientists from the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) and the Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (SBIC) have discovered a new signalling pathway that controls both obesity and atherosclerosis. The team demonstrated, for the first time, that mice deficient in the Wip1 gene were resistant to weight gain and atherosclerosis via regulation of the Ataxia telangiectasia mutated gene (ATM) and its downstream signalling molecule mTor. These groundbreaking findings were published in the journal Cell Metabolism on 3rd July and may provide significant new avenues for therapeutic interventions for obesity and atherosclerosis. Obesity and atherosclerosis-related diseases account for over one-third of deaths in the Western world. Controlling these conditions remains a major challenge due to an incomplete understanding of the molecular pathways involved. Atherosclerosis, a progressive disease of the large arteries, is an underlying cause of many cardiovascular diseases. In Singapore, 10.8% of our population is obese[1] and cardiovascular disease accounted for 31.9% of all deaths[2] in 2010. Obesity and atherosclerosis are accompanied by the accumulation of lipid droplets in adipocytes (fat cells) and in foam cells respectively. Foam cells can subsequently rupture, damaging blood vessels, and contributing to further progression of atherosclerosis. The scientists discovered that … Continue reading →

Comments Off on Groundbreaking discovery of mechanism that controls obesity, atherosclerosis

Gladstone Scientists Identify Critical Process in Stem Cell Development

Posted: Published on July 5th, 2012

By Anne Holden on July 5, 2012 Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered that environmental factors critically influence the growth of a type of stem cell called an iPS cell that is derived from adult skin cells. This discovery offers newfound understanding of how these cells form, while also advancing science closer to stem cell-based therapies to combat disease. Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD Researchers in the laboratory of Gladstone Senior Investigator Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, have for the first time shown that protein factors released by other cells affect the reprogramming of adult cells into stem cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells. The scientists who collaborated on this research with colleagues from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) announce their findings today online in Cell Stem Cell. In 2007, Dr. Yamanaka discovered a recipe of specific proteins to add to human skin cells as a way to induce them into becoming iPS cells which act very much like embryonic stem cells. Many see iPS cell technology as a new platform for drug discovery and the study of disease fundamentals while avoiding the ethical issues surrounding research involving embryonic stem cells. But questions remain about … Continue reading →

Posted in Stem Cell Research | Comments Off on Gladstone Scientists Identify Critical Process in Stem Cell Development

New FDA-approved stem cell study gives hope to family

Posted: Published on July 5th, 2012

LABELLE, Fla.- Two-year old Madeline Conner was born with the inability to hear. But new advances in medical science could offer hope in the form of a stem cell research study. "I really wanted her in it. It was our one shot," said her mother, Stephanie Conner. Conner heard about a new FDA-approved stem cell study for hearing loss. She knew right away her little girl was the perfect candidate. "It's a group of ten kids and she's the first one and the only one so far," she said. The trial is a collaboration between Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston and the California-based Cord Blood Registry. "This is the first study FDA regulated looking at the safety and benefit of cord blood stem cells for treatment of acquired sensorineural hearing loss. Which is loss that has to do with the damage of the inner ear and nerve fibers that go to the brain," said Principal Investigator, Dr. Fakhri. Stem cells, saved from Madeline's own umbilical cord, were injected into her arm. "We expect that it will be safe. You are using your own blood stem cells as if it was your own transfusion," stated Dr. Fakhri. "It was actually … Continue reading →

Posted in Stem Cell Research | Comments Off on New FDA-approved stem cell study gives hope to family

Critical process in stem cell development identified

Posted: Published on July 5th, 2012

ScienceDaily (July 5, 2012) Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered that environmental factors critically influence the growth of a type of stem cell -- called an iPS cell -- that is derived from adult skin cells. This discovery offers newfound understanding of how these cells form, while also advancing science closer to stem cell-based therapies to combat disease. Researchers in the laboratory of Gladstone Senior Investigator Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, have for the first time shown that protein factors released by other cells affect the "reprogramming" of adult cells into stem cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells. The scientists -- who collaborated on this research with colleagues from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) -- announce their findings July 5 online in Cell Stem Cell. In 2007, Dr. Yamanaka discovered a recipe of specific proteins to add to human skin cells as a way to induce them into becoming iPS cells -- which act very much like embryonic stem cells. Many see iPS cell technology as a new platform for drug discovery and the study of disease fundamentals -- while avoiding the ethical issues surrounding research involving embryonic stem cells. But questions remain about … Continue reading →

Posted in Stem Cell Research | Comments Off on Critical process in stem cell development identified