IN BRIEF A team of engineers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick have developed a lab-on-a-chip capable of identifying biomarkers in the body indicative of certain diseases. The technology can be used in wearables, as well as in other portable devices. PERSONALIZED MEDICINE We’ve become accustomed to having many services personalized: information can be delivered to us...
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Blood cell discovery identifies patients with aggressive prostate cancer
Patients who have aggressive prostate cancer could be identified by a highly accurate and simple blood test, according to an early study by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). The research discovered rare cells in the blood that could be used to identify patients who are 10 times more likely to die of their prostate...
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Buyer beware: Antimicrobial products can do more harm than good
Are you buying antimicrobial or antibacterial soaps? According to over 200 scientists and medical professionals, you may want to save your money. A consensus statement published today in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives concludes that common antimicrobial products do not provide health benefits and cause health and environmental harm. The statement also calls for greater caution in...
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What we know, don’t know and suspect about what causes motor neuron disease
Since 2014, the ice bucket challenge, which involves people pouring a bucket of icy water over their heads, has raised awareness and much-needed research funds for motor neuron disease. While research for a cure is underway, first we need to know what causes it. MND affects two per every 100,000, or approximately 420,000 people worldwide. It occurs in all countries...
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Study shows how an opportunistic microbe kills cancer cells
Electron microscopic image of a single human lymphocyte. New study results show for the first time how dying cells ensure that they will be replaced, and suggests an ingenious, related new approach to shrinking cancerous tumors. A research team from Rush University Medical Center will publish a new paper this week in the journal Developmental...
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Groups of Nanoparticles Powered by a Magnet Team Up to Kill Cancer Cells
Number of ways have been developed that allow nanoparticles to kill cancer cells. Some of these include delivering chemo agents, converting electromagnetic energy beamed into heat, and manipulating with the signaling processes of tumor cells. An international team of researchers is now reporting in journal Theranostics a way of bunching iron oxide particles doped with zinc around tumors and then...
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Experimental drug shows promise
A collaboration between Saïd M. Sebti, Ph.D., chair of Moffitt Cancer Center’s Drug Discovery Department, and Michele Pagano, M.D., chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, led to the publication of an important study in the latest issue of Nature. The investigation found that the drug, geranylgeranyltransferase...
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Aspirin ‘major bleed’ warning for over-75s
People over 75 taking daily aspirin after a stroke or heart attack are at higher risk of major – and sometimes fatal – stomach bleeds than previously thought, research in the Lancet shows. Scientists say that, to reduce these risks, older people should also take stomach-protecting PPI pills. But they insist aspirin has important benefits...
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Layered Microparticles Carry Cancer Drug, Can be Imaged and Activated Using Ultrasound
At the University of Alabama at Birmingham, scientists have developed a new microparticle that carries doxorubicin chemo load, that can be imaged within the body and then made to release the cargo using external ultrasound. The polymer particles consist of layers of tannic acid and poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone), or TA/PVPON, both fairly biocompatible substances. They are generated over a...
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One in seven American adults estimated to have chronic kidney disease
The number of Americans affected by chronic kidney disease (CKD) is higher than previously estimated and affects 15% of the U.S. adult population, this according to new data analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). One in seven American adults, or 30 million people, are estimated to have CKD. However, 96% of those with early kidney...