Month: September 2013

Body on a chip’ uses 3D printed organs to test vaccines

Miniature human organs developed with a modified 3D printer are being used to test new vaccines in a lab in the US.

The “body on a chip” project replicates human cells to print structures which mimic the functions of the heart, liver, lung and blood vessels.

The organs are then placed on a microchip and connected with a blood substitute, allowing scientists to closely monitor specific treatments.

The US Department of Defense has backed the new technology with $24m (£15m).

Bioprinting, a form of 3D printing which, in effect, creates human tissue, is not new. Nor is the idea of culturing 3D human tissue on a microchip.

It works better than testing on animals”

Dr Anthony Atala Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

But the tests being carried out at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina are the first to combine several organs on the same device, which then model the human response to chemical toxins or biologic agents

Printing organs

The modified 3D printers, developed at Wake Forest, print human cells in hydrogel-based scaffolds.

The lab-engineered organs are then placed on a 2in (5cm) chip and linked together with a circulating blood substitute, similar to the type used in trauma surgery.

The blood substitute keeps the cells alive and can be used to introduce chemical or biologic agents, as well as potential therapies, into the system.

Sensors which measure real-time temperature, oxygen levels, pH and other factors feed back information on how the organs react and – crucially – how they interact with each other.

Dr Anthony Atala, institute director at Wake Forest and lead investigator on the project, said the technology would be used both to “predict the effects of chemical and biologic agents and to test the effectiveness of potential treatments”.

“You are actually testing human tissue,” he explained.

“It works better than testing on animals.”

Anti-terrorism

A group of experts from around the US is involved in putting together the technology, which will carry out toxicity testing and identification.

The funding for the project was awarded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a division of the US government which combats nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

The tests being carried out at Wake Forest “would significantly decrease the time and cost needed to develop medical countermeasures” for bioterrorism attacks, said Dr Clint Florence, acting branch chief of vaccines within the Translational Medical Division at DTRA.

Wake Forest said it was able to test for antidotes to sarin gas, recently used against civilians in Syria.

Printed house

Dr Atala, whose field is regenerative medicine, said the bioprinting technology was first used at Wake Forest for building tissues and organs for replacement in patients.

His team had managed to replicate flat organs, such as skin, tubular organs such as blood vessels, and even hollow non-tubular organs like the bladder and the stomach, which have more complex structures and functions.

But building solid organs like the heart and the liver is the hardest challenge yet.

It takes about 30 minutes just to print a miniature kidney or heart, which is the size of a small biscuit.

“There are so many cells per centimetre that making a big organ is quite complex,” Dr Atala told the BBC.

But the bioprinting of full size solid organs might not be far away.

“We are working on creating solid organ implants,” said Dr Atala.

Source: BBC News

Airtel Ghana funds ultra-modern medical teaching facility

Ghana President John Dramani Mahama has complimented Indian-owned mobile telecom provider Airtel Ghana for financing an ultra-modern teaching facility and clinical centre for the School of Medical Science of the University of Cape Coast that has also enabled the upgradation of the Central Regional Hospital here into a teaching facility.

The project was started two years ago after a joint sod cutting by the late president John Evans Atta Mills and the CEO (international) and joint managing director of Bharti Airtel, Manoj Kohli. The company, however, declined to state how much it had spent on the project, which it had undertaken as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative.

President Mahama commended Airtel Ghana for funding the construction of the facility, adding that the company had been consistent with its contribution towards enhancement of education in the country.

The school runs courses in surgery, internal medicine, paediatrics and child health, and obstetrics/gynaecology. These disciplines have sub-specialties such as ENT, ophthalmology, dermatology, medical imaging, anaesthesia and pain management, psychiatry and orthopaedics.

School dean Dr Harold S Amonoo-Kuofi said the facilities funded by Airtel, together with the two-storey Diagnostics Centre, greatly helped in the decision to upgrade the Central Regional Hospital to a teaching hospital.

He also urged other corporates to follow the Airtel example and support the university in its drive to provide the human resource necessary to address the shortfall of doctors in the country, especially in the rural communities.

Airtel Ghana managing director Philip Sowah said the company decided to fund the project to fulfil one of its core values of creating a positive impact among the communities in which it operates.

“It has been our dream to be part of helping to develop the country’s human resource,” Sowah added. [IANS]

Source: India Medical Times

New biomarker for diabetes risk identified

Researchers have identified a biomarker, which can help predict diabetes risk up to 10 years before its onset.

Thomas J. Wang, M.D., director of the Division of Cardiology at Vanderbilt, along with colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital, conducted a study of 188 individuals who developed type 2 diabetes mellitus and 188 individuals without diabetes who were followed for 12 years as participants in the Framingham Heart Study.

Wang said that from the baseline blood samples, that they identified a novel biomarker, 2-aminoadipic acid (2-AAA), that was higher in people who went on to develop diabetes than in those who did not.

Individuals having 2-AAA concentrations in the top quartile had up to a fourfold risk of developing diabetes during the 12-year follow-up period compared with people in the lowest quartile.

Wang asserted that the caveat with these new biomarkers is that they require further evaluation in other populations and further work to determine how this information might be used clinically.

The researchers also conducted laboratory studies to understand why this biomarker is elevated so well in advance of the onset of diabetes.

They found that giving 2-AAA to mice alters the way they metabolize glucose. These molecules seem to influence the function of the pancreas, which is responsible for making insulin, the hormone that tells the body to take up blood sugar.

The findings have been published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

 

Five new paramedical courses started in Goa medical college

Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday launched five paramedical courses in the Goa medical college and announced plans to set up an independent institute for these courses in the near future. Parrikar said paramedical courses are the government’s positive step in providing job-oriented education to Goan youth.

Shri Parikar was speaking after inaugurating the allied health science courses, affiliated to Goa University such as bachelor of physiotherapy, bachelor of occupational therapy, bachelor of optometry, BSc in medical imaging technology and BSc in anesthesia technology at Goa medical college and hospital, Bambolim. BSc in anesthesia technology will have 20 seats while the rest four courses have 10 seats each.

Parrikar said that better job prospects await graduates of such courses both within the country and outside, offering equal or more pay package than doctors. Paramedical personnel are very important now as doctors need to handle machinery that requires repairs at regular intervals, he said

Parrikar said he has been monitoring various problems affecting the GMC and that these problems will be sorted out within three to four months, adding that the 4-MLD effluent treatment plant will take care of the water woes of GMC.

Source: Times of India

US FDA issues import alert for Ranbaxy drugs

The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday issued an import alert against drug products manufactured at Indian drug major Ranbaxy’s facility in Punjab’s Mohali for non-compliance with US drug manufacturing requirements.

Under the import alert which will stand until the company complies with what are known as current good manufacturing practices (CGMP), US officials may detain at the US border drug products manufactured at the Mohali facility, the US regulator said in a media release.

“We want American consumers to be confident that the drugs they are taking are of the highest quality, and the FDA will continue to work to prevent potentially unsafe products from entering the country,” said Howard Sklamberg, director of the Office of Compliance in the FDA’s Centre for Drug Evaluation and Research.

The US drug regulator also ordered that the Mohali facility be subject to certain terms of the consent decree of permanent injunction entered against Ranbaxy in January 2012.

The decree contains provisions to ensure CGMP compliance at certain Ranbaxy facilities, including in Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh and Dewas in Madhya Pradesh, as well as provisions addressing data integrity issues at those two facilities.

Ranbaxy’s Paonta Sahib and Dewas facilities have been on FDA import alert since 2008.

In September and December 2012, FDA inspections identified significant CGMP violations at Ranbaxy’s Mohali facility, including failure to adequately investigate manufacturing problems and failure to establish adequate procedures to ensure manufacturing quality, the FDA release said.

Under the decree, Ranbaxy is required to hire a third-party expert to conduct a thorough inspection of the Mohali facility and certify to the FDA that the facilities, methods, processes, and controls are adequate to ensure continuous compliance with CGMP.

Once the agency is satisfied that Ranbaxy has come into compliance with CGMP, Ranbaxy will be permitted to resume manufacturing and distribution of FDA-regulated drugs at the Mohali facility, the FDA said. [IANS]

Source: India Medical Times

Sleep apnea treatment can make you look better too!

A new study suggests that getting treatment for a common sleep problem may do more than help you sleep better – it may help you look better over the long term, too.

The findings from the University of Michigan Health System and Michigan Technological University, aren’t just about “looking sleepy” after a late night, or being bright-eyed after a good night’s rest.

It’s the first time researchers have shown specific improvement in facial appearance after at-home treatment for sleep apnea, a condition marked by snoring and breathing interruptions.

Sleep apnea affects millions of adults – most undiagnosed — and puts them at higher risk for heart-related problems and daytime accidents.

Using a sensitive “face mapping” technique usually used by surgeons, and a panel of independent appearance raters, the researchers detected changes in 20 middle-aged apnea patients just a few months after they began using a system called CPAP to help them breathe better during sleep and overcome chronic sleepiness.

While the research needs to be confirmed by larger studies, the findings may eventually give apnea patients even more reason to stick with CPAP treatment – a challenge for some because they must wear a breathing mask in bed. CPAP is known to stop snoring, improve daytime alertness and reduce blood pressure.

Sleep neurologist Ronald Chervin, M.D., M.S., director of the U-M Sleep Disorders Center, led the study, which was funded by the Covault Memorial Foundation for Sleep Disorders Research.

Chervin says the study grew out of the anecdotal evidence that sleep center staff often saw in sleep apnea patients when they came for follow-up visits after using CPAP.

The team, including research program manager Deborah Ruzicka, R.N., Ph.D., sought a more scientific way to assess appearance before and after sleep treatment.

“The common lore, that people ‘look sleepy’ because they are sleepy, and that they have puffy eyes with dark circles under them, drives people to spend untold dollars on home remedies,” Chervin, the Michael S. Aldrich Collegiate Professor of Sleep Medicine and professor of Neurology at the U-M Medical School, said.

“We perceived that our CPAP patients often looked better, or reported that they’d been told they looked better, after treatment. But no one has ever actually studied this,” he added.

The findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

Tattoo-like skin patch that acts as a thermometer

Scientists have developed an ultra-thin tattoo-like patch that when glued to the skin can be used as a thermometer to measure its temperature.

 A team of researchers from the US, China, and Singapore have created the small patch that looks like a bar-code tattoo and is applied using special glue.

It keeps working even when the skin to which it is attached twists and turns.

The patch can measure body temperature (at the skin level) very accurately, and over a continuous period of time.

Also, because it measures heat at multiple locations (at the same skin site) at the same time, the patch is capable of monitoring heat flow and the constriction and dilation of blood vessels as they respond to the environment around them.

The team claims that the patches can work in reverse as well, delivering heat to the skin, if desired, simply by increasing the voltage, ‘phys.Org’ reported.

The patch isn’t ready for use by the general population just yet, however, as it still requires an external power source.

The team is investigating different sources for different types of patches – solar for those applied to the skin and bioelectric for those applied inside the body, such as to the outside of organs.

Source: Zee news

Zydus launches diabetes treatment drug Lipaglyn

Pharmaceutical entity Zydus group today said it has launched Lipaglyn, its patented new drug for treatment of diabetes.

 Lipaglyn will be available across India and is priced at Rs 25.90 per tablet. It is recommended for once administration of once day as a 4mg tablet, the company said in a statement.

Commenting on the launch of the drug, Zydus Cadila Chairman and Managing Director Pankaj R Patel said: “It’s a great milestone for Indian pharmaceutical research today as Lipaglyn completes its journey from the lab to the market.”

The drug is marketed by Zydus Discovery, a new division launched to extensively market the original research product of Zydus group’s research pipeline.

Lipaglyn is a drug for treating diabetic dyslipidemeia, a condition where a person is diabetic and has elevated levels of total cholesterol.

In June, the company had said it expected the drug to be a “blockbuster” and clock over USD 1 billion sales a year when it will be sold globally.

Patel had said the company was in the process of filing applications in developed markets like US and Europe, after which it will tie up with other companies for marketing the drug.

The company had spent USD 250 million in developing Lipaglyn, which took nearly 12 years to fructify. It will be spending another USD 150-200 million to launch the drug in overseas markets in next 3-5 years period, Patel had said.

In India, the company expects Lipaglyn to clock an annual turnover of Rs 100 crore in the next 3-4 years.

Article originally appeared in Zee News

Nanodiamonds boost treatment of chemo-resistant leukemia

By binding multiple molecules of a common leukemia drug with nanodiamonds, scientists have managed to boost the delivery of the drug to leukemic cells and retain the drug within the cells to combat the cancer.

This novel discovery, reported for the first time, addresses one of the major challenges in the treatment of leukemia where the cancer cells develop ways to pump drugs out of the body before they can do their job, particularly after they are exposed to chemotherapeutics.

Developed by Dr Edward Chow, Principal Investigator at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore and Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at National University of Singapore (NUS), in collaboration with Professor Dean Ho of the UCLA School of Dentistry, this innovation shows promise for greater efficacy in treating leukemia, particularly in non-adherent cells.

Daunorubicin is currently one of the most common drugs used to treat leukemia. The drug works by slowing down or stopping cancer cells from growing, causing many of them to die. It is also common, however, for leukemia to become resistant to this drug after treatment.

One mechanism by which this opposition, commonly known as chemoresistance, happens is through the expression of drug transporter pumps in leukemia cells that actively pump out chemotherapeutics, including Daunorubicin.

Current approaches to neutralising chemo-resistance have centred on developing competitive inhibitors. These efforts have limited success, with challenges like high toxicity levels and less-than-promising results during clinical trials.

The team of scientists from NUS and UCLA turned to nanodiamonds, which are tiny, carbon-based particles that are 2 to 8 nanometers in diameter, as an option to address chemo-resistance.

Dr Chow studied the biological basis of how nanodiamonds can potentially overcome chemo-resistance.

The scientists bound the surfaces of nanodiamonds with Daunorubicin, and the hybrid nanodiamond-drug complexes were introduced to leukemic cells.

The research team found that nanodiamonds could carry the drug to the cancer cells without being pumped out.

Due to their non-invasive sizes and unique surface features, nanodiamonds can be easily released without blocking up blood vessels.

The findings are published online in the medical journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine.

Source: Zee News

What allergy, asthma sufferers need to keep in mind

35 million Americans suffer from allergies, which in the fall begin in late August and peak in September.

With summer coming to a close, and kids heading back to school and preparation for fall begins, we shouldn’t forget to consider fall allergies.

An estimated 35 million Americans suffer from allergies, which in the fall begin in late August and peak in September.

For those with fall allergies, three triggers typically occur – ragweed, indoor allergens and infections.

“During the summer, people experience the lowest incidence of allergies and asthma so they feel better and stop taking their allergy medications. But they should start taking them again in early September to prevent symptoms before they start,” David Rosenstreich, M.D., director of the allergy and immunology division at Montefiore Medical Center, said.

“If allergy sufferers make the mistake of waiting until after their symptoms are in full swing, it’s much harder to stop the allergic reaction than to prevent it from even beginning,” he said.

One of the biggest culprits for fall allergies is ragweed.

In the fall, ragweed releases pollen into the air and this continues until frost kills the plant closer to winter.

Most prevalent in the Eastern and Midwest states, ragweed causes an allergic reaction commonly called hay fever and results in symptoms that include itchy eyes, nose and throat, sneezing, stuffy or runny nose, tearing or dark circles under the eyes.

An allergy symptom is the result of the immune system overreacting.

Another trigger for allergies during the fall is due to people staying indoors more and they are therefore exposed to allergens like pet dander, dust and mold.

Several precautions to consider includes maintaining an allergen free environment at home, focus on your bedroom: keep your pets out, eliminate the rug because it collects dust and avoid feather pillows.

Make sure the fireplace is well-ventilated and be careful of any leakage and keep basement and bathroom dry to avoid mold growing in these damp areas of the house. Have your heating system cleaned to avoid dust mites when you first turn on the heat.

The third trigger is infections and the flu, which affect the body’s immune system and cause it to release antibodies and histamines to fight them off.

The flu vaccine is recommended to help reduce the risk of getting sick, but it’s even more important for people who suffer from asthma or other lung conditions.

Source: Zee News