Biodegradable Electronics

Researchers have developed flexible electronic components composed of conductive magnesium and biocompatible silk that can dissolve in water and inside the human body, enabling the design of medical implants that do not require surgical removal.

Pain-Killers from Snake Venom

Scientists have isolated pain-killing compounds called mambalgins from the venom of Africa's black mamba snake that are as strong as some opiates used today but without the common dangerous side-effects.

Antimicrobial Eye Proteins

Researchers have found small fragments of keratin proteins in the human eye have remarkably strong and versatile antimicrobial properties, possibly providing an easily manufactured and biocompatible line of low-cost therapeutic drugs.

Diagnosing Parkinson's Audibly

A researcher at MIT has developed audio-recognition software trained to identify 10 dysphonias in human voices and diagnose the early onset of Parkinson's disease with 99% accuracy, taking advantage of the disease's early effect on controlling the vocal chords and soft palate.

Bandages of Cured Salt Pork

A new medical study is recommending the application of cured salt pork as a method to stop chronic and severe nosebleeds, a folk remedy used for centuries that may have some medical value as yet unexplored.

Bones from Inkjet Printer

Researchers have used standard inkjet printer technology to build a three-dimensional scaffolding material of calcium phosphate, zinc and silicon to be used in orthopedic procedures and dental work for real bones to grow and heal as it dissolves within the body.

Potatoes and Blood Pressure

Researchers have found that purple potatoes can reduce blood pressure in patients with high blood pressure due to natural phytochemicals with effects similar to those of prescribed ACE-inhibitor medications.

Sutureless Blood Vessels

Researchers have developed a new sutureless method of joining tiny blood vessels by using a poloxamer substance that is solid at higher than body temperatures but dissolves at cooler temperatures, allowing the ends of vessels even 0.2 mm wide to be attached using a common surgical sealant.

Drug Kills Multiple Viruses

A new drug named DRACO has been developed that can destroy numerous strains of viruses that infect mammalian cells, the first time a single drug has been effective against a range of viruses.

First Synthetic Windpipe

Surgeons in Sweden have carried out the first synthetic organ transplant, growing a new windpipe from a patient's own stem cells over an organic scaffolding and successfully implanting it into a 36-year-old man.

First Images of Photoreceptors

Using a system of adaptive optics similar to that used by astronomers, scientists have directly imaged living photorecptors (rods and cones) on the back of the human eye for the first time, a technique that could lead to greater and more accurate diagnostic tools.

Kidney Zap for Blood Pressure

A new study has found that a short blast of radiofrequency energy delivered to the kidneys via catheter can destroy tiny nerves in the lining of the arteries of the kidneys, thereby lowering a patient's blood pressure when they do not respond to normal medication.

Color-Changing Bandage

Scientists have developed a bandage saturated with a chemically stable pH-sensitive indicator dye in the dressing that changes a distinct purple color when infection is present, as evidenced by pH values between 6.5 and 8.5.

Lungs Grown and Transplanted

Researchers have taken diseased lungs from a rat and, with a process of chemical washing to reveal the organ's underlying scaffolding and then incubation in a biological slurry of lung cells, have successfully regrown healthy, functional lungs that were subsequently implanted back into the original rat.

Plastic Antibodies Successful

Tests of a man-made plastic antibody, a custom-designed nanoparticle formed to latch onto a specific antigen and thus trigger the natural immunological response, have yielded significantly greater survival rates in laboratory animals injected with a toxin.

Paper Test for Blood Type

Researchers have developed a litmus-type paper "dipstick" indicator impregnated with blood antibodies that can accurately determine blood type at a cost of only a few cents.

"Revolutionary" Kidney Genes

The identification of 20 key genes that control kidney functions such as filtering wastes from the blood is being described as "revolutionary" toward an effective treatment for chronic conditions and disease.

Engineered Viruses Fight Drug-Resistant Bacteria

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University have engineered a virus that attacks bacterial defense systems, strengthening the effects of antibiotics.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are an increasing health risk, and the development of new antibiotics is slow and expensive. But researchers have developed another solution by engineering existing bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) to attack specific bacterial targets. The engineered viruses attack the SOS system, the DNA repair system that activates when bacteria are exposed to antibiotics that damage DNA. Used with conventional antibiotics, the new viruses undermine the natural defenses of bacteria and prevent them from repairing the damage and surviving to become resistant.

The engineered bacteriophages were tested with three families of antibiotics (quinolones, beta-lactams and aminoglyclosides) in mice and had promising results with all three. The possibility exists of developing an entire "library" of customized bacteriophages to be used in conjunction with existing antibiotics.

These results were published in the March 2nd issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: ScienceDaily

Molecular "Decoy" Drives Cancer Cells to Suicide

Researchers at the Curie Institute have developed a molecular "decoy" that mimics DNA damage and drives cancer cells to destroy themselves.

Conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy strive to cause enough cell damage that the process of apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is triggered in cancerous cells. However, sometimes the damage is not enough and the cancerous cells can repair themselves and live on. Scientists developed tiny DNA fragments called Dbaits that mimic the broken ends of the long molecule. The cancer cells are tricked into believing they are more damaged than they really are, triggering apoptosis.

In laboratory mice, researchers were able to destroy 75% to 100% of tumors injected with Dbaits plus radiotherapy, compared to 30% to 50% using only radiotherapy. Dbaits also have the advantage of requiring lesser doses of radiation, which often damages surrounding healthy tissue as well as cancerous cells.

These results were published in a recent issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

Source: Yahoo!

Targeted Nanospheres Used to Burn Away Melanoma Tumors

Researchers at the Department of Experimental Diagnostic Imaging at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have developed a method to destroy melanoma using targeted gold nanospheres to burn away the tumor from the inside.

Injecting simple hollow gold nanospheres 40-50 nm in diameter causes them to accumulate in melanoma tumors because their small size allows them to penetrate the abnormally large pores of blood vessels that feed cancerous tumors. However, when filled with a peptide that binds to the melanocortin type 1 receptor abundant in melanoma cells, these nanoparticles are actively drawn into the cells via the cell membrane.

Once these nanoparticles are in place, the tumor is subjected to a process called photothermal ablation. A dose of near-infrared light is applied to the cancer, which penetrates deeper into tissue than visible or ultraviolet light. The energy is absorbed by the nanoparticles, causing them to heat up and destroy the surrounding tissue. At a dose merely 12% of the dose required without the nanoparticles, cancerous tumors are highly targeted and healthy tissue is spared.

The use of elemental gold has a long history of medical applications as it is safe and largely nonreactive to organic tissues. Experiments have been successful in laboratory and mouse models but still await human trials.

These results were published in the February 1st issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

Source: ScienceDaily; Photo: M.D. Anderson