The Medical Thread

[AnimeFan188]

In 5 years Lab Grown organs could start helping
115,000 in the US waiting for organs:

"Bioengineered lungs have been grown in a Texas lab and transplanted into adult pigs
with no medical complication. This could begin solving the human transplant problem
starting in about 5 years. They could grow lungs to transplant into people in
compassionate use circumstances within five to 10 years."

See:

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/0...or-organs.html

[AnimeFan188]

Scientists accidentally discover drug that curbs weight gain:

"A pill to prevent obesity is looming on the horizon after the discovery of a protein that
makes people fat.

It would be the “holy grail” of modern medicine – helping reduce the risk of heart
disease, cancer, diabetes and even dementia.

When the enzyme known as CerS1 (ceramide synthase 1) was blocked in mice they
remained lean – even after gorging on high-fat food.

The Australian team behind the breakthrough is hopeful the same will apply to humans."

See:

https://nypost.com/2018/08/22/scient...s-weight-gain/

[AnimeFan188]

Fruit Extract From Amazon Rainforest Prevents Obesity in
Overeating Animals:

"A cherry-like fruit that grows deep in the Amazon jungle has the potential to help
battle the North American obesity crisis, suggests new research published in Gut. In
the study, an extract from camu camu, a round, red, super-tart fruit, reduced obesity
and related illnesses in mice whose diets went otherwise unchanged. The fruit, it
appears, thwarts weight gain before it can start.

Camu camu (Myrciaria dubia) is already advertised in a variety of supplements
because of its insanely high vitamin C content. Until now, however, there hasn’t been
much research on its potential effects on weight management. To investigate this,
Université Laval Quebec Heart and Lung Institute Research Centre researcher André
Marette, Ph.D., first gave one group of mice a high-fat, high-sugar chow until they
were borderline obese and then gave a different group the same food alongside a
dose of camu camu extract. Over the course of eight weeks, the camu camu group
gained 50 percent less weight than the controls, despite their poor dietary habits. In
fact, in some additional experiments, they even lost weight."

See:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fruit-ext...100000352.html

[MrTerrorist]

Hi-tech loos that use little or no water and can recycle waste products safely and sustainably promise to give billions of people around the world access to much-needed sanitation. So why do so many still lack this basic amenity?

[AnimeFan188]

An Implant for Weight Loss, Powered by the Stomach:

"In a recent paper in the journal Nature Communications, engineers at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison (UWM) describe a device to aid weight loss that is less invasive than
surgery and potentially more effective than diets and exercise regimens, which most
people (myself included) struggle to stick with.

The nickel-sized implant, only 1 millimeter (mm) thick, attaches to the outside of the
stomach and uses power generated by stomach movements to subdue feelings of
hunger.

Rats with the implant shed 38 percent of their body weight over 100 days. Meanwhile,
rats in control groups, which either did not receive the implant or had a sham implant,
did not lose any weight."

See:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-...t-loss-implant

[AnimeFan188]

Life extension .......... for dogs!

"George Church describes the roadmap for to human aging reversal treatments

We will see the first aging reversal test in dog trials in the next year or two. If that
works, human trials are another two years away, and eight years before they’re done.
Once you get a few going and succeeding it’s a positive feedback loop.

His company Rejuvenate Bio is actually working on the dog trial now.

The particular dog model we’re using has a heart disease issue. Rejuvenate Bio was still
in semi-stealth mode, incubator mode, but the trial was not a secret. Dogs are a
market in and of themselves. [Tens of billions of dollars per year] It’s not just a big
organism close to humans. It’s something people will pay for. The FDA process is much
faster for dogs than for humans — a little over a year versus nine years or so."

See:

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/0...-for-dogs.html

[AnimeFan188]

By Targeting Each Patient's Unique Tumor, Precision Medicine
Is Crushing Once-Untreatable Cancers. But Only a Fraction of
Patients Currently Benefit. Can Medicine Close the Gap?:

"The days when cancer patients received one-size-fits-all regimens of chemotherapy
and radiation may soon be a thing of the past. Instead, doctors are taking a far more
nuanced view of what drugs and treatments will work on which patients and on what
different kinds of cancers. The idea of this so-called precision medicine, or
personalized medicine, is that ultimately doctors will use genetic tests—of both the
patient and the cancer tumor—to determine the exact drugs or treatments that have
the best chance of working.

Although precision-medicine techniques are now being trained on many diseases,
their impact is being felt most strongly in cancer treatment. Researchers are building
a growing list of genes and genetic mutations that show up in tumors and matching
them to drugs that can stop them. The cancer genes that drugs can target now
number in the dozens, and researchers are hot on the trail of hundreds more. For
some cancers once considered virtual death sentences, the outlook is already much
improved: About half of lung-cancer patients respond well to one of the new gene-
matched therapies, and in half of those cases, the cancer doesn't come back. FGFR
inhibitors, the drug that saved Boyed, have shown promise not only in bile duct
cancer but also for some types of bladder, lung, breast and uterine cancers. "We have
six trials open now for FGFR inhibitor drugs alone," says Sameek Roychowdhury, the
oncologist who saved Boyed's life. "By the end of this year there should be 20."

After decades of fits and starts in the field of cancer research, the progress made in
precision medicine is welcome news indeed. But make no mistake: There is no "cure."
Medicine is not even close to bringing cancer to its knees. For patients diagnosed with
advanced cancers—those that have already metastasized, or spread—only one in 10
turn out to have genes currently known to make the cancer susceptible to a new
drug. "Our goal is to give 100 percent of patients a new therapy based on genomic
testing," says Roychowdhury. "But today we don't know how to provide a special
treatment for the results of nine of 10 genomic tests we do.""

See:

https://www.newsweek.com/2019/07/26/...s-1449287.html

[AnimeFan188]

Scientists bioprint living tissue in a matter of seconds:

"Scientists at EPFL and University Medical Center Utrecht have developed an optical
system that can bioprint complex, highly viable living tissue in "just a few seconds." It
would represent a breakthrough compared to the clunky, layer-based processes of
today.

The approach, volumetric bioprinting, forms tissue by projecting a laser down a
spinning tube containing hydrogel full of stem cells. You can shape the resulting tissue
simply by focusing the laser's energy on specific locations to solidify them, creating a
useful 3D shape within seconds. After that, it's a matter of introducing endothelial
cells to add vessels to the tissue.

The resulting tissues are currently just a few inches across. That's still enough to be
"clinically useful," EPFL said, and has already been used to print heart-like valves, a
complex femur part and a meniscus. It can create interlocking structures, too.

While this definitely isn't ready for real-world use, the applications are fairly self-
evident. EPFL imagines a new wave of "personalized, functional" organs produced at
"unprecedented speed." This could be helpful for implants and repairs, and might
greatly reduce the temptation to use animal testing -- you'd just need to produce
organs to simulate effects. This might be as much an ethics breakthrough as it is a
technical one."

See:

https://www.engadget.com/2019/08/24/...ue-in-seconds/

[AnimeFan188]

Flexible Wearable Reverses Baldness With Gentle Electric Pulses:

"Wang’s lab has created a motion-activated, flexible wearable that promotes hair
regeneration via gentle electrical stimulation. They describe their work in a study
published this month in the journal ACS Nano. In rodents, the device stimulated hair
growth better than conventional topical medications.

The device can be discreetly hidden under a baseball cap, says Wang. He hopes to
begin a clinical trial with humans within six months."

See:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-...lectric-pulses

[AnimeFan188]

Startup’s Organ-on-a-Chip System Could Help Eliminate Animal Testing:

"Conducting permeation experiments using Revivo’s system is less expensive than
current methods because smaller skin tissues—as little as 50 square millimeters—can
be used. Consequently, smaller amounts of the drugs can be tested, because for the
same dosage, the exposure area is smaller. And with Revivo’s platform, the testing
procedures can be automated, so the labor costs can be reduced up to 10 times,
Alberti says.

Revivo’s platform can be used for a variety of human tissue models, not just skin.
Tests done on such tissue are more reliable than those performed on animals, Alberti
says. Animal testing not only harms animals; it’s also ineffective because animals are
genetically and biologically different from humans. In addition, only about 10 percent
of experimental drugs tested on animals actually reach or pass the human clinical-trial
stage, Alberti says.

“Having a realistic model means test results are more accurate, and it reduces the
time gap between preclinical studies and clinical studies on humans,” he says.
Preclinical studies help to decide whether a drug is safe, effective, and ready for
further testing."

See:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-instit...animal-testing

[AnimeFan188]

Alcoholism drug linked to ‘dramatic’ weight loss in obesity study:

"A new study has linked an old school drug used to treat alcoholism with rapid weight
loss and protective effects in obese mice, hinting at a potential new treatment for
obesity. The research comes from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute
on Aging, which found that mice given the medication disulfiram lost weight much
faster than mice that only went on a diet.

Disulfiram is a drug that has been used to treat alcohol use disorder for more than
five decades, according to NIH, which found that it may also be able to protect
against metabolic damage associated with obesity while helping return the subject to
a healthy weight. The study involved both male and female mice; it is described as a
‘basic research finding.’"

See:

https://www.slashgear.com/alcoholism...tudy-15620820/

[AnimeFan188]

‘Mighty mice’ stay musclebound in space, boon for astronauts:

"Bulked-up, mutant “mighty mice” held onto their muscle during a monthlong stay at
the International Space Station, returning to Earth with ripped bodybuilder physiques,
scientists reported Monday.

The findings hold promise for preventing muscle and bone loss in astronauts on
prolonged space trips like Mars missions, as well as people on Earth who are confined
to bed or need wheelchairs.

A research team led by Dr. Se-Jin Lee of the Jackson Laboratory in Connecticut sent
40 young female black mice to the space station in December, launching aboard a
SpaceX rocket.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Lee said
the 24 regular untreated mice lost considerable muscle and bone mass in
weightlessness as expected — up to 18%.

But the eight genetically engineered “mighty mice” launched with double the muscle
maintained their bulk. Their muscles appeared to be comparable to similar “mighty
mice” that stayed behind at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

In addition, eight normal mice that received “mighty mouse” treatment in space
returned to Earth with dramatically bigger muscles. The treatment involves blocking a
pair of proteins that typically limit muscle mass."

See:

https://apnews.com/12dda166796549a4b64f4e0321d531de




Good news for earthly couch potatoes?

[AnimeFan188]

Michael Jackson had it right after all?

Human ageing process biologically reversed in world first:

"The ageing process has been biologically reversed for the first time by giving humans
oxygen therapy in a pressurised chamber.

Scientists in Israel showed they could turn back the clock in two key areas of the body
believed to be responsible for the frailty and ill-health that comes with growing older.

As people age, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes – called telomeres –
shorten, causing DNA to become damaged and cells to stop replicating. At the same
time, "zombie" senescent cells build up in the body, preventing regeneration.

Increasing telemere length and getting rid of senescent cells is the focus of many
anti-ageing studies, and drugs are being developed to target those areas.

Now scientists at Tel Aviv University have shown that giving pure oxygen to older
people while in a hyperbaric chamber increased the length of their telomeres by 20
per cent, a feat that has never been achieved before.

Scientists said the growth may mean that the telomeres of trial participants were now
as long as they had been 25 years earlier."

See:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/human-age...153921785.html

[AnimeFan188]

Scientist behind Pfizer vaccine: mRNA shots for cancer coming
‘in couple years’:

"The scientist who won the race to deliver the first widely used coronavirus vaccine
says people can rest assured the shots are safe, and the technology behind it will
soon be used to fight another global scourge — cancer."

See:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/scient...uple-of-years/

[AnimeFan188]

SOCOM To Test Anti-Aging Pill Next Year

"Special Operations Command expects to move into clinical trials next year of a pill
that may inhibit or reduce some of the degenerative affects of aging and injury —
part of a broader Pentagon push for “improved human performance.”

The pill “has the potential, if it is successful, to truly delay aging, truly prevent onset
of injury — which is just amazingly game changing,” Lisa Sanders, director of science
and technology for Special Operations Forces, acquisition, technology & logistics (SOF
AT&L), said Friday.

“We have completed pre-clinical safety and dosing studies in anticipation of follow-on
performance testing in fiscal year 2022,” Navy Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a SOCOM
spokesperson, said."

See:

https://breakingdefense.com/2021/06/...ill-next-year/

[AnimeFan188]

‘Superhero’ vaccine based on Olympic athlete DNA could provide
‘body-wide genetic upgrade’

"A groundbreaking “superhero” vaccine inspired by the DNA code of Olympic athletes
could help transform society over the next decade, a top genetic scientist claims.

The vaccine would provide lifelong protection against three of the top ten leading
causes of death, according to Euan Ashley, professor of medicine and genetics at
Stanford University. The so-called “superhero” jab could offer simultaneous, long-term
protection against heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and liver disease, thanks
to advances in genetic engineering.

This breakthrough treatment would deliver the blueprint of “ideal” cells from men and
women whose genes are more disease-resistant than those of the average person,
together with an “instruction manual” to help the body “repair, tweak and improve” its
own versions. A single dose could lead to a “body-wide genetic upgrade” that would cut
the risk of premature death in some adults by as much as 50 percent."

See:

https://www.studyfinds.org/superhero...hley-stanford/

[AnimeFan188]

Scientists stop and reverse aging in mice

"A new study carried out by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies,
Genentech, Inc., and other collaborators, shows that we can effectively reverse the
aging process in middle-aged and elderly individuals by toying with epigenetic factors,
resetting cells to a younger state. Their results were published in the journal Nature
Aging. There’s only one catch, the individuals in question were all mice.

Over time, our cells undergo changes in epigenetic markers and those changes result in
what we experience as aging. Scientists have previously identified four molecules —
Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and cMyc — which are commonly called Yamanaka factors, in biology
circles.

Those four molecules are a group of protein transcription factors which play a part in
the creation of stem cells. In 2006, Professor Shinya Yamanaka, for whom the
molecules take their collective name, used them to create stem cells from adult
fibroblasts.

A previous study used those Yamanaka factors to reduce aging and extend lifespan in a
group of mice who had a premature aging disease. They were also shown to improve
the function of various tissue types in the body. This time around, scientists wanted to
know if the therapy could be used safely and effectively in healthy mice, by resetting
epigenetic markers in cells."

See:

https://news.yahoo.com/scientists-st...150004939.html

[AnimeFan188]

Researchers may have discovered a supplement that can extend human life

"Scientists have been hunting for a way to stop humans from aging for decades. Some
scientists think that we’ll never reverse aging. Others say we’ll have a way to prevent
aging in the next 20 years. Such a claim might seem bold, but a new anti-aging
supplement shows that we may be closer than you think.

Dr. Rajagopal Viswanath Sekhar, an associate professor of medicine-endocrinology at
Baylor College of Medicine, says that mitochondria can play a vital role in slowing down
aging. Dr. Sekhar is a senior author on a new study surrounding an anti-aging supplement
that extended the life span of mice by 24 percent."

See:

https://news.yahoo.com/researchers-m...210100333.html

[AnimeFan188]

A Cancer Trial's Unexpected Result: Remission in Every Patient

"It was a small trial, just 18 rectal cancer patients, every one of whom took the same drug.

But the results were astonishing. The cancer vanished in every single patient, undetectable by physical exam; endoscopy; positron emission tomography, or PET scans; or MRI scans.

Dr. Luis A. Diaz Jr. of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, an author of a paper published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine describing the results, which were sponsored by drug company GlaxoSmithKline, said he knew of no other study in which a treatment completely obliterated a cancer in every patient."

See:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cancer-tr...120646950.html

[AnimeFan188]

Cancer patients test world’s first ‘computer-designed’ antibodies, made in Israel

"Cancer patients are testing a medicine made of antibodies that were designed from scratch on a computer in Israel and whose inventor has “programmed” them to “decide” whether cells surrounding tumors are bad or good."

See:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/cancer...ade-in-israel/