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Stem cells from body fat promising

Dec 17 – A San Diego-based company is breaking new ground in the field of regenerative medicine with a system that uses patients’ own body fat to generate stem cells and repair tissue and organs. Ben Gruber reports.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (UPI) — U.S. researchers say they’ve developed a new heart pump that could help infants born with congenital heart defects survive necessary surgeries.

Scientists at Purdue University have created a “viscous impeller pump” for children born with univentricular circulation, a congenital heart disease that is the leading cause of death from birth defects in the first year of a child’s life, a university release said Tuesday.

The normal human heart contains two pumping chambers, called ventricles.

One circulates oxygenated blood throughout the body, while the other less-powerful ventricle circulates deoxygenated blood to the lungs.

Children born with univentricular circulation have only one functioning ventricle but can survive if blood vessels in the heart are restructured in a series of open-heart surgeries.

At least 30 percent of babies do not survive the surgeries, called the Fontan procedures.

To improve the survival rate, Purdue engineers and researchers developed the new mechanical pump to assist the heart during surgeries.

“A big advantage of this pump is that it gets delivered through the skin with a catheter without open heart surgery,” Steven Frankel, a Purdue University professor of mechanical engineering, said.

“It is designed to be in the body for two weeks at most, almost like a disposable item,” Frankel said.

The researchers have received a $2.1 million, four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to continue developing the heart pump, Purdue said.

Copyright 2010 by United Press International

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Cell reprogramming breakthrough could mend broken hearts

Heart disease remains one the biggest killers in the Western world. When a heart attack or heart failure occurs, permanent damage often results, destroying live cells and leaving the patient with irreversible scarring. Now scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) have discovered a new technique to create healthy beating heart cells from structural cells, opening up the possibility of regenerating damaged hearts. Read More

Received & published by Henry Sapiecha

The Cancer-Causing Sex Virus

Matthew Herper, 07.21.10, 04:15 PM EDT

HPV–known for causing cervical cancer–is

emerging as the leading cause of throat cancer in

men. Should they get the vaccine too?

Nine Things You Need To Know About HPV

Martin Duffy, a Boston consultant and economist, thought he just had a sore throat. When it persisted for months, he went to the doctor and learned there was a tumor on his tonsils.

Duffy, now 70, had none of the traditional risk factors for throat cancer. He doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink and has run 40 Boston marathons. Instead, his cancer was caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is sexually transmitted and a common cause of throat and mouth cancer.

HPV tumors have a better prognosis than those caused by too many years of booze and cigarettes. But Duffy “is in the unlucky 20%” whose cancer comes back–despite rounds of chemotherapy and radiation that melted 20 more pounds off a lean 150-pound frame. Now the cancer has spread throughout his throat, making eating and talking difficult. “I made my living as a public speaker,” he says. “Now I sound like Daffy Duck.” Duffy believes he has only a few months left. “How do you tell the people you love you love them?” he asks.

Nine Things You Need To Know About HPV

Most strains of the HPV virus are harmless, but persistent infections with two HPV strains cause 70% of the 12,000 cases of cervical cancers diagnosed annually in the U.S. Other forms of the sexually transmitted virus can cause penile and anal cancer, and genital warts. The HPV throat cancer connection has emerged in just the last few years and is so new that the government doesn’t track its incidence. Researchers believe it is transmitted via oral sex. But top researchers estimate that there are 11,300 HPV throat cancers each year in the U.S.–and the numbers are growing fast as people have been having more sexual partners since the 1960s. By 2015 there could be 20,000 cases. For more surprising discoveries about HPV, read here.

These big numbers have some top researchers arguing that drug makers should test whether HPV vaccines now used to prevent cervical cancer in women can also prevent throat infections in boys. Two vaccines, Gardasil from Merck ( MRK – news – people ) and Cervarix from GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK – news – people ), are approved for preventing cervical cancer. Gardasil is approved for use in boys only to prevent genital warts.

Vaccinating boys could stop this meteoric increase in throat cancer. “Clearly, boys need to be vaccinated,” says Marshall Posner, the incoming medical director of head and neck cancer at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York. “I want my kids to be vaccinated. I don’t see a downside to these vaccines.”

There’s only one problem: The vaccine manufacturers aren’t terribly hot on the idea. GlaxoSmithKline says it has no plans to study throat cancer. It adds that it is “committed to providing a vaccine specifically designed to protect against cervical cancer in girls and young women.”

Merck, the maker of Gardasil, seemed more interested a couple of years ago. In 2008 it funded Maura Gillison, the Ohio State University researcher who established the HPV-throat-cancer link in 2000, to do a pilot study to show that test could reliably detect HPV infection in the throat. The pilot study was successful. By early 2009 Gillison says that a larger study of the vaccine in throat cancer looked close to being green lit.

But after Merck agreed to buy rival Schering-Plough ( SGP – news – people ) for $41 billion in March 2009, interest in a big study seemed to evaporate, Gillison says. In a statement, Merck says that “due to competing research and business priorities, we decided not to move ahead with an efficacy study at this time.”

The drug makers’ reticence probably stems from a fear that a throat-cancer vaccine would be hard to get approved. Papilloma viruses usually cause cancer slowly, causing pre-cancerous lesions that take many years to blossom into full-fledged malignant tumors. Papilloma viruses cause the horn-like growths in rabbits that probably gave rise to myths of “jackalopes” in the American West. In the cervix, early abnormal growths can be picked up with a diagnostic test, the Pap smear. Clinical trials of Gardasil and Cervarix took advantage of this, measuring the number of pre-cancerous growths prevented by the vaccines.

But there are no easy-to-detect pre-cancers in the throat. Adolescent boys would have to be followed for decades to to see if the vaccine prevented throat cancer, an unlikely scenario. Short of this, studies could only look at the prevention of HPV throat infections, not cancer or cancer precursors directly. Approving a vaccine for wide use based on this type of short-term data would require a leap of faith that the Food and Drug Administration might not be willing to take.

Top researchers say the federal government needs to step in and fund the long study if drug companies cannot be persuaded to do it themselves. “I’m sorry Merck decided not to do it,” says Posner. “But in the end, this is a federal responsibility. It’s a public health issue.”

For his part, Martin Duffy thinks that drug companies’ complacent attitude toward throat cancer would be different if more of their employees were in his situation. “It will change real fast,” he says, “if one of their executives comes down with this disease.”

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Red Wine Protects The Prostate,

Research Suggests

ScienceDaily (May 26, 2007) — Researchers have found that men who drink an average of four to seven glasses of red wine per week are only 52% as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer as those who do not drink red wine, reports the June 2007 issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch. In addition, red wine appears particularly protective against advanced or aggressive cancers.

Researchers in Seattle collected information about many factors that might influence the risk of prostate cancer in men between ages 40 and 64, including alcohol consumption. At first the results for alcohol consumption seemed similar to the findings of many earlier studies: There was no relationship between overall consumption and risk.

But the scientists went one step further by evaluating each type of alcoholic beverage independently. Here the news was surprising—wine drinking was linked to a reduced risk of prostate cancer. And when white wine was compared with red, red had the most benefit. Even low amounts seemed to help, and for every additional glass of red wine per week, the relative risk declined by 6%.

Why red wine? Doctors don’t know. But much of the speculation focuses on chemicals—including various flavonoids and resveratrol—missing from other alcoholic beverages. These components have antioxidant properties, and some appear to counterbalance androgens, the male hormones that stimulate the prostate.

Many doctors are reluctant to recommend drinking alcohol for health, fearing that their patients might assume that if a little alcohol is good, a lot might be better. The Harvard Men’s Health Watch notes that men who enjoy alcohol and can drink in moderation and responsibly may benefit from a lower risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and cardiac death.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

CHICAGO (UPI) — U.S. researchers say they’ve discovered a therapy that might be able to preserve erectile function following prostate cancer surgery.

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine scientists say up to 80 percent of men undergoing the procedure will lose the ability to have an erection because of damage to a critical nerve that runs along the prostate. But the new study suggests the damaged nerve can be regenerated more quickly with a protein called sonic hedgehog, delivered via a nanofiber gel.

The study, conducted with rats, showed the protein regenerated the damaged nerve twice as quickly as it would have regenerated on its own, the researchers said, noting speeding the nerve healing is essential in order to prevent cell death in the penis and to preserve erectile function.

“This discovery about sonic hedgehog could be applicable not only to erectile dysfunction after prostate surgery, but also when the cavernous nerve is damaged by diabetes, which also causes erectile dysfunction,” said Assistant Professor Carol Podlasek, who led the study. She said the finding might also apply to damaged sciatic or facial nerves.

The name sonic hedgehog is taken from a popular video game. The protein is a vital building block in the body that promotes nerve regeneration,

The findings were presented recently in San Francisco during the annual meeting of the American Urological Association.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha

Immunologists Develop Method

To Decrease Rejections

Of Kidney Transplants

A nephrologist has found that a specialized type of anti-rejection therapy using intravenous immunoglobulin can make kidney transplants possible for patients with high ‘anti-donor’ antibodies. 25 to 30 percent of patients on the kidney transplant list could benefit from this therapy. Tissue compatibility issues exist with any organ transplant, but the risk is greatly increased for those with high exposure to antigens received through blood transfusions, previous transplantation, or even pregnancy.

Seventy-thousand Americans are waiting for a kidney transplant. A third of them are parked on dialysis because their antibody levels are too high for a transplant. But that’s no longer a barrier for some people.

“I used to just sit around and throw up,” says former dialysis patient Soraya Kohanzadeh.

Dialysis is something Kohanzadeh would rather forget, but if telling her story saves lives, it’s worth it.

Kohanzadeh — like many kidney failure patients — developed high levels of “anti-donor” antibodies through blood transfusions. Her highly sensitized immune system would likely reject any donated kidney.

“Essentially, she would have a very short, sick life on dialysis,” says Joan Lando, Kohanzadeh’s mother.

But Kohanzadeh is no longer here, thanks to intravenous immunoglobulin therapy or IVIG. Here’s how it works: during dialysis, patients are given blood containing a mix of immunoglobulins, which “turn-off” the anti-donor antibodies’ attack response without suppressing the patient’s immune system.

“A significant other comes forward, donates an organ, and there’s an incompatibility there. We can treat the patient and remove those antibodies. Then the transplant can be done,” Stanley Jordan, M.D., director of nephrology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

More than a year after surgery, Lando’s kidney keeps her daughter alive.

“It was sort of shocking to think I wasn’t going to have to be sick forever,” Kohanzadeh says.

Through their website, this mother-daughter team works to spread the word of a little known therapy that could save thousands in need of a kidney. IVIG is covered by Medicare and can be used in both living and cadaver-donor transplants. Nearly 30 percent of patients on the kidney transplant list might benefit from this therapy.

To learn more go to www.sevenluckystars.com

BACKGROUND: About one-third of kidney patients are often told they cannot have a transplant even if they have a donor with an otherwise perfectly matched tissue and blood type. Their anti-donor antibody levels are so high that any transplanted organ would be rejected by their highly sensitized immune system. Now there is a specialized type of anti-rejection therapy using intravenous immunoglobin (IVIG), which injects antibodies from healthy people into the blood supply, to modulate the immune system without suppressing it. This makes kidney transplant possible for as much as 25-30% of this group of patients, who would otherwise not be eligible for a transplant because of their high antibody levels.

DEALING WITH REJECTION: Tissue compatibility is an issue for all patients receiving organ transplants, but rejection risks are much higher for those with high exposure to human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) that are not produced by their own bodies. Exposure may be the result of blood transfusions, previous transplantation, or even pregnancy if the mother is exposed to the father’s antigens, which are then expressed in the cells of the developing fetus. The immune system is then ‘sensitized’ to those antigens — primed with antibodies that attack any foreign tissue, even if the antigens arrive in the form of a life-saving donated organ.

ABOUT IVIG: IVIG modulates the immune system without suppressing it. In fact, the therapy actually boosts the immune system because the antibodies found in IVIG help fend off infections — a common post-surgery complication. For the most highly sensitized patients, IVIG is combined with a new drug, Rituxan, which reduces treatment time from four months to one before transplantation. The therapy can be used in both living-donor and cadaver-donor transplants. In the late 1980s. Dr. Stanley C. Jordan pioneered the use of IVIG as a way to reduce organ rejection among highly sensitized patients. It is now a fully accepted, Medicare-approved therapy as of 2004, when it was found to be effective in a multi-center study partly funded by the National Institutes of Health.

WHAT IS DIALYSIS? Hemodialysis is a treatment for end stage renal disease (ESRD), or kidney failure, in which blood is removed from the body, filtered through an artificial kidney and then the cleaned blood is returned to the body. In the US, hemodialysis is the most common treatment for people who have kidney failure. However, dialysis is also a painful, expensive procedure, and while it cleans the blood well enough to maintain existence, it does little to improve a patient’s overall quality of life. Also, data shows that if patients get a transplant before they get to the point of dialysis, they do better in the longer term.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 12th June 2010

HE SAYS IT WON’T GO DOWN – SO HE SUED AND GOT $400,000

NOW HE HAS THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

PROVIDENCE — Charles “Chick” Lennon, the retired handyman who sued over a penile implant that won’t remain in the down position, is going to receive a $400,000 judgment after all, according to a state Supreme Court order issued today.

Lennon, 68, of North Providence, is expected to get a total of $950,000, with interest included, because of the Dura-II penile implant that he says has been causing him pain and embarrassment for a decade.

“I’m just glad it’s over. It’s been a pain,” Lennon said of the legal battle with the implant manufacturer, Dacomed Corp., and its insurance company.

For a while, it had appeared Lennon was not going to get a dime despite a jury’s decision to award him $750,000.

Superior Court Judge Edward C. Clifton had lowered the jury award to $400,000. And after both sides appealed, the Supreme Court had given Lennon 20 days to accept the $400,000 or to have a new trial on damages. Lennon decided to take the money.

HE FOUND A CURE FOR HIS ”STIFF’‘ JOINT > MONEY…!

Sourced 20th Feb 2010 and published by Henry Sapiecha

Jackson’s Death Focuses Attention

on Cardiac Arrest

Robert Langreth and Matthew Herper, 06.26.09, 01:20 PM EDT

A misunderstood disease that is one of the world’s biggest killers could get new attention.

Even before an autopsy has revealed exactly why Michael Jackson‘s heart apparently stopped, his death is focusing attention on one of the most mysterious and common killer diseases in America: sudden cardiac arrest.

Sudden cardiac arrest kills 200,000 to 300,000 Americans a year. It is often wrongly equated with a heart attack. In fact, what kills people who die suddenly is not the artery clogging (which destroys heart muscle but is not immediately lethal); it’s the ventricular fib, a rapid quivering of the main pumping chambers in the bottom of the heart, called the ventricles. When this occurs, little blood gets out. Brain cells die within minutes. For every minute that goes by without the heart being restored to a normal rhythm, the patient’s odds of survival drop by 10%. After 10 minutes they’re gone.

Your Heart: A User’s Guide

Heart attacks are one trigger but may account for only a minority of sudden cardiac deaths. Past heart attacks, which leave scar tissue that changes the electrical patterns of the heart, are another risk factor. Genetic disorders that cause subtle changes to the heart rhythm are a third. “The biggest bugaboo in the field is we don’t know how to predict arrest,” says Benjamin Abella, director of the Center for Resuscitation Science at the University of Pennsylvania. “The stars just align in the wrong way.” Eighty percent of those who die suddenly from heart disease have some sign of coronary trouble.

Performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can keep a patient alive by pushing blood through the body. But there is only one treatment that halts the deadly arrhythmia: an electric shock, called defibrillation, that sets the heartbeat back into a regular rhythm. Defibrillators come in two forms: external versions used by paramedics and surgically implanted versions for patients at high risk.

Scientists developed defibrillation in the 1950s after linemen stringing electrical wires across the country were dying suddenly of cardiac arrest from electrocution. The idea emerged that maybe a counter-shock could set the heart right. In the 1960s, Harvard researcher Bernard Lown invented a device that could be used in hospitals called the cardioverter defibrillator.

Easy-to-use versions are now common in airports, casinos and other crowded public places. Studies have found they boost the cardiac arrest survival rate significantly. But a 2008 study failed to find any benefit from putting defibrillators in typical heart patients’ homes. It isn’t often that a patient suffers arrhythmia when there is someone present to help him.

Each year, 300,000 heart patients worldwide at very high risk of sudden death get automatic defibrillators surgically implanted. The gadgets reduce the death risk 25% in patients whose hearts, because of slow deterioration or scars from heart attacks, are inefficient at pumping blood. It’s a $6.4 billion market for Medtronic ( MDT – news – people )Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ – news – people ) and Boston Scientific ( BSX – news – people ), according to analysts at Wachovia. But implantable defibrillators, which cost $30,000 installed, are an expensive insurance policy for something that might never happen, and there are potential complications from surgery. Some of the devices or their associated wires have had to be recalled because of potentially catastrophic flaws.

But sudden deaths often occur in people without known heart problems, so scientists are racing to find other risk factors. One clue to pinpointing who is at risk is a genetic disorder called long QT syndrome, named after an unusual reading on an electrocardiogram. In this condition, the heart is just a little slow to recover between beats. This and related disorders hit one in several thousand people and may account for 5% of sudden-death cases.

Common gene variations may alter the heart rhythm in slight ways that don’t cause problems under normal conditions but may predispose people to sudden death during a heart attack or if they take certain drugs that affect heart rhythm. Two recent studies in Nature Genetics found 10 gene variations that slightly alter heart rhythm and could be involved in sudden cardiac death. “What we are beginning to understand is why one person who has a heart attack dies suddenly whereas another person who has a heart attack doesn’t,” says Duke University cardiac electrophysiologist Patrick Hranitzky. “A lot of it has to do with genetics.”

Cardiologist Sumeet Chugh hopes he can uncover more conditions like weakened hearts or long QT that identify which patients will have sudden cardiac arrest. As a medical resident in Minneapolis in 1992, a beautiful 19-year-old woman was rushed into the emergency room after collapsing while dancing. Her heart had suddenly stopped. Chugh and his colleagues worked for almost an hour but couldn’t save her. An autopsy found nothing. The only clue was her mother, who had also died abruptly at a young age.

“It was devastating to me,” says Chugh, now associate director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles. He dedicated his career to solving the biggest mystery of heart disease, why many healthy people suddenly keel over and die. He runs a study that has tracked every sudden cardiac death in Portland, Ore. since 2002 to find some answers. “It’s like a Rubik’s cube,” he says. “You have to put it together piece by piece.”

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 28th June 2009

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Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 25th June 2009