Tag Archives: Conditions and Diseases

Nanoparticles making “inroads” into Brain Drug delievery

The majority of drugs do not penetrate from blood into the brain because of the hematoencephalic barrier existing between them. This creates a lot of difficulties for brain tumor treatment. Russian researchers have developed a system for drug delivery into the brain with the help of nanoparticles and demonstrated its efficiency on laboratory animals.

Glioblastoma is the most widespread and the most dangerous variety of the brain malignant tumor. At the moment, chemotherapy of such tumors has little effect due to existence of the hematoencephalic barrier – the filter that prevents alien agents (including drugs) from passing into the brain. Researchers worldwide are working to create medicinal systems, which could be used for glioblastoma therapy.

Magnetic nanoparticles engineered to capture cancer cells

A paper published in the January issue of the journal Nanomedicine could provide the foundation for a new ovarian cancer treatment option — one that would use an outside-the-body filtration device to remove a large portion of the free-floating cancer cells that often create secondary tumors.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have formed a startup company and are working with a medical device firm to design a prototype treatment system that would use magnetic nanoparticles engineered to capture cancer cells. Added to fluids removed from a patient’s abdomen, the magnetic nanoparticles would latch onto the free-floating cancer cells, allowing both the nanoparticles and cancer cells to be removed by magnetic filters before the fluids are returned to the patient’s body.

BREATH ANALYZER THAT TELLS YOU WHEN YOU START BURNING YOUR FAT IN A TREADMILL

British scientists have developed a breath analyzer that tells how much fat you are burning off at the gym. The device is being built to pinpoint the moment when a sweaty session on the treadmill finally starts to pay off by detecting when the body has used up its supply of food energy and switches to breaking down fat instead.

Exercise machines currently estimate when people have entered the “fat burning zone”.The breath analyzer works by picking up minute changes in the levels of a molecule called acetone in people’s breath, which is given off when the body starts to burn fat. Gus Hancock, whose company Oxford Medical Diagnostics has developed the machine, said, “Acetone is a molecule that is produced by people who are burning fat rather than food.”

ARTIFICIAL RETINA-RESTORING SIGHT THROUGH SCIENCE

The DOE Artificial Retina Project is a multi-institutional collaborative effort to develop and implant a device containing an array of microelectrodes into the eyes of people blinded by retinal disease. The ultimate goal is to design a device with hundreds to more than a thousand microelectrodes. This resolution will help restore limited vision that enables reading, unaided mobility, and facial recognition.

The device is intended to bypass the damaged eye structure of those with retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. These diseases destroy the light-sensing cells (photoreceptors, or rods and cones) in the retina, a multilayered membrane located at the back of the eye.

BRONCHIAL THERMOPLASTY-NEW SURGERY TO TREAT ASTHMA

Journal of Asthma

Bronchial thermoplasty is a non-drug procedure for severe persistent asthma in patients 18 years and older whose asthma is not well controlled with inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting beta-agonists.

BT was described as “the first nondrug asthma treatment,” a statement that overlooks important measures such as avoidance and education. Nevertheless, it is very helpful that a new invasive procedure has been subjected to a prospective, randomized, sham-controlled study, permitting healthcare practitioners to be relatively confident that the benefits are real.

You can read more about this procedure from

CHOROIDAL MELANOMA-DISEASE ARTICLE SERIES COVERING BIOMEDICAL ASPECT

DEFINITION

Choroidal melanoma is a cancer of the eye that develops in a part of the eye called the choroid, the spongelike membrane that lies between the sclera (the white of the eye) and the retina. The choroid is rich in blood vessels and supplies nutrients to the retina, the light-sensitive back of the eye that sends visual information to the brain. Although choroidal melanoma is a rare form of cancer, it is the most common cancer that develops in the eye in adults.

CLINICAL SYMPTOMS

This cancer often doesn’t cause any symptoms in its early stages, so the tumor may grow for some time before the problem becomes noticeable. When symptoms occur, they include blurred vision, floaters, flashing lights, or severe eye pain. These symptoms also can be caused by many other, more common, noncancerous causes.

BIOMEDICAL ASPECT