Medical Breakthroughs, Research, and News

[SubGod22]

Owning Pets Helps Stave off Dementia for People Over 50 Living on Their Own

Caring for a pet helps stave off cognitive decline for people over 50 who live on their own, according to a new study of almost 8,000 participants.

Researchers found that pet ownership was associated with slower rates of decline in verbal memory and verbal fluency among the older adults who were living alone.

The study included 7,945 mostly-white British participants from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing with an average age of 66.

Followed over an eight year period, more than a third of the group (35.1 percent) owned pets; about 30% of the group lived alone.

Previous studies suggested that solitary living is a risk factor for developing dementia and cognitive decline, but among those folks, raising dogs or cats was related to reduced loneliness.

[SubGod22]

New Enzyme Allows CRISPR Technology to Accurately Target Almost Any Human Gene

While the original CRISPR gene editing technology could only target 12.5% of the human genome, a new method developed by engineers at Duke University expands access to nearly every gene to potentially target and treat a broader range of diseases.

The study published in the journal Nature Communications, involved collaborators at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, University of Zurich, and McMaster University.

“With this new tool, we can target nearly 100% of the genome with far more precision,” said Pranam Chatterjee, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke.

CRISPR-Cas is a bacterial immune system that allows bacteria to use RNA molecules and CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins to target and destroy the DNA of invading viruses. Since its discovery, researchers have raced to develop an arsenal of new CRISPR systems for applications in gene therapy and genome engineering.

The team investigated the new tool’s potential therapeutic uses for genetic diseases that were untreatable with the standard CRISPR system. Their first test was Rett syndrome, a progressive neurological disorder that predominantly affects young females and is caused by one of eight mutations to a specific gene.

The second was Huntington’s disease, a rare, inherited neurological disorder that causes the degeneration of neurons in the brain. Using the new technology, the team was able to alter previously inaccessible mutations, providing potential therapeutic opportunities for both diseases.

[SubGod22]

Baby That Had Spinal Surgery While in the Womb Can Now Walk and Run

A little girl whose parents were told she would never walk is now running around like other 5-year-olds after receiving emergency spinal surgery while still in the womb.

This miracle of modern medicine was available to first-time parents Georgia Axford and Tyler Kelly, then just 19 and 21, who were told their unborn baby had spina bifida after an ultrasound at 20 weeks.

The condition causes weakness or paralysis in the lower limbs, and the parents were told it was likely their child wouldn’t walk.

The couple decided to travel to Germany for treatment, which saw the unborn baby operated on in the womb at a cost of just £9,000, or around $11,500.

Piper-Kohl Kelly was then born healthy in July 2018 and named after surgeon Dr. Thomas Kohl. Now five, she can walk and run and recently took part in her school’s sports day.

“Seeing her run on the tracks was amazing. I never thought she’d be able to do something like that,” said Georgia. “Sometimes it doesn’t feel real. I think back to what we were told, and they were really negative about Piper’s diagnosis.”

Spina bifida can leave sufferers dependent on supports or crutches, and in severe cases, they can be wheelchair-bound. Doctors were confident that this would be the case for Piper-Kohl.

Georgia hails from South Yorkshire, in the Northeast of England. For all the stress and negativity of the diagnosis, and even though Piper was induced at 32 weeks and sat in the neonatal intensive care unit for 52 days, they ended up getting the chance to live a normal life from the same moment as other babies.

Stories like this are promising. Anything to help someone hopefully live a fairly normal/typical life physically is a good thing.

[SubGod22]

This is interesting.

Study Shows Hearing Aids May Help People Live Longer - Reducing Risk of Death by 24%

New research suggests hearing aids may help people live longer, showing that such devices reduce the risk of death by almost 25 percent.

Hearing loss affects tens of millions of people around the world—but only one in 10 who need hearing aids use them.

Those who refuse their doctor’s advice to wear hearing aids may want to make a New Year’s resolutions to wear one, according to Scientists at the University of Southern California who conducted a new study published in The Lancet journal Healthy Longevity.

“We found that adults with hearing loss who regularly used hearing aids had a 24 percent lower risk of mortality than those who never wore them,” said lead research Dr. Janet Choi.

“These results are exciting because they suggest that hearing aids may play a protective role in people’s health and prevent early death.”

Previous research has shown that untreated hearing loss can result in a reduced life span, and higher levels of depression and dementia, but there’s been little research examining if the use of hearing aids can reduce the risk of death.

[SubGod22]

Another Study Shows African Psychedelic Plant Ibogaine Treats Traumatic Brain in Vets With 'Dramatic' Results

An African psychedelic plant “significantly” alleviated the symptoms of war veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), according to another new study.

Ibogaine, a naturally occurring compound found in the roots of the African shrub iboga, was found to successfully improve functioning, PTSD, depression and anxiety in military veterans.

The plant-based psychoactive drug, which has been used in Africa for a thousand years during spiritual and healing rituals, was also found to contain no adverse side effects—with some veterans saying the experimental treatment saved their lives.

Hundreds of thousands of troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq have sustained TBIs in recent decades, and these injuries are suspected of playing a role in the high rates of depression and suicide seen among military veterans. With mainstream treatment options not fully effective for all veterans, researchers have sought therapeutic alternatives.

Ibogaine has gained notoriety in scientific communities for its potential to treat opioid and cocaine addiction, because it increases signaling of several important molecules within the brain, some of which have been linked to drug addiction and depression.

Traumatic brain injury is defined as a disruption in the normal functioning of the brain resulting from external forces—such as explosions, vehicle collisions or other bodily impacts. Such trauma can lead to changes in the structure of the brain, which, in turn, contributes to neuro-psychiatric symptoms.

Stanford Medicine researchers discovered that ibogaine, when combined with magnesium to protect the heart, safely and effectively reduces symptoms like PTSD, anxiety, and depression—and improves functioning—in veterans with TBI.

Their new study, published on Jan. 5 in Nature Medicine, includes detailed data on 30 veterans of U.S. special forces.

“No other drug has ever been able to alleviate the functional and neuropsychiatric symptoms of traumatic brain injury,” said Nolan Williams, MD, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. “The results are dramatic, and we intend to study this compound further.”

Seems promising.

[Shockm]

This is interesting.

Study Shows Hearing Aids May Help People Live Longer - Reducing Risk of Death by 24%

Maybe this is a good study, but my questions include

So how do the average age at death for
1) Deaf People
2) People who use hearing aids
3) People who don't use hearing aids.

There should there be a correlation between these 3 categories if this study is correct? Deaf People should live fewer years, as opposed to people who use hearing aids, and those who don't.

[SubGod22]

Maybe this is a good study, but my questions include

So how do the average age at death for
1) Deaf People
2) People who use hearing aids
3) People who don't use hearing aids.

There should there be a correlation between these 3 categories if this study is correct? Deaf People should live fewer years, as opposed to people who use hearing aids, and those who don't.

I get what you're saying, but I think those that are born deaf, or go deaf very young, fall into a different category. I think this has a lot more to do with the mental and psychological impact of slowly losing your hearing and then what you end up missing out on and how it impacts your health, both mental and physical. Be it simple relationships or depression and anxiety that comes with the change.

[SubGod22]

New Non-Invasive Test Could Make it Easier for Doctors to Predict Success for Women Undergoing IVF

A new non-invasive test could make it easier for doctors to predict successful pregnancies for women undergoing IVF, improving the accuracy and outcomes of this procedure among couples struggling to conceive.

In-vitro-fertilization (IVF), a treatment that involves fertilizing eggs in a laboratory and later implanting them in the uterus, has been a source of hope for many couples.

However, IVF is a complex process, with success rates among women younger than 40 in the United States being only 20 to 40 percent.

This is because it can be challenging for doctors to determine which IVF embryos are most likely to result in a successful pregnancy.

But now, a brand-new non-invasive test for embryo quality, developed by scientists at University of California San Diego, has the potential to solve this challenge.

“Unfortunately, IVF success still involves a big element of chance, but that’s something we’re hoping our research can change,” said Professor Irene Su, of UC San Diego School of Medicine. “IVF is challenging enough as it is, so it was extremely important to us that our research didn’t interfere with this already-delicate process.

“What we’ve done is more akin to looking at what’s left behind at an archaeological site to help us learn more about who lived there and what they did.”

The new test works by detecting small particles of genetic material, called exRNAs, that are left behind in the liquid young embryos are grown in.

Instead of relying on biopsies of embryos, the new approach works similar to blood tests by detecting exRNAs in a sample of fluid.

This means that the new approach is completely non-invasive and involves no extra steps on the part of women going through IVF treatment.

[SubGod22]

Test That Can Spot 18 Early-Stage Cancer Signals Shows 84% Sensitivity in First Human Trial

An experimental cancer test already being studied in humans shows that by examining blood proteins instead of tumor DNA, it may be possible to detect up to 18 early-stage cancers with exceptional accuracy.

Cancer tests don’t often use the same methods of detection, and having one or two unified testing options would likely save thousands of lives.

A US biotech firm called Novelna recently presented their findings of a trial of 440 humans with a total of 18 different cancers. Blood plasma samples were taken from each patient, along with 44 healthy blood donors.

By analyzing trace proteins in the blood, the Novelna team were able to achieve a high “sensitivity,” or the detection rate of early-stage tumors, and a high “specificity” or the control for false-positives. Furthermore, the proteins controlled for in the test are sex-specific.

At stage I (the earliest cancer stage) and at the specificity of 99%, the panels were able to identify 93% of cancers among males and 84% of cancers among females.

“This finding is the foundation for a multi-cancer screening test for the early detection of 18 solid tumors that cover all major human organs of origin for such cancers at the earliest stage of their development with high accuracy,” the authors wrote in the journal BMJ Oncology. “These findings pave the way for a cost-effective, highly accurate, multi-cancer screening test that can be implemented on a population-wide scale.”

The team acknowledged the small trial size and admitted that larger trials would be needed to confirm the accuracy already established, but they also highlighted that almost all of the proteins for almost all of the cancers were present in the blood samples at very low levels, indicating the importance of such tests for catching tumors before they form.

**** cancer!

[SubGod22]

Here's some interesting news that doesn't completely surprise me, but I never expected to see it show up here.

Getting On the Dance Floor Will Shred Pounds in Overweight People, Improve Blood Pressure and Mental Health

Boogying the night away produces meaningful improvements in one’s body mass and waist circumference in people who are overweight or obese, a new study found.

Dancing was also seen to improve blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, physical fitness, cognitive disorders, hypertension, cardiovascular ailments, diabetes, and mental health—in other words, all the root causes of the non-communicable diseases that kill most people in the West.

The researchers believed that dance would be a more ideal form of exercise because it is sustainable—it’s a sociable, entertaining way of exercising that participants will enjoy, rather than a drudgery they have to push themselves through.

“Dance is effective on fat loss in people overweight and obese and has a significant improvement on body composition and morphology,” said Zhang Yaya, a Ph.D. student at Hunan University, China. “As a form of physical activity that integrates exercise, entertainment, and sociality, dance possesses innate advantages in fostering motivation for exercise.”

To get their results, published in the journal PLoS ONE, the team studied data from 646 participants who were overweight and obese across ten different studies.

They found that dance is very effective for improving body composition and showed that more creative dance types had the most pronounced body composition improvement when compared with traditional dance.

Improvements were also found in overweight children and patients with Parkinson’s disease.

So, when in doubt, just dance!

[SubGod22]

11-Year-Old Moroccan Boy Hears for the First Time Thanks to Experimental Gene Therapy in Philadelphia

At the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), an 11-year-old boy from Morocco is hearing the world for the very first time thanks to a revolutionary new genetic therapy that has cured his deafness.

While the gene involved is quite rare, the milestone represents a breakthrough in the treatment of patients around the world with hearing loss caused by dozens of different genetic mutations and marks another innovative move for gene and cell therapy in a new area of medicine.

Born into a poor community in Morocco, Aissam Dam experienced a silent world, having inherited a form of hereditary deafness called otoferlin deafness. The gene otoferlin is found mutated in 200,000 people worldwide, and the mutation destroys a protein in the inner ear’s hair cells necessary to transmit sound to the brain.

The New York Times reports that of the several kinds of hereditary deafness, an otoferlin mutation has been the easiest target since the hairs in the inner ear can live on for decades, while other genetic mutations cause the death of the hairs during infancy or even in the womb.

“Gene therapy for hearing loss is something that we physicians and scientists in the world of hearing loss have been working toward for over 20 years, and it is finally here,” said John A. Germiller PhD, an attending surgeon and Director of Clinical Research in the Division of Otolaryngology at CHOP.

Just because it was something like a low-hanging fruit, reversing or curing otoferlin was no picnic. The inner ear and the cochlea are complex, closed-off environments, and several challenges requiring years of study and testing had to be overcome.

But as for the result, young mister Aissam had some convincing words for The Times.

[SubGod22]

T-cell Fountain of Youth Moves a Step Closer - And it May Work After Just One Treatment

The fountain of youth has eluded explorers for ages. It turns out, the magic anti-aging elixir might have been inside us all along.

Corina Amor Vegas and colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have discovered that T cells can be reprogrammed to fight aging—and they can have “lifelong effects”.

Given the right set of genetic modifications, these white blood cells can attack another group of cells known as senescent cells. These cells are thought to be responsible for many of the diseases we grapple with later in life.

Senescent cells are those that stop replicating. As we age, they build up in our bodies, resulting in harmful inflammation. While several drugs currently exist that can eliminate these cells, many of them must be taken repeatedly over time.

As an alternative, Amor Vegas and colleagues turned to a “living” drug called CAR T cells (chimeric antigen receptor). They discovered CAR T cells could be manipulated to eliminate senescent cells in mice.

The results, published in the journal Nature Aging, showed the treated mice ended up living healthier lives. They had lower body weight, improved metabolism and glucose tolerance, and increased physical activity. All benefits came without any tissue damage or toxicity.

“If we give it to aged mice, they rejuvenate,” said Assistant Professor Amor Vegas. “If we give it to young mice, they age slower. No other therapy right now can do this.”

Sounds too good to be true. But if we can get to where one treatment can have lifelong effects that lead to healthier lives, that's nothing but a positive.

[Kung Wu]

T-cell Fountain of Youth Moves a Step Closer - And it May Work After Just One Treatment



Sounds too good to be true. But if we can get to where one treatment can have lifelong effects that lead to healthier lives, that's nothing but a positive.

Could you imagine an Earth where 8 billion people live 100% longer, and then their 16 billion offspring live 100% longer, and then their 32 billion offspring live 100% longer? I guess disease would wipe out major portions of the population over and over so it would work out, but yeesh.

[SubGod22]

Improving Physical Fitness with Cardio May Cut Prostate Cancer Risk by More Than a Third

Researchers found those who increased their annual cardiorespiratory fitness activity (CRF) by 3% or more were up to 35% less likely to develop prostate cancer.

This small-change-big-result finding was established by a Swedish team, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, who hope to encourage men to improve their fitness in a bid to steer clear of the disease.

There are relatively few known risk factors for prostate cancer, which is the second-leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer. The American Cancer Society’s estimates are that 35,000 men will die this year in the nation from prostate cancer, and nearly 300,000 will develop it.

While evidence exists as to the beneficial effects of physical activity on the risk of several cancers, associations with prostate cancer are less clear-cut.

The majority of previous studies have assessed fitness only at a single point in time, and none have looked at the potential impact of fitness on both the risk of developing and dying from prostate cancer.

Therefore, researchers from the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (GIH) sought to discover whether improvements in men’s fitness could offset the risk of developing the disease.

“This is the largest study to examine the relationships between change in CRF (cardiorespiratory fitness) and cancer incidence and mortality, and the first study to examine change in CRF specifically on prostate cancer incidence and mortality,” said Dr. Kate Bolam, a lead author from the Department of Physical Activity and Health at GIH.

“Improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness in adult men should be encouraged and may reduce the risk of prostate cancer.”

[SubGod22]

Traditional Chinese Herb Delivered via IV Improves Stroke Victims' Recovery, Shows Large Scientific Study

A traditional Chinese herbal remedy made from one of the oldest living tree species was shown to aid in the recovery of stroke victims, according to a new study.

The large randomized controlled study found that active components in ginkgo biloba could improve early recovery of thinking skills after a stroke caused by a blood clot.

The herb, extracted from the dried leaves and seeds of the ginkgo tree which is native to East Asia, is already the basis for treatments widely used in China for these ischaemic strokes because of its antioxidant properties that may protect nerve cells from damage.

Ginkgo biloba, though it is sold as a nutrition supplement, is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for any medicinal use whatsoever, due to “lack of evidence,” but maybe studies like this will lead to a reevaluation.

Early last year, the researchers analyzed the overall recovery of 3,163 stroke survivors with an average age of 63, treated for mild to moderate ischemic stroke at 100 centers in China.

The patients were treated for 14 days with intravenous injections of ginkgo diterpene lactone meglumine (GDLM)—a combination of biologically active components of ginkgo biloba, and then again at 90 days.

Not only did they show improved recovery from overall stroke symptoms in the randomized controlled study, but further analysis showed better cognitive recovery for participants treated with the herbal concoction.