Medical Breakthroughs, Research, and News

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Hope for those with diabetes.

Diabetes-Reversing Drug Boosts Insulin-Producing Cells by 700%

A new drug tested in mice septupled the number of beta cells in the pancreas, reversing the symptoms of diabetes until the disease was gone.

This has never been achieved before in drug development, and the scientists behind the breakthrough are calling it a “functional diabetes cure.”

It took just three months for the mice cells to start excreting insulin again, which was achieved via a combination of two drugs: the first called harmine which is naturally found in plants which works to inhibit the enzyme DYRK1A, and the second which acts as a GLP1 receptor agonist, also found in the diabetes drug Ozempic.

To test their drug, the team from Mount Sinai and City of Hope first injected human beta cells into mice, and then applied their treatment. The beta cells increased in number 7-fold in just three months time, with symptoms of diabetes slowly reversing until they were undetectable even 1 month after treatment was stopped.

The concept behind this treatment has been tried before, but it involved coaxing stem cells into human pancreas beta cells in vitro and then transplanting them into a diabetes patient via a small device: a costly, time-consuming procedure.

“This is the first time scientists have developed a drug treatment that is proven to increase adult human beta cell numbers in vivo,” said Dr. Adolfo Garcia-Ocaña, corresponding author of the study. “This research brings hope for the use of future regenerative therapies to potentially treat the hundreds of millions of people with diabetes.”

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He Couldn't Drink A Glass Of Water For 35 Years. Watch That All Change

In a remarkable medical breakthrough, a man who struggled with the simple task of drinking a glass of water is now able to do so thanks to a life-changing, incisionless surgery.

Gold Coast University Hospital has become the first Australian public hospital to offer this innovative procedure for individuals with disabling neurological conditions such as essential tremors.

The non-invasive procedure utilizes MRI technology to precisely locate and treat areas of the brain that trigger movement disorder symptoms. More than 1,000 ultrasound beams intersect at a single point, creating a tiny lesion on the brain. This disruption of abnormal brain activity significantly reduces tremors, offering patients newfound control over their movements.

Neville Waterstrom, a patient who has suffered from essential tremors for the past 30 years, shared his transformative experience.

"It’s been incredibly difficult to do even simple tasks like feed myself, and drinking out of a glass was just not a possibility," he said. "This procedure has completely changed my life. I haven’t been able to write properly for at least 20 years, and now – it’s just amazing. I can drink a glass of water again, and this is just one hour after the procedure."

The success of this incisionless surgery has garnered widespread attention, with the hospital sharing a video showcasing Neville's progress before and after the procedure. The video has since been viewed by millions, inspiring hope and showcasing the incredible potential of modern medical advancements.

There's a video in the article that shows him trying to drink a glass of water before and then after. Mr. Waterstrom was pretty emotional about it and you can't blame him.

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Primary Cause of Lupus Discovered - and A Possible Way to Reverse It

A team of scientists from Northwestern Medicine and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have identified the cause of lupus, a devastating autoimmune disease that affects 1.5 million Americans.

In doing so they also believe they’ve found a cure, or at least a more sophisticated treatment, and are currently working on developing a pharmacologic method of delivering the potential cure-like molecule.

Lupus erythematosus, to use its full name, involves the body’s immune system attacking its own native cells, causing a variety of skin complications, while also potentially life-threatening damage to the heart, kidney, and brain. The cause of lupus isn’t well understood, and the scientists at Northwestern criticized existing treatments as “blunt instruments.”

The researchers first studied lupus patients and found that those with the disease had higher levels of an infection-fighting protein called interferon and not enough aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), which regulates how the body responds to infection.

“Up until this point, all therapy for lupus is a blunt instrument. It’s broad immunosuppression,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Jaehyuk Choi, associate professor of dermatology at Northwestern University. “By identifying a cause for this disease, we have found a potential cure that will not have the side effects of current therapies.”

His coauthor Dr. Deepak Rao, a rheumatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, explains the cure acts as an adjustment.

“We’ve identified a fundamental imbalance in the immune responses that patients with lupus make, and we’ve defined specific mediators that can correct this imbalance to dampen the pathologic autoimmune response,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Deepak Rao.

This could be a very big deal

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Severe Shaking in Parkinson's Patient Calms Down in Just 6 Days With New Drug - Watch the Transformation

A 52-year-old Parkinson’s sufferer is celebrating a ‘life-changing’ transformation after receiving a new drug treatment—and a video shows the incredible difference it made in just one week.

Damian Gath, who previously worked out at a gym four times a week, was diagnosed ten years ago with an incurable brain condition that causes involuntary shaking.

He was head of operations at a communications firm when the symptoms began.

“I lost the use of my fingers in my arm,” said the English father-of-four. “I couldn’t hold a pen and I was dropping cups of tea and bottles, so I went to the hospital in my lunch hour from work.”

Damian, who lives in Derbyshire, was told to see a neurologist who then broke the shocking news to him that he had Parkinson’s—a disease he previously knew nothing about.

“His exact words were, ‘It’s an irreversible, incurable degenerative brain disease.’ I was a bit shocked at the time.”

Damian said he had tried ‘every oral medication on the market’ as he desperately sought to counteract the effects of the degenerative condition. But each one produced a range of side effects that made his day-to-day life a misery.

“I had severe side effects from them all—hallucinations, paranoia, depression, anxiety. It was a really tough time.”

Then, in June, following the drug’s approval for use by England’s National Health System (NHS) he became one of the first patients in the country to receive Produodopa, a treatment administered under the skin using a miniature pump.

The portable pump provides a far more gradual release of medication, resulting in greater symptom management. Damian called the treatment revolutionary.

There's an 80 second video showing the truly remarkable transformation in his symptom in a weeks time.

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Didn't see this one coming

Titanium Maglev Heart Implanted Successfully in a Patient for First Time May Help Others Waiting for a Transplant

In a highly-anticipated world-first, the Texas Heart Institute has successfully implanted an artificial titanium heart that uses the same technology as bullet trains to pump blood mechanically throughout the body.

Called the Total Artificial Heart (TAH), the feat is seen as a major step in keeping people alive for longer and longer periods while they wait for heart transplants.

Texas Heart partnered with the medical tech company BiVACOR to create the TAH. It’s a titanium-constructed biventricular rotary blood pump with a single moving part that utilizes a magnetically levitated rotor that pumps the blood and replaces both ventricles of a failing heart.

The benefit of using magnetic levitation is that none of the moving parts ever scrape or slide against each other, reducing friction, and dramatically increasing the longevity of the device. But what’s really cool is the TAH can pump blood at a rate of 12 liters per minute, enough to allow an adult male to engage in exercise.

The first-in-human clinical study, overseen closely by the FDA, aims to evaluate the safety and performance of the BiVACOR TAH as a bridge-to-transplant solution for patients with severe bi or univentricular heart failure. Following this first implantation completed at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in the Texas Medical Center, four additional patients are to be enrolled in the study.

“The Texas Heart Institute is enthused about the groundbreaking first implantation of BiVACOR’s TAH. With heart failure remaining a leading cause of mortality globally, the BiVACOR TAH offers a beacon of hope for countless patients awaiting a heart transplant,” said Dr. Joseph Rogers, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Texas Heart Institute and National Principal Investigator on the research.

There's a 2 minute video over the titanium heart at the bottom of the article.

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Nanofiber Molecules Help Repair Cartilage Damage in Joints by 'Regenerating Tissue'

A team at Northwestern University has come up with the term “dancing molecules” to describe an invention of synthetic nanofibers which they say have the potential to quicken the regeneration of cartilage damage beyond what our body is capable of.

The moniker was coined back in November 2021, when the same team introduced an injection of these molecules to repair tissues and reverse paralysis after severe spinal cord injuries in mice.

Now they’ve applied the same therapeutic strategy to damaged human cartilage cells. In a new study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the treatment activated the gene expression necessary to regenerate cartilage within just four hours.

And, after only three days, the human cells produced protein components needed for cartilage regeneration, something humans can’t do in adulthood.

The conceptual mechanisms of the dancing molecules work through cellular receptors located on the exterior of the cell membrane. These receptors are the gateways for thousands of compounds that run a myriad of processes in biology, but they exist in dense crowds constantly moving about on the cell membrane.

The dancing molecules quickly form synthetic nanofibers that move according to their chemical structure. They mimic the extracellular matrix of the surrounding tissue, and by ‘dancing’ these fibers can keep up with the movement of the cell receptors. By adding biological signaling receptors, the whole assemblage can functionally move and communicate with cells like natural biology.

“Cellular receptors constantly move around,” said Northwestern Professor of Materials Sciences Samuel Stupp, who led the study. “By making our molecules move, ‘dance’ or even leap temporarily out of these structures, known as supramolecular polymers, they are able to connect more effectively with receptors.”

The target of their work is the nearly 530 million people around the globe living with osteoarthritis, a degenerative disease in which tissues in joints break down over time, resulting in one of the most common forms of morbidity and disability.

“Current treatments aim to slow disease progression or postpone inevitable joint replacement,” Stupp said. “There are no regenerative options because humans do not have an inherent capacity to regenerate cartilage in adulthood.”

In the new study, Stupp and his team looked to the receptors for a specific protein critical for cartilage formation and maintenance. To target this receptor, the team developed a new circular peptide that mimics the bioactive signal of the protein, which is called transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGFb-1).

Northwestern U. Press then reported that the researchers incorporated this peptide into two different molecules that interact to form supramolecular polymers in water, each with the same ability to mimic TGFb-1.

The researchers designed one supramolecular polymer with a special structure that enabled its molecules to move more freely within the large assemblies. The other supramolecular polymer, however, restricted molecular movement.

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Seriously, the places we're going with tech and medicine amaze me.

Children with Rare Birth Defect Are Breathing Easier with Device Made at Georgia Tech

At Georgia Tech, an incredible piece of biotechnology has cured one lucky child in a groundbreaking new treatment for a rare birth defect of the windpipe.

Partnering with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the invention is a 3D-printed tracheal splint, which has allowed 4-year-old Justice Altidore to leap into preschool with all the gusty enthusiasm of a normal child.

About 1 in 2,100 children like Justice are born with tracheomalacia (TM), the most common inherited birth defect of the windpipe, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

TM occurs when cartilage in the trachea, or windpipe, is weak or floppy, causing the windpipe’s walls to collapse and restrict breathing. Treatments are by no means a sure thing, and much of a child’s early life with TM involves labored breathing and being put on a ventilator.

The Georgia Tech splints are made of bioabsorbable material, and hold the trachea in place like a medic would splint a bone. The cartilage eventually develops, and the splints are ultimately absorbed.

Children’s pediatric cardiologist Dr. Kevin Maher and Dr. Steven Goudy, a pediatric otolaryngologist, oversaw Altidore and three other children receive custom tracheal splints for an FDA-approved expanded access trial.

All four have seen substantial improvements in their respiratory capabilities, and the unprecedented results suggest a new era of care for the narrow field has arrived.

It’s not the first time that 3D printing has been used to help tracheal recovery.

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Chinese Doctor Removes Patient's Lung Tumor Using Robot from 3,000 Miles Away

Is the above image the future of medicine? In it, Dr. Luo Qingquan uses a sophisticated control center to guide a set of robotic surgery tools to remove a tumor from a patient’s lung 3,000 miles away.

Dr. Luo was seated in the Shanghai Chest Hospital on China’s Pacific Coast, while the patient was anesthetized on a bed inside a hospital in Kashgar, Xinjiang Autonomous Region.

The Chinese-made 5G Medbot allowed Luo to transmit his precision and decades of experience instantaneously across three time zones, ushering in an era of telesurgery that may save thousands in rural areas where lack of expert medical staff may have been a death sentence in previous years.

According to Shanghai Daily, the Shanghai Chest Hospital is the nation’s first medical facility carrying out robot-assisted surgery, and it is also the facility carrying out the largest quantity of such surgeries in China.

The global shortage of specialist surgeons is a major impediment to medical advancements in low and middle-income countries. With just over 1.1 million surgeons, but only half as many anesthesiologists, there really are shortages in high-income countries as well, but one review from the Lancet calculated that for every 100,000 people in low and middle-income countries, there are just 0.7 specialist surgeons, compared to 5.5 in high-income countries.

The potential of this is massive.

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KU Med Center - KU Cancer Center researchers announce study of high-dose intravenous vitamin C to treat muscle-invasive bladder cancer

Researchers at The University of Kansas Cancer Center have secured a $3.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study high-dose intravenous Vitamin C for treating muscle-invasive bladder cancer. This type of cancer, affecting 25% of bladder cancer patients, occurs when cancer cells spread to the muscle layer of the bladder wall.

Cisplatin-based chemotherapy before surgery is the standard treatment for most bladder cancer types. However, more than half of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer cannot receive this treatment due to underlying health issues. To address this treatment gap, researchers are launching a phase II clinical trial that explores an innovative combination therapy: high-dose intravenous Vitamin C alongside the chemotherapies, gemcitabine and carboplatin.

“Intravenous Vitamin C achieves significantly higher levels in the blood than oral intake,” Taylor explained. “Administering it intravenously allows us to reach supratherapeutic levels, where Vitamin C can be toxic to cancer cells.”

John Taylor, III, M.D., M.S., professor in the Department of Urologic Surgery and Cancer Biology and co-leader of the cancer center’s Drug Discovery, Delivery and Experimental Therapeutics research program, is leading the multi-site study.

Results from their previous phase I trial showed that this combination shrunk tumor size in up to one-third of patients before surgery. In addition, this therapy was well-tolerated, with few side effects, and patients maintained their quality of life throughout the treatment.

Bladder cancer is one of the costliest cancers to treat over a patient's lifetime. In 2020, the cost of treating bladder cancer in the United States was nearly $6 billion.

“Vitamin C is a comparatively low-cost and readily available therapy,” Taylor said. “For people who are ineligible for the standard chemotherapy regimen, this new approach has the potential to be practice changing.”

The study will also be conducted by researchers at The University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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New Electric Bandages Heal Wounds 30% Quicker Than Conventional Dressings

A water-powered electric bandage can heal serious wounds 30% quicker than conventional treatments, according to a new study.

The inexpensive bandages use an electric field to promote healing in chronic wounds, which are slow to heal, if they heal at all—like sores that occur in some diabetes patients.

Doctors say such wounds are “particularly problematic” because they often recur after treatment and significantly increase the risk of amputation and even death.

They explained that one of the key challenges associated with chronic wounds is that existing treatment options are extremely expensive, which can create additional problems for patients.

In animal tests published this week in the journal Science Advances, the international research team evaluated their water-powered, electronics-free dressings (WPEDs), which are disposable bandages with electrodes on one side and a small, biocompatible battery on the other.

“Our goal was to develop a far less expensive technology that accelerates healing in patients with chronic wounds,” said study co-author Dr. Amay Bandodkar, of North Carolina State University.

Pretty cool tech should it continue to impress as it moves forward with trials.

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FDA Approves Drug That Targets Brain Cancer Gene Mutation That Could Delay Need for Radiation and Chemotherapy

A new drug for a type of brain cancer, called IDH-mutant low-grade glioma, was approved this month by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration—a promising treatment that stemmed from a genetic discovery made at the Johns Hopkins Cancer Center 16 years ago.

The drug, called vorasidenib, is a targeted cancer therapy that works by inhibiting the activity of a mutated gene called IDH, slowing the growth of the cancer.

The gene was identified by Dr. Bert Vogelstein in 2008 when his team at Hopkins became the first to map the genetic blueprint for brain cancer. The blueprint was considered the most comprehensive genetic analysis for any tumor type, evaluating all known protein-encoding genes in brain cancer.

The researchers found that the IDH gene—which had never been suspected to be involved in any tumor type—was frequently mutated in one subset of brain cancers.

Normal treatments usually include surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible, followed by radiation and chemotherapy to attack remaining cancer cells. But, in some patients, the addition of the IDH inhibitor could delay the need for radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

“The possibility of delaying radiation therapy and chemotherapy with this drug could be beneficial to select patients with slow growing IDH-mutant gliomas,” says Matthias Holdhoff, M.D., Ph.D., co-director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center brain tumor program and a co-investigator on the 2023 clinical trial.

“I believe we are looking at a new standard of care option for these types of tumors.”

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Newly Discovered Protein Stops DNA Damage and Even Repairs it - Pointing to a Cancer Vaccine

Researchers from Western University have discovered a protein that has the never-before-seen ability to stop DNA damage in its tracks. The finding could provide the foundation for developing everything from vaccines against cancer, to crops that can withstand increasing drought.

The researchers in Ontario, Canada, found the protein—called DdrC (for DNA Damage Repair Protein C)—in a fairly common bacterium called Deinococcus radiodurans, which has the decidedly uncommon ability to survive conditions that damage DNA; it can withstand 5,000 to 10,000 times the radiation that would kill a regular human cell.

Lead researcher Robert Szabla says Deinococcus also excels in repairing DNA that has already been damaged.

“It’s as if you had a player in the NFL who plays every game without a helmet or pads,” says Szabla, a grad student in Western’s Department of Biochemistry.

“He’d end up with a concussion and multiple broken bones every single game, but then miraculously make a full recovery overnight in time for practice the next day.” He and his colleagues discovered that DdrC is a key player in this repair process.

Every cell has a DNA repair mechanism to fix damage. “With a human cell, if there are any more than two breaks in the entire billion base pair genome, it can’t fix itself and it dies,” he said in a news release.

“But in the case of DdrC, this unique protein helps the cell to repair hundreds of broken DNA fragments into a coherent genome.”

There's a near two minute video about this if interested.

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This one is big for a lot of people.

Baldness May Be Treated by Sugar That Naturally Occurs in the Human Body

Only 2 FDA-approved drugs exist for treating male pattern baldness, but a third may have just been found inside our own bodies.

A naturally occurring ribose sugar has already been used to successfully stimulate hair growth in mice, say scientists, and can be applied to a variety of carrier gels inexpensively.

Scientists in the UK and Pakistan say that the “promising” discovery offers hope in the search for a cure for male pattern baldness, known as androgenic alopecia, which affects up to half the men in the world, many as early as 30 years of age.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology by scientists from the University of Sheffield and COMSATS University Pakistan, identified 2-deoxy-D-ribose (2dDR), as a hair regrowth stimulant.

This sugar plays a “fundamental” role in several biological processes both in animals and humans.

The research team had been studying how the sugar can help to heal wounds by promoting the formation of new blood vessels over the past eight years, but during the research, they also noticed that hair around the healing wounds appeared to grow more quickly compared to those that hadn’t been treated.

To explore further, the researchers established a model of testosterone-driven hair loss in mice—similar to the cause of pattern baldness in men.

They found that applying a small dose of the naturally occurring sugar helped to form new blood vessels, which led to hair regrowth.

Findings from the study show that the sugar is as effective at regrowing hair as Minoxidil—an existing drug used to treat hair loss.

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Manuka Honey Reduces Breast Cancer Cell Growth by 84% in Human Cells and Mice

Honey has all manner of often-hidden medicine-like qualities, but more eyes will certainly be falling on Manuka honey after it was recently shown to reduce the proliferation of breast cancer cells.

It did so in a sophisticated manner that even resulted in the occasional triggering of natural cell death, or apoptosis, a mechanism that’s bypassed as a malignant cell becomes cancerous.

Manuka honey is made by bees that feed on the nectar of the manuka tree from New Zealand and coastal Australia. This member of the Myrtle family is a cousin to other plants that yield powerful medicinal products like clove, allspice, and eucalyptus.

In a study published in the journal Nutrients, investigators at the UC Los Angeles Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found that Manuka honey significantly reduced tumor growth in mice with ER-positive breast cancer cells by 84% without affecting normal breast cells or causing major side effects.

ER-positive breast cancer makes up around 60-70% of all breast cancer cases in a given year.

It’s thought that Manuka honey is unique compared to all other commercially produced kinds of honey because of its unique chemical composition. Manuka honey has been found to be antibacterial—and not just for the bacteria a parent worries about when their child scrapes their knee—but of the kinds that cause the infections typical in cystic fibrosis patients.

“The findings provide hope for [the] development of a natural, less toxic alternative to traditional chemotherapy,” said Dr. Diana Márquez-Garbán, associate professor of medicine at UCLA, and the study’s lead author.

“Although more research is necessary to fully understand the benefits of natural compounds in cancer therapy, this study establishes a strong foundation for further exploration in this area.”

In ER-positive breast cancer, tumor cells use estrogen to grow. To combat the tumors, breast cancer patients take estrogen blockers as a non-toxic way of trying to starve them. However, cancer tumors are sometimes able to develop resistance to such treatments, leaving chemotherapy as the only alternative.

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Cone Snail Poison is Deadly But May Now Lead to Better Diabetes and Hormone Drugs

Deadly poison from cone snails could be a newfound key to making better drugs to treat diabetes, according to a new study.

The toxin, from one of the most venomous creatures on the planet, may also lead to new medicines for additional conditions caused by hormone disorders, said the researchers.

They identified a component within the venom from the Conus geographus that mimics a human hormone called somatostatin—which regulates the levels of blood sugar and several other hormones in the human body.

The team, led by scientists from the University of Utah in the United States, said the somatostatin-like toxin helps the snail hunt its prey. In humans, somatostatin acts like a brake pedal for many processes in the body, preventing levels of blood sugar, several hormones, and many other important molecules from rising dangerously high.

The cone snail toxin, called consomatin, works similarly—but consomatin is more stable and specific than the human hormone, which makes it a “promising” blueprint for drug design, according to the results published in the journal Nature Communications.

By measuring how consomatin interacts with somatostatin’s targets in human cells in a dish, the researchers discovered that consomatin interacts with one of the same proteins that somatostatin does.

Importantly, though, while somatostatin directly interacts with several proteins, consomatin only interacts with one. Such a fine-tuned targeting means that the cone snail toxin affects hormone-determined blood sugar levels, but not the levels of several other molecules.

They concluded that the cone snail toxin was more precisely targeted than the most specific synthetic drugs designed to regulate hormone levels, such as drugs that regulate growth hormone.

Although the snail toxin may be dangerous to use as a therapeutic, the study of its structure could lead to the design of safe drugs for endocrine disorders.