This topic has been the subject of many controversial but fruitful debates among neurophysiologists, neurobiologists, psychiatrists, other medical experts, the layperson and video gamers of course. A recent review in Nature Reviews: Neuroscience published on-line for the issue of December of this year gathered the opinion of six experts in the field of video game addiction and its consequences on brain physiology and behavior. The review highlights the positive and negative consequences of video game playing and provides an in-depth perspective on the future of video gaming and how the positive effects of video games can be used to exploit video gaming for use in rehabilitation, educational settings and for enhancing certain cognitive skills while suppressing the negative effects of video gaming. For example, certain video games can improve memory such as those that involve trivia or using mnemonics (Where in the World is Carmen San Diego, Jeopardy, and the Oregon Trail)
The panel of six experts was asked four questions for which they needed to elaborate. Only those comments and opinions for which there is common ground will be shown in this article while the most relevant differences among the experts will also be highlighted.
C1. Does playing video games have beneficial effects on brain behavior?
There is a need to redefine the meaning of "video game". Just as cancer is a multitude of diseases categorized as such, there are hundreds of different types of video games of many genres. It is interesting to know that the media has categorized video games with a broad brush and there is usually a negative association when one thinks about video games, especially violent video games such as Grand Theft Auto. In terms on the beneficial effects of video game playing, there is some evidence that shows that "certain" type of video games, especially the ones that involve fast pace first-person shooters, improve peripheral vision, enhances attention, task switching, object tracking, decision making, eye-hand coordination, reaction time, enhancements in low-level vision, visual spatial capacity, among others. There is also some evidence of improvement in certain cognitive skills seen in video gamers compared to non-video gamers showing interesting enhanced basal cognitive effects. One particular expert noted that time spent playing is an important factor that should be involved in this equation. He specifically pointed out that brief periods of playing time is usually associated with a positive trend in enhanced cognitive and motor abilities for certain types of games while a negative association is seen when players spend more than four hours a day. In other words, time spent playing excessively will impair social and academic abilities in teenagers and young adults.
Another expert mentioned that many of the beneficial effects depends on the genre of the video game. Specifically, pro-social and role-playing video games that contain "chatting" or other social networking functions (ie., Tribes or Halo) that promote collaboration and multiple players tend to enhance social and leadership skills.
Does playing video games have negative effects on brain behavior?
This is a very controversial question that has not been clearly answered to date. Clearly, all the panel of experts agreed that excessive video game playing is co-morbid with other psychiatric disorders such as chronic depression, ADHD, autism-like behaviors, bipolar disorders, Internet addiction and anxiety spectrum disorders. Violent video games that involve the shooting and destruction of other human beings, animals and objects tend to produce anxiety behavior, and is associated with promoting confrontational and disruptive behaviors in affected individuals and increases “hostile attribution bias”. However, some experts cautioned to take the evidence with a grain of salt. They specifically commented that playing violent video games does not generate a "mass murderer" or directly promote violent and aggressive behavior but increases the likelihood and risk for developing such aggressive behavior. For instance, there have been reported incidents in which a thirteen year old killed his mother after repeatedly being told that he is “spending too much time playing video games”. Another incident involved a young adult father who killed his child who insisted for food while playing video games. Video games that tend to be more addictive are those that do not involve accomplishing a specific series of levels or goals but are simply role-playing tournament games.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Your brain on video games: updated review on positive and negative effects - Pittsburgh Medical Technology | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/medical-technology-in-pittsburgh/your-brains-on-video-games-updated-review-on-positive-and-negative-effects#ixzz1exAoLin4
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Research explains why children with autism have difficulty indentifying emotions
New research presented at the Society for Neuroscience this past Wednesday has provided a clear explanation of why children with bipolar disorder have difficulty identifying and identifying the correct emotions in facial expressions. In brief, children with autism, severe mood dysregulation or bipolar disorders have a hard time identifying facial expressions because the affected children spend less time looking at a someone's eye.
It has been known for many decades that children with bipolar disorders or severe mood dysregulation have deficits in labeling facial expressions. For instance, an affected child may recognize your face and facial expressions only with a particular set of clothing accessories such as a particular hat, scarf or other head gear. On the hand, that same affected child may not recognize you if you wear a different hat or scarf the following day.
This phenomenon has intrigued and puzzled psychiatrists for many years. However, the research presented at the Society for Neuroscience on Wednesday November 16 at Washington D.C., by Pilyoung Kim from the National Institute of Mental Health, claimed that children with bipolar disorder tended to spend more time looking at the nose and mouth regions of faces as opposed to the eyes compared to a healthy control group. Interestingly, severe mood dysregulation disorder children had the least accuracy in tagging the correct emotions to a set of photographs compared to normal children and bipolar children while bipolar children fared the worse.
The methodology behind these studies involved the use of a sophisticated eye tracker that was mounted as a headset onto the heads of children. Eye movements were measured with an EyeLink II head-mounted eye tracker. Participants saw photographs of people showing four emotions (anger, sadness, happiness, and neutral) and were asked to label the emotion for each face.
"In combination with other studies , our findings indicate the potential value of treatment programs that teach children how to identify emotions by looking at others 'eyes', said Kim " If such training helps children to process the emotional information in the world more accurately, that may in turn increase their ability to regulate their emotional reactions to social situations".
It has been known for many decades that children with bipolar disorders or severe mood dysregulation have deficits in labeling facial expressions. For instance, an affected child may recognize your face and facial expressions only with a particular set of clothing accessories such as a particular hat, scarf or other head gear. On the hand, that same affected child may not recognize you if you wear a different hat or scarf the following day.
This phenomenon has intrigued and puzzled psychiatrists for many years. However, the research presented at the Society for Neuroscience on Wednesday November 16 at Washington D.C., by Pilyoung Kim from the National Institute of Mental Health, claimed that children with bipolar disorder tended to spend more time looking at the nose and mouth regions of faces as opposed to the eyes compared to a healthy control group. Interestingly, severe mood dysregulation disorder children had the least accuracy in tagging the correct emotions to a set of photographs compared to normal children and bipolar children while bipolar children fared the worse.
The methodology behind these studies involved the use of a sophisticated eye tracker that was mounted as a headset onto the heads of children. Eye movements were measured with an EyeLink II head-mounted eye tracker. Participants saw photographs of people showing four emotions (anger, sadness, happiness, and neutral) and were asked to label the emotion for each face.
"In combination with other studies , our findings indicate the potential value of treatment programs that teach children how to identify emotions by looking at others 'eyes', said Kim " If such training helps children to process the emotional information in the world more accurately, that may in turn increase their ability to regulate their emotional reactions to social situations".
Monday, October 24, 2011
Non-invasive imaging technique for detecting breast cancer
Blurb (please click the link on top to access the complete report):
Micrometastases derived from breast cancer is extremely hard to detect using conventional methods (X-ray or mammograms) and usually requires highly invasive biopsies to remove various tissue samples from the patient for further diagnosis and corroboration. However, scientists from Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute from Tampa, Florida have devised a new method for detecting advanced stage breast cancer.
The authors of the study showed that compared to normal breast tissue, breast cancer cells are known to produce high amounts of a protein termed carbonic anhydrase isozymes IX and XII, membrane bound enzymes involved in regulating the pH of blood and extracellular fluid. It is believed that the high levels of this enzyme can protect breast cancer cells from low oxygen levels and other toxicities compared to normal tissue.
The authors of the study, published in Clinical Cancer Research two days ago, came up with a very innovative way and non-invasive way of detecting breast cancer tissue. They produced an antibody specific for this two enzymes and conjugated the antibody to an infrared excitable dye. Indeed, the antibody conjugated to the dye is highly specific.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Non-invasive imaging technique for detecting advanced breast cancer - Pittsburgh Medical Technology | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/medical-technology-in-pittsburgh/non-invasive-imaging-technique-for-detecting-advanced-breast-cancer#ixzz1bidzglw0
Micrometastases derived from breast cancer is extremely hard to detect using conventional methods (X-ray or mammograms) and usually requires highly invasive biopsies to remove various tissue samples from the patient for further diagnosis and corroboration. However, scientists from Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute from Tampa, Florida have devised a new method for detecting advanced stage breast cancer.
The authors of the study showed that compared to normal breast tissue, breast cancer cells are known to produce high amounts of a protein termed carbonic anhydrase isozymes IX and XII, membrane bound enzymes involved in regulating the pH of blood and extracellular fluid. It is believed that the high levels of this enzyme can protect breast cancer cells from low oxygen levels and other toxicities compared to normal tissue.
The authors of the study, published in Clinical Cancer Research two days ago, came up with a very innovative way and non-invasive way of detecting breast cancer tissue. They produced an antibody specific for this two enzymes and conjugated the antibody to an infrared excitable dye. Indeed, the antibody conjugated to the dye is highly specific.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Non-invasive imaging technique for detecting advanced breast cancer - Pittsburgh Medical Technology | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/medical-technology-in-pittsburgh/non-invasive-imaging-technique-for-detecting-advanced-breast-cancer#ixzz1bidzglw0
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Can viruses be designed from scratch using simple software applications to fight infectious diseases?
This is an idea that just spawned on me yesterday. The lines between the non-living and living have been blurred and there are some many ways that computers will assist us in many aspects of our lives. Right now, there are chip implants that have been testes in rats to improve memory and cereballar function and have been succesfully tested in Israel. It may be soon before new brain inferfaces will come out the market to help people with speaking disabilities or quadraplegic individuals.
Imaging having the ability to design new viruses to seek and destroy infectious bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics or design multiple viruses that can be used for gene therapy?
There are many viruses called phages that have the ability to infect and destroy bacteria including infectious bacteria (Staphylococcus and Streptococcus). The genomes of bacteriophages are relatively small compared to bacteria. Hence, designing viruses from scratch is not a far-fetched idea and the commercial software to create new synthetic viruses from scratch using synthetic genomics and modular gene design applications may all be possible with the click of an iPad or notebook within a few years.
Currently, scientists and clinicians can design and order small pieces of DNA called oligonucleotides or primers (20 to 30 base pairs ) that can be used to amplify DNA through PCR. These small and large biotech companies take orders over the Internet and synthesize DNA of up to 100- 150 bases (DNA has four bases) within two days.
DNA is the information that encodes for life and can be designed and stored as analog data in computers. On the other hand, what about synthesizing complete artificial genomes of viruses and bacteria? Is that even possible?
Nowadays, a few companies in the world such as Blue Heron can be contracted to design the genomes of not just new viruses, but bacteria and even mitochondrial genomes. Dr. Craig Venter and his team from Synthetic Genomics have generated and synthesized the genomes of different bacteria (Mycobacterium) from scratch and this process involves putting together many pieces of 1000 base pairs at a time to produce an artificial bacterial genome that was successfully transplanted onto another bacteria. Moreover, Dr Venter is on the verge of sequencing the genomes of thousands of marine algae and bacteria from across different parts of the world. When all this DNA information from all these microorganisms becomes available with the next two years, this information will give the necessary insight to the scientific community to fully understand genes and other pieces that were once unknown. For instance, many new antibiotics or even classes of anti-fungals may be discovered during Dr. Venter's acquatic quest around the world that can be used to destroy multi-drug resistant bacteria such as multi-drug resistant tuberculosis or MRSA.
Dr. Venter's accomplishment proves that the boundaries of biotechnology can be pushed significantly to the extent that viruses and bacteria can be synthesized de novo using a simple computers, software and robotic paltforms that are used to design and assemble viruses from scratch. Cloning pieces of DNA is not required to do this as synthesizing new DNA will be much faster than cutting and pasting different DNA coding regions as conventionally done in the research lab.
There are many commercially and freely available software such as Vector NTI that can analyze , organize, label DNA regions from thousands of base pairs belonging to a variety of organisms including that of viruses, mice, rat, worms, and humans. Moreover, all these genomes are available for free and can be downloaded from NCBI.
Moreover, bioinformatics software can be used to find genes of interests, non-coding regions or promoters which can give any researcher the necessary tools to design new genomes from scratch. However simplistic this may sound, synthesizing DNA using a DNA sequence that contains millions of base pair that was originally designed using computer software is very significant in that the fields of computer science and biology have given rise to cyber-genomics.
A brave new DNA world
The genomes of many bacteriophages are known and many of these bacteriophages have the ability to infect bacteria such as lambda X174 which infects E. coli. Viruses/bacteriphages can be found in the millions in the ocean. The problem is being able to isolate these bacteriophages for mass production is tedious and time consuming. For instance, right now there is a bacteriophage that infects Listeria monocytogenes is currently available for treating and protecting cheeses. However, the process of generating bacteriphages from scratch is possible using a synthetic genomics approach and the cost to do that will be feasible within a few years. Moreover, there is only a few companies that have proprietary software to do that.
Hence, it is possible that commercially available software to design new viruses from scratch through modular genetics may be soon available and can may be used by common computer processors and even iPads which lend the possibility of creating this type of software for genetic engineers, clinicians, scientists and even public health officials. Once a virus is designed that specifically attacks only one type of infectious bacterial strain, then the DNA code can be securely uploaded over the Internet to companies dedicated to synthesizing DNA and ship the viral genome back to client. The new synthetic viral DNA can be used to produce mass quantities of bacteria-chopping viruses in the lab by infecting human epithelial cells and concentrate the virus in extremely small volumes.
What about producing new antibiotics?
Moreover, these new viruses can be used to not only produce more viruses that infect infectious bacteria but also produce new classes of antibiotics if such type of antibiotics in the ocean. Phages may have the ability to destroy biofilms that are hard to remove by mechanical debridement and reach the center of the thick biofilm.
Imaging having the ability to design new viruses to seek and destroy infectious bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics or design multiple viruses that can be used for gene therapy?
There are many viruses called phages that have the ability to infect and destroy bacteria including infectious bacteria (Staphylococcus and Streptococcus). The genomes of bacteriophages are relatively small compared to bacteria. Hence, designing viruses from scratch is not a far-fetched idea and the commercial software to create new synthetic viruses from scratch using synthetic genomics and modular gene design applications may all be possible with the click of an iPad or notebook within a few years.
Currently, scientists and clinicians can design and order small pieces of DNA called oligonucleotides or primers (20 to 30 base pairs ) that can be used to amplify DNA through PCR. These small and large biotech companies take orders over the Internet and synthesize DNA of up to 100- 150 bases (DNA has four bases) within two days.
DNA is the information that encodes for life and can be designed and stored as analog data in computers. On the other hand, what about synthesizing complete artificial genomes of viruses and bacteria? Is that even possible?
Nowadays, a few companies in the world such as Blue Heron can be contracted to design the genomes of not just new viruses, but bacteria and even mitochondrial genomes. Dr. Craig Venter and his team from Synthetic Genomics have generated and synthesized the genomes of different bacteria (Mycobacterium) from scratch and this process involves putting together many pieces of 1000 base pairs at a time to produce an artificial bacterial genome that was successfully transplanted onto another bacteria. Moreover, Dr Venter is on the verge of sequencing the genomes of thousands of marine algae and bacteria from across different parts of the world. When all this DNA information from all these microorganisms becomes available with the next two years, this information will give the necessary insight to the scientific community to fully understand genes and other pieces that were once unknown. For instance, many new antibiotics or even classes of anti-fungals may be discovered during Dr. Venter's acquatic quest around the world that can be used to destroy multi-drug resistant bacteria such as multi-drug resistant tuberculosis or MRSA.
Dr. Venter's accomplishment proves that the boundaries of biotechnology can be pushed significantly to the extent that viruses and bacteria can be synthesized de novo using a simple computers, software and robotic paltforms that are used to design and assemble viruses from scratch. Cloning pieces of DNA is not required to do this as synthesizing new DNA will be much faster than cutting and pasting different DNA coding regions as conventionally done in the research lab.
There are many commercially and freely available software such as Vector NTI that can analyze , organize, label DNA regions from thousands of base pairs belonging to a variety of organisms including that of viruses, mice, rat, worms, and humans. Moreover, all these genomes are available for free and can be downloaded from NCBI.
Moreover, bioinformatics software can be used to find genes of interests, non-coding regions or promoters which can give any researcher the necessary tools to design new genomes from scratch. However simplistic this may sound, synthesizing DNA using a DNA sequence that contains millions of base pair that was originally designed using computer software is very significant in that the fields of computer science and biology have given rise to cyber-genomics.
A brave new DNA world
The genomes of many bacteriophages are known and many of these bacteriophages have the ability to infect bacteria such as lambda X174 which infects E. coli. Viruses/bacteriphages can be found in the millions in the ocean. The problem is being able to isolate these bacteriophages for mass production is tedious and time consuming. For instance, right now there is a bacteriophage that infects Listeria monocytogenes is currently available for treating and protecting cheeses. However, the process of generating bacteriphages from scratch is possible using a synthetic genomics approach and the cost to do that will be feasible within a few years. Moreover, there is only a few companies that have proprietary software to do that.
Hence, it is possible that commercially available software to design new viruses from scratch through modular genetics may be soon available and can may be used by common computer processors and even iPads which lend the possibility of creating this type of software for genetic engineers, clinicians, scientists and even public health officials. Once a virus is designed that specifically attacks only one type of infectious bacterial strain, then the DNA code can be securely uploaded over the Internet to companies dedicated to synthesizing DNA and ship the viral genome back to client. The new synthetic viral DNA can be used to produce mass quantities of bacteria-chopping viruses in the lab by infecting human epithelial cells and concentrate the virus in extremely small volumes.
What about producing new antibiotics?
Moreover, these new viruses can be used to not only produce more viruses that infect infectious bacteria but also produce new classes of antibiotics if such type of antibiotics in the ocean. Phages may have the ability to destroy biofilms that are hard to remove by mechanical debridement and reach the center of the thick biofilm.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Dr. Craig Venter received the Dickson Prize in Medicine today and offered insights on how synthesizing DNA can solve many world problems
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Zoldrenic acid increases survival rate among stage IV cancer women
iPad and iPhone applications for diabetes management
Simple blood test can predict Alzheimer's disease with high accuracy
Alzheimer's disease is a really devastating disease of the brain with no present cure or therapy to slow down the progression of the disease. Although there is no cure at the moment, the diagnostics of the disease have significantly improved and scientists. For example, the combination of fluorescent dyes (Pittsburgh B compound) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a key diagnostic tool for predicting the outcome of the disease about 10 years before a patient develops symptoms. Now the first time have discovered that measuring two fatty acids or lipids in the bloodstream is correlated with a higher chance of cognitive decline. This simple blood test is faster, and probably more reliable than an MRI. One of these lipids is ceramide and the higher the lipid is found in the blood the higher the probability of developing dementia. However, this type of diagnosis can help the patient by providing intensive therapy for those patients are highest risk but can also open the door for a lot of controversy as many small and large employers and even insurance companies may not be willing to hire people at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease or may drop their medical coverage all together years before developing the disease.
Read the complete article that was posted today on Medical News:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/235462.php
Read the complete article that was posted today on Medical News:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/235462.php
This is amazing! It will be soon before quadraplegics and other paralized people will be able to walk with the assistance of robotic legs. Cyberdyne in Japan seems to have developed a prototype of prosthetic legs that may come out the market soon for handicap people. It is called the HAL cyberwalker or robot walker.
Currently the US army has developed an exoskeleton similar to this but applied for the whole body so that soldiers can lift heavy load of supplies in a much faster and efficient way.
Please click on the link below to get the information of this article from Techradar posted today:
HAL Cyberwalker: http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/hal-robot-walker-shown-off-at-ceatec-2011-1031116?src=rss&attr=all
Anyone can become a neuroscientist and run cheap experiments in their own backyard!
Due to recent draconian cuts that were implemented by many states across the US, all state-funded universities and colleges will suffer draconian cuts from 10-15% of their total operating budget to upto 30% for landgrant universities. For instance, the University of Pittsburgh has been hit with a drastic decrease in state funding while the Community College of Allegheny County will see county and state funding reduced by at least two million dollars. While the current economic recession may have a negative impact on employment and finances of many families across the United States, other people are coming up with innovative ideas to start their own companies to produce products with practical uses. This is an interesting case of a small company called BackyardBrains, a spin-off company that started at the University of Michigan. Backyard brains was initially developed by a group of electrical, software, and bio-engineers who teamed up and came up with an interesting idea of helping to teach neuroscience to middle schools, highschools and colleges across the United States by building cheap and easy-to-use educational products that teach the basic principles of neuroanatomy.
The company has sold over more than 250 SpikerBox products this year and has already received an NIH educational grant ($450,000) to develop educational curricula that can be implemented in highshools and colleges across the US and to further refine their products. Moreover, the Society for Neuroscience may advocate for the implementation of cheap lab products/ reagents that can be used in highschools and colleges to help educate the public on neuroscience and brain-related diseases across the country. The main goal of the company was to develop a low budget product that enabled students to learn the basic principles of how neurons communicate, receive sensory input and send out electrochemical impulses (also called action potentials). After many long year of labor and brainstorming, Backyard Brains finally developed their first open-source product called SpikerBox. This neat, sleek and small device is a small box that contains a pair of electrodes that record electrophysiological activity, a whole bunch of silicon based resistors, output and inlet outlets, screws, electrical amplifier, structural support rods, switches and speakers batteries. The SpikerBox records the electrical activity from pieces of tissue and converts the electrical activity emanated by neurons (motor or sensory) into acoustic signals (noise) that can be then analyzed and interpreted as neuronal activity. This neat product is currently sold for $89.00 USD, comes with a manual and other spare parts. The electrical data (spikes) that is recorded from the SpikerBox can be downloaded into a laptop or hooked to your iPhone using an application that can be downloaded for free. The data can be analyzed to measure the number and amplitude of spikes per millisecond and make conclusions about the effects of temperature, chemical solutions, hormones, sensory input (moving bristles or hair on the cockroach leg) or electrical stimulation. Also, the company sells other accessories that attach to the Spikerbox such as laptop cables. Please feel free to see a Youtube video demonstration showing the features of SpikerBox located on the left hand side of the article. Although it may not be the best "animal model" compared to a frog or rat, the company encourages the use of coackroaches (Blaberus discoidalis) as an insect model to study neurophysiology as it relates to the human body. The cockroaches are grown and sold by the company as well. The advantages of using the cockroach is that they are cheaper, smaller, can be weaned, reproduce faster than rats and have the ability to re-grow the appendages that are dissected for each experiment performed. Indeed, standard electrophysiological equipment used by neurobiologists to patch pieces of tissue or even cells (patch clamping) can cost from $3,000 upto $10,000. So simply hook the two electrodes of the spiker box into a dissected and immobilized leg of a coackroach (do not worry, they can grow back), turn on the switch and you will soon hear the popping and crackling sounds of electrical activity! The company has a sample laboratory manual that all K12 educators or even high school professors can use as an initial guide to teach neurobiology to students. However, the lab manual is very coarse and bare and is available for editing and sketching by other experts in the field. As the company develops, it is certain that more and more colleges will implement neurophysiology as part of their educational curricula in order to educate the public on the principles of how neurons from the brain (or ganglia in the case of insects) receive sensory input, relay the information through peripheral nerves and cause muscles to twitch in order to produce locomotion. A second product being under development by BackyardBrains is Roboroach, a roach containing several electrical devices surgically implemented into the insect which allows the user study neurotechnology and locomotion in vivo.
What does this news have to do with medical technology? Well, pretty much everything. By studying how certain chemicals, pesticides, natural products, liquid medicines or toxins on neuronal activity and muscle movement , one can perform cheap toxicology and neurobiology experiments that have relevance to human physiology and health. So if you are the parent a high school or middle school kid, please encourage your school officials to support buying cheap scientific equipment like the Spikerbox in order to promote neuroscience research and elevate the quality of education.
To learn more about the products sold by this company, please click on the following links here Did you find this article interesting?
The company has sold over more than 250 SpikerBox products this year and has already received an NIH educational grant ($450,000) to develop educational curricula that can be implemented in highshools and colleges across the US and to further refine their products. Moreover, the Society for Neuroscience may advocate for the implementation of cheap lab products/ reagents that can be used in highschools and colleges to help educate the public on neuroscience and brain-related diseases across the country. The main goal of the company was to develop a low budget product that enabled students to learn the basic principles of how neurons communicate, receive sensory input and send out electrochemical impulses (also called action potentials). After many long year of labor and brainstorming, Backyard Brains finally developed their first open-source product called SpikerBox. This neat, sleek and small device is a small box that contains a pair of electrodes that record electrophysiological activity, a whole bunch of silicon based resistors, output and inlet outlets, screws, electrical amplifier, structural support rods, switches and speakers batteries. The SpikerBox records the electrical activity from pieces of tissue and converts the electrical activity emanated by neurons (motor or sensory) into acoustic signals (noise) that can be then analyzed and interpreted as neuronal activity. This neat product is currently sold for $89.00 USD, comes with a manual and other spare parts. The electrical data (spikes) that is recorded from the SpikerBox can be downloaded into a laptop or hooked to your iPhone using an application that can be downloaded for free. The data can be analyzed to measure the number and amplitude of spikes per millisecond and make conclusions about the effects of temperature, chemical solutions, hormones, sensory input (moving bristles or hair on the cockroach leg) or electrical stimulation. Also, the company sells other accessories that attach to the Spikerbox such as laptop cables. Please feel free to see a Youtube video demonstration showing the features of SpikerBox located on the left hand side of the article. Although it may not be the best "animal model" compared to a frog or rat, the company encourages the use of coackroaches (Blaberus discoidalis) as an insect model to study neurophysiology as it relates to the human body. The cockroaches are grown and sold by the company as well. The advantages of using the cockroach is that they are cheaper, smaller, can be weaned, reproduce faster than rats and have the ability to re-grow the appendages that are dissected for each experiment performed. Indeed, standard electrophysiological equipment used by neurobiologists to patch pieces of tissue or even cells (patch clamping) can cost from $3,000 upto $10,000. So simply hook the two electrodes of the spiker box into a dissected and immobilized leg of a coackroach (do not worry, they can grow back), turn on the switch and you will soon hear the popping and crackling sounds of electrical activity! The company has a sample laboratory manual that all K12 educators or even high school professors can use as an initial guide to teach neurobiology to students. However, the lab manual is very coarse and bare and is available for editing and sketching by other experts in the field. As the company develops, it is certain that more and more colleges will implement neurophysiology as part of their educational curricula in order to educate the public on the principles of how neurons from the brain (or ganglia in the case of insects) receive sensory input, relay the information through peripheral nerves and cause muscles to twitch in order to produce locomotion. A second product being under development by BackyardBrains is Roboroach, a roach containing several electrical devices surgically implemented into the insect which allows the user study neurotechnology and locomotion in vivo.
What does this news have to do with medical technology? Well, pretty much everything. By studying how certain chemicals, pesticides, natural products, liquid medicines or toxins on neuronal activity and muscle movement , one can perform cheap toxicology and neurobiology experiments that have relevance to human physiology and health. So if you are the parent a high school or middle school kid, please encourage your school officials to support buying cheap scientific equipment like the Spikerbox in order to promote neuroscience research and elevate the quality of education.
To learn more about the products sold by this company, please click on the following links here Did you find this article interesting?
Image obtained from: www.myblacktravel.com
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Lab-on-a-chip may soon be available for the iPhone and iPad
The idea of detecting infectious diseases or diagnosing respiratory diseases using your cell phone is not a far fetched idea. The technology to detect infectious diseases using a lab-on-a-chip in a fast, reliable, and in a cheap way already exists. A study published in the journal of Nature Medicine and other studies that came out on the journal of Lab Chip this month demonstrated how a simple $0.10 polystyrene (plastic) chip can be used to diagnose syphilis and AIDS in the fields of Africa. The technology produced by the authors of this study requires no moving parts, electricity or bulky external instrumentation and is extremely cheap.
In brief, each chip can accommodate upto seven blood samples that are loaded onto seven individual channels on the chip. The blood travels through multiple chambers (four detection zones) where the HIV and syphilis antigens (proteins) are bound and immobilized on the surface, mixes with reagents (secondary antibodies) and silver and gold particles mix in the end help to amplify the signal through the reduction of silver. The reduction of silver with gold will emit a signal that does not require amplification as seen with standard enzyme linked assays such as ELISAs. Hence, the authors of this study convincingly showed how the mChips achieve similar sensitivity (detect more true positive
s) and specificity values (less false positives) similar or better to commercial ELISA kits used to detect HIV and syphilis. Also, the whole assay requires less than thirty minutes compared to three hours with standard ELISAS. In the future, mChip can be tailored to diagnose for a myriad of other diseases using this ELISA-like technique. Other wordlwide relevant disease that can be diagnose with this technology include MRSA (Methycillin resistant Streptococcus aereous), influenza viruses, meningitis infections and streptococcal and the nasty rotavirus and noraviruses that cause diarrhea in 50% of children worldwide.
There is an exciting suggestion provided by the authors is that a compact reader that can interpret the signals already exists in cell phones. Photodetectors capture photo-signals emitted by the chip are send to LEDs which are relayed to an LCD display (cell phone screen).Only a small peripheral/ module that can attach to the compact readers of a cell phone will have to be designed to connect the polystyrene chip to the cell phone. An iPhone application will have to be developed to measure and interpret the optical density of the results. There are already iPhone applications that can read electrical recordings from neurons and that allows the user to measure beta radiation. iPhone peripherals that are bound to come out the market will help to diagnose the sugar levels for people with diabetes or read ECG signals. Finally, the great news of this study is that the authors provided a basic business plan and suggests different methods for mass producing this cheap technology that can be used in third world countries to easily diagnose STDs.
Also, this type of technology is called microfluidics and it is a very marketable and hot field that can produce millions of dollars in revenue for many small companies in the next five years. The technology of these chips will provide the customers to diagnose for a variety of different diseases from biological samples derived from blood, sputum, respiratory secretions and urine samples and the results of the diagnosis will not require a high level of knowledge for interpretation.
What is microfluidics and what are the advantages?
Lab-on-a-chips employ the principle of enzyme-linked immuno-absorbent assays (ELISA) systems currently employed by research and clinical labs. The principle is very simple. In lamest terms, an unknown amount of antigen is immobilized to a surface (usually polystyrene), and then an antibody is added over the surface for an hour and allowed to bind to the antigen. Unbound excess antibody is washed off with wash buffers several times after which a secondary antibody that is linked an enzyme is overlayed and the reaction is incubated for another hour. In the final step a substance is added that the enzyme can convert to a detectable and quantifiable signal. While a conventional ELISA assay takes about at least three hours to perform by a professional clinical laboratory technician, anyone will be able to uses these devices to perform bio-measurements faster, reliably, more economical and in a matter of approximately less than five minutes at home.
Microfluidics is an nano-engineering technique with the goal of producing tiny silicon or glass chips that have thousands tiny passageways and convoluted canals similar to a computer chip but on a bigger scale except that fluid and not electricity flow through the chip. Fluids are drawn and absorbed from different ports (input) and the fluids will travel through the small little canals without the need of electricity but by tension forces produced by fluids. There are many ways to design microfluidics chips and it all depends on the specific need, types of samples to be analyzed and the types of clinical questions that need to be answered.
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Thursday, September 29, 2011
Neuroprotective properties of green tea 101: implications to Alzheimer's disease
The use of alternative medicine for the treatment of several human chronic diseases has gained popularity over the past few decades. An ever increasing amount of scientific evidence has described the medical benefits of many Asian herbs. As reviewed in previous articles, ingesting curcumin, the main component of curry, or ingesting high amounts of phenethyl isothiocyanate , a compound found in cruciferous vegetables, confer anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-retroviral and neuroprotective properties. Moreover, green tea (Camellia sinensis), a herb whose consumption was initiated five thousand years ago in China, has important biological and pharmacological properties. In support of this notion, there is a plethora of scientific evidence showing beneficial pharmacological effects of this wonderful elixir. In a similar manner to curcumin, ingesting green tea confers anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, thermogenic (pro-metabolic) and neuroprotective properties. When combined with exercise, many consumers of green tea extracts are jumping on the band-wagon to reap the thermogenic effects of this herb as a weight-loss strategy.
The beneficial effects of green tea has been ascribed to the presence of three groups of compounds: phenolic acids, flavonoids, and non-flavonoid polyphenols. In addition to green tea, natural phenolic compounds are also found in berries, fruits and spices. Polyphenolic compounds are biochemically characterized by the presence of aromatic rings that possess anti-oxidant activity by scavenging free radicals, highly reactive molecules containing uncoupled electrons which cause oxidation of other important biological macromolecules with harmful consequences to cells. Moreover, catechins, a family of flavan-3-ols, have been shown to also scavenge free radicals, iron and other damaging transition metals in vitro. Since the deposition of ferric iron (Fe+3) in neurons has been shown to progressively accumulate in neurons of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with time, an accumulation of transition metals may contribute to neuronal degeneration by generating free radicals through Fenton's reactions. Phenolic compounds found in green tea possess both powerful anti-oxidant and free iron scavenging activities. Of all the catechins found in green tea (epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin (EGC), depicatechin-3-gallate, and epigallocatechin- 3-gallate (EGCG)), EGCG is the main active ingredient of green tea and its beneficial properties have been previously described (Mandel et al., 2006). EGCG has important neuroprotective properties. For instance, a few studies have shown that EGCG reverses pathology associated with age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a relentless, chronic and incurable neurodegenerative disease characterized by the progressive loss of neurons of the hippocampus and the cortex, leading to impairment of memory and a progressive cognitive decline. The pathological hallmarks of AD is characterized by the presence of insoluble (water repelling/resistant) protein aggregates localized in neurites (axons or dendrites) and in cell bodies of neurons termed neurofibrillary tangles, protein aggregates mainly composed of hyper-phosphorylated tau, and of senile plaques, protein aggregates mainly composed of beta-amyloid. In tissue culture experiments, the accumulation of beta-amyloid induces cell death of primary hippocampal neurons and neuronal cell lines (neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells). Amyloid precursor protein (APP), the precursor protein of beta-amyloid, can be cleaved by processing enzymes termed alpha, beta or gamma secretase to generate either soluble (mediated by alpha secretase) or the insoluble, harmful form of APP (mediated by beta and gamma secretase). Thus the insoluble form of beta-amyloid is believed to contribute to neurodegeneration in AD patients. Amazingly, EGCG has direct plaque-busting activity by binding to beta-amyloid and preventing its formation of insoluble toxic fibrils in vitro. Furthermore, very small amounts (micromolar) of EGCG is sufficient to protect neuronal cell lines from beta-amyloid mediated cell death. More importantly, a recent landmark paper highlighted the neuroprotective effects of green tea in vivo. The authors of this study showed that AD mice that ingest EGCG (50mg/Kg) decreases the burden of both beta-amyloid and tangles (tau) in the cortex, entorhinal cortex and in the hippocampus, the region in the brain involved in storing memory (Rezai-Zadeh et al., 2008). Amazingly, the amount of soluble beta-amyloid increased while the amount of insoluble form of beta-amyloid was decreased in brains of AD mice, suggesting that EGCG has direct anti-protein aggregating activity possibly by directly binding to protein aggregates. Moreover, ingesting high amounts of EGCG reversed the AD associated cognitive decline and memory loss in 14 month old AD mice which were pretreated with EGCG for two months (Rezai-Zadeh et al., 2008) The results of these behavioral tests strongly suggest that EGCG intake may be a promising AD therapy that may halt or at least partly reverse AD associated cognitive decline in individuals with a modest to severe disease progression.
What are the mechanisms by which EGCG confers neuroprotection in models of AD?
1) As stated above, there is some scientific evidence that shows that EGCG directly binds to protein aggregates and prevents monomeric beta-amyloid from aggregating and forming plaques. Not only does it prevents beta-amyloid from aggregating into toxic fibrils in vitro, but it also binds to alpha-synuclein, protein aggregates seen in brains of Parkinson's disease patients.
2) Ingesting EGCG may increase the expression levels and APP processing activity of alpha-secretase enzymes, enzymes that favor the formation of the soluble (good) form of beta-amyloid while reducing the formation of the bad, insoluble form of beta-amyloid. Although the evidence is correlative at best, the study performed by Rezhai-Zadeh et al.. showed that ingestion of EGCG in AD mice decreases the levels of beta-amyloid protein aggregates by possibly increasing the expression levels of adamalysin-10, an alpha-secretase candidate enzyme that cleaves full-length APP into its soluble, non-harmful form (Rezai-Zadeh K et al., 2008). Furthermore, the expression levels of TACE, another alpha secretase that cleaves APP into a soluble form, is also increased with EGCG treatment (Mandel et al., 2006).
3) EGCG, in addition to the other catechins and flavonoid compounds, possess anti-oxidant activity by scavenging free radicals. Since the increased generation of free radicals favors neurodegeneration in AD and in other neurodegenerative diseases such as PD and Huntington's disease, ingesting high amounts of green tea or EGCG may help to delay neurodegeneration in these diseases by scavenging free radicals.
4) EGCG treatment increases prosurvival signaling in neurons while opposing apoptotic signal transduction pathways. For instance, EGCG treatment in neurons has been shown to increase prosurvival mitogen- activated protein (MAP) kinase signaling while opposing the p38/MAPK and JNK pathways, cell signal transduction pathways associated with cell stress and apoptosis.
Overall, the research described in this article shows the beneficial and neuroprotective effects of green tea in mouse models of AD which paves the way for creating novel therapeutic alternatives for reversing AD pathology in patients. It is likely that clinical trials may be underway to test the beneficial effects of EGCG and other catechins in the treatment of AD. It is possible that EGCG may pass phase I clinical trials given that green tea consumption is safe and is widely popular. Like other polyphenolic compounds and catechins, EGCG is unstable in room temperature, in neutral pH and has to be mixed with metal chelators (to avoid contamination with other metals) and ascorbic acid to prevent its oxidation. Moreover, EGCG consumption achieves a low bioavailability upon ingestion. Thus a more stable form of this compound may have to be synthesized for therapeutic use. However, a strong advantage of using EGCG over other antioxidants is that this particular compound easily penetrates the blood brain barrier and can be purified in large amounts from green tea leaves. It is likely that ingesting curcumin, EGCG , caffeine and other anti-oxidants may form a very powerful combination therapy and may be part of a growing arsenal used to combat AD.
(This is a two part series of articles describing the neuroprotective effects of natural compounds on AD).
Bibliography
1. Mandel S, Amit T, Reznichenko L, Weinreb O, Youdim MB.. Links Green tea catechins as brain-permeable, natural iron chelators-antioxidants for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. (2006) Mol Nutr Food Res.;50(2):229-34
2. Rezai-Zadeh K, Arendash GW, Hou H, Fernandez F, Jensen M, Runfeldt M, Shytle RD, Tan J
Green tea epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) reduces beta-amyloid mediated cognitive impairment and modulates tau pathology in Alzheimer transgenic mice. (2008) Brain Res. 1214:177-87.
For more information click on the following links:
Effects of green tea on Alzheimer's disease mice.
Free scientific article showing the beneficial effects of green tea in modulating APP processing.
Review describing beneficial effects of green tea consumption with implications to AD and PD.
Article and abstract describing the metal scavenging properties of green tea flavonoid EGCG
Other articles from other Examiners describing neuroprotective effects of natural compounds::
More on beneficial effects of:
curcumin
The beneficial effects of green tea has been ascribed to the presence of three groups of compounds: phenolic acids, flavonoids, and non-flavonoid polyphenols. In addition to green tea, natural phenolic compounds are also found in berries, fruits and spices. Polyphenolic compounds are biochemically characterized by the presence of aromatic rings that possess anti-oxidant activity by scavenging free radicals, highly reactive molecules containing uncoupled electrons which cause oxidation of other important biological macromolecules with harmful consequences to cells. Moreover, catechins, a family of flavan-3-ols, have been shown to also scavenge free radicals, iron and other damaging transition metals in vitro. Since the deposition of ferric iron (Fe+3) in neurons has been shown to progressively accumulate in neurons of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with time, an accumulation of transition metals may contribute to neuronal degeneration by generating free radicals through Fenton's reactions. Phenolic compounds found in green tea possess both powerful anti-oxidant and free iron scavenging activities. Of all the catechins found in green tea (epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin (EGC), depicatechin-3-gallate, and epigallocatechin- 3-gallate (EGCG)), EGCG is the main active ingredient of green tea and its beneficial properties have been previously described (Mandel et al., 2006). EGCG has important neuroprotective properties. For instance, a few studies have shown that EGCG reverses pathology associated with age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a relentless, chronic and incurable neurodegenerative disease characterized by the progressive loss of neurons of the hippocampus and the cortex, leading to impairment of memory and a progressive cognitive decline. The pathological hallmarks of AD is characterized by the presence of insoluble (water repelling/resistant) protein aggregates localized in neurites (axons or dendrites) and in cell bodies of neurons termed neurofibrillary tangles, protein aggregates mainly composed of hyper-phosphorylated tau, and of senile plaques, protein aggregates mainly composed of beta-amyloid. In tissue culture experiments, the accumulation of beta-amyloid induces cell death of primary hippocampal neurons and neuronal cell lines (neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells). Amyloid precursor protein (APP), the precursor protein of beta-amyloid, can be cleaved by processing enzymes termed alpha, beta or gamma secretase to generate either soluble (mediated by alpha secretase) or the insoluble, harmful form of APP (mediated by beta and gamma secretase). Thus the insoluble form of beta-amyloid is believed to contribute to neurodegeneration in AD patients. Amazingly, EGCG has direct plaque-busting activity by binding to beta-amyloid and preventing its formation of insoluble toxic fibrils in vitro. Furthermore, very small amounts (micromolar) of EGCG is sufficient to protect neuronal cell lines from beta-amyloid mediated cell death. More importantly, a recent landmark paper highlighted the neuroprotective effects of green tea in vivo. The authors of this study showed that AD mice that ingest EGCG (50mg/Kg) decreases the burden of both beta-amyloid and tangles (tau) in the cortex, entorhinal cortex and in the hippocampus, the region in the brain involved in storing memory (Rezai-Zadeh et al., 2008). Amazingly, the amount of soluble beta-amyloid increased while the amount of insoluble form of beta-amyloid was decreased in brains of AD mice, suggesting that EGCG has direct anti-protein aggregating activity possibly by directly binding to protein aggregates. Moreover, ingesting high amounts of EGCG reversed the AD associated cognitive decline and memory loss in 14 month old AD mice which were pretreated with EGCG for two months (Rezai-Zadeh et al., 2008) The results of these behavioral tests strongly suggest that EGCG intake may be a promising AD therapy that may halt or at least partly reverse AD associated cognitive decline in individuals with a modest to severe disease progression.
What are the mechanisms by which EGCG confers neuroprotection in models of AD?
1) As stated above, there is some scientific evidence that shows that EGCG directly binds to protein aggregates and prevents monomeric beta-amyloid from aggregating and forming plaques. Not only does it prevents beta-amyloid from aggregating into toxic fibrils in vitro, but it also binds to alpha-synuclein, protein aggregates seen in brains of Parkinson's disease patients.
2) Ingesting EGCG may increase the expression levels and APP processing activity of alpha-secretase enzymes, enzymes that favor the formation of the soluble (good) form of beta-amyloid while reducing the formation of the bad, insoluble form of beta-amyloid. Although the evidence is correlative at best, the study performed by Rezhai-Zadeh et al.. showed that ingestion of EGCG in AD mice decreases the levels of beta-amyloid protein aggregates by possibly increasing the expression levels of adamalysin-10, an alpha-secretase candidate enzyme that cleaves full-length APP into its soluble, non-harmful form (Rezai-Zadeh K et al., 2008). Furthermore, the expression levels of TACE, another alpha secretase that cleaves APP into a soluble form, is also increased with EGCG treatment (Mandel et al., 2006).
3) EGCG, in addition to the other catechins and flavonoid compounds, possess anti-oxidant activity by scavenging free radicals. Since the increased generation of free radicals favors neurodegeneration in AD and in other neurodegenerative diseases such as PD and Huntington's disease, ingesting high amounts of green tea or EGCG may help to delay neurodegeneration in these diseases by scavenging free radicals.
4) EGCG treatment increases prosurvival signaling in neurons while opposing apoptotic signal transduction pathways. For instance, EGCG treatment in neurons has been shown to increase prosurvival mitogen- activated protein (MAP) kinase signaling while opposing the p38/MAPK and JNK pathways, cell signal transduction pathways associated with cell stress and apoptosis.
Overall, the research described in this article shows the beneficial and neuroprotective effects of green tea in mouse models of AD which paves the way for creating novel therapeutic alternatives for reversing AD pathology in patients. It is likely that clinical trials may be underway to test the beneficial effects of EGCG and other catechins in the treatment of AD. It is possible that EGCG may pass phase I clinical trials given that green tea consumption is safe and is widely popular. Like other polyphenolic compounds and catechins, EGCG is unstable in room temperature, in neutral pH and has to be mixed with metal chelators (to avoid contamination with other metals) and ascorbic acid to prevent its oxidation. Moreover, EGCG consumption achieves a low bioavailability upon ingestion. Thus a more stable form of this compound may have to be synthesized for therapeutic use. However, a strong advantage of using EGCG over other antioxidants is that this particular compound easily penetrates the blood brain barrier and can be purified in large amounts from green tea leaves. It is likely that ingesting curcumin, EGCG , caffeine and other anti-oxidants may form a very powerful combination therapy and may be part of a growing arsenal used to combat AD.
(This is a two part series of articles describing the neuroprotective effects of natural compounds on AD).
Bibliography
1. Mandel S, Amit T, Reznichenko L, Weinreb O, Youdim MB.. Links Green tea catechins as brain-permeable, natural iron chelators-antioxidants for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. (2006) Mol Nutr Food Res.;50(2):229-34
2. Rezai-Zadeh K, Arendash GW, Hou H, Fernandez F, Jensen M, Runfeldt M, Shytle RD, Tan J
Green tea epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) reduces beta-amyloid mediated cognitive impairment and modulates tau pathology in Alzheimer transgenic mice. (2008) Brain Res. 1214:177-87.
For more information click on the following links:
Effects of green tea on Alzheimer's disease mice.
Free scientific article showing the beneficial effects of green tea in modulating APP processing.
Review describing beneficial effects of green tea consumption with implications to AD and PD.
Article and abstract describing the metal scavenging properties of green tea flavonoid EGCG
Other articles from other Examiners describing neuroprotective effects of natural compounds::
More on beneficial effects of:
curcumin
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Of flies and worms: is the science behind the benefits of resveratrol in peril? - Pittsburgh Medical Technology | Examiner.com
A research study published a week ago in Nature will
shake the credibility of the research that supports the notion that sirtuin-2
is an anti-aging gene and also challenge the view that resveratrol extends the
lifespan. Today's study published in Nature was spearheaded by Dr. David Gems
from the Institute of Heatly Ageing and Department of Genetics, Evolution and
Environment, University College London. Contrary to popular belief, his group
proved that sirtuin-2 gene does not expand
the lifespan in both worms and flies. This is a very bold claim that goes against a huge wave of scientific
research that consistently showed that modulating the levels of sirtuin-2 can
reverse the aging process in different animal models.
In 2003, a study also published in Nature showed
that increasing the number of copies (1- 3) of sirtuin-2 robustly and
significantly increased the lifespan of worms. The story caught the attention
of the news media and it revolutionized the field of aging research. Hence,
many other research groups started looking at different natural compounds that
regulated the activity of sirtuin-2 and suddenly reseveratrol, a component of
red wind, was discovered to increase sirtuin activity and extend lifespan.
Resveratrol was regarded as the new "fountain of youth" ever since
and many natural supplement companies and investors capitalized to spend
millions to develop and sell a product that is currently available at the
market.
However, Dr. Gem's group claimed the initial
observation that sirtuin-2 extends the lifespan in C. elegans (worm model) was flawed since the worm
containing the extra copies of sirtuin-2 was compared to a parental wild-type
worm that does not have the same genetic background. In other words, the worms
containing the sirtuin 2 gene were not backcrossed five generations in order to
obtain wild-type worms of the same genetic background. Hence, the right
comparisons were never made. The authors of the study also showed that flies
that overexpressed sirtuin-2, used in a previously published study, also lived
longer compared to the parental wild-type fly strain but did not live longer
compared to a fly strain of the same genetic background. These results were
independently and blindly repeated by a different research group.
So what caused the worms to live longer in the
first study? Interestingly, Dr. Gem's group found that another gene, called
"neuronal dye filling defect", but not Sirt-2 was actually the gene
responsible for extending lifespan in worms in the 2003 Nature study (go
figure). Adding more insult to injury, Dr. Gem's group showed biochemically
that resveratrol does not activate sirtuin-2. Interestingly, Dr. Gem's group
did not refute the observation that simply increasing the number of sirtuin 2
genes to three copies in worms did efficiently extended the lifespan of worms
just expressing one copy of the gene. This observation seems to hold water at
least in my view.
Is the science behind
sirtuin-2 in peril?
Yes and no. Aging is a very complicated
biological process that cannot be explained by a single gene in either worms or
flies, let alone in humans. Although today's Nature study damages the view that
sirtuin-2 alone can extend lifespan, many other studies in mice and worms have
shown that sirtuin-2 can extend the lifespan when interacting with other genes
(Daf) and other studies have shown that sirtuin can efficiently regulate
insulin growth factor metabolism. Sirtuin-2 may not be a drug target. Moreover,
many other studies have shown that resveratrol can be a neuroprotective aging
in models of Alzheimer's disease and has been extremely well characterized as
an antioxidant. In other words, people will still buy resveratrol based on this
other research showing the medical benefits of resveratrol.
Take home message
It is interesting to know that the paper that
refutes the work of others which was originally published in Nature gets to be
published in the same journal which it is in itself a stunning revelation. So
what happened here? It is on the scientist's responsibility to design good
hypothesis driven experiments which can lead to publishing false results.
However, the reviewers in this case bear the most responsibility for not
demanding the appropriate experimental controls from the authors. Ironically,
this new study may have revealed another anti-aging gene to pursue: the
"dye filling defect"
The controversy will sure go on for many more
years...
Although this Examiner article thoroughly
reviewed many C. elegans and Drosophila anti-aging studies and makes a
scientific argument for both sides of the debate, you can read a sample article
published in the
media today that somewhat exaggerates the impact of this Nature
study.
References:
1.Burnett et al., 2011 Absence of the effects of
increasing the expression of Sirt-2 on lifespan of C. elegans and Drosophila.
Nature.
2. Tissenbaum, H. A. & Guarente, L.
Increased dosage of a sir-2 gene extends lifespan in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Nature 410, 227–230 (2001).
3. Viswanathan, M., Kim, S. K., Berdichevsky, A.
& Guarente, L. A role for SIR-2.1 regulation ofERstress response genes in
determining C. elegans life span.Dev. Cell 9, 605–615 (2005
Continue reading on Examiner.com Of flies and worms: is the science behind the benefits of resveratrol in peril? - Pittsburgh Medical Technology | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/medical-technology-in-pittsburgh/of-flies-and-worms-is-the-science-behind-resveratrol-peril#ixzz1ZJICRSD4
Pain management applications for the iPhone and Android - Pittsburgh Medical Technology | Examiner.com
Although there is a great emphasis in disease prevention and treatment, very little emphasis has been given to pain management and control in the hospital or outside the hospital. Currently, there are over 5820 medical related applications available for free or a small fee for the iPhone and Android phones. Approximately about 111 smartphone applications help to record and manage pain.
What are applications?
Applications are downloadable, highly visual and easy to use programs coded in different languages based on the smartphone's running operating system (OS, UNIX or Windows based). Most applications these days connect to the web and collect information live (GPS, read barcodes, etc..) and are usually available free of charge or for a very small fee (<$15.00 USD).
It is worrisome that there is currently no FDA approval or expert oversight required for the generation and selling of medical related smartphone applications. In addition, only a small fraction of those applications are created by a medical doctor, nurse or healthcare professional which underscores the need to involve the healthcare industry in creating more and robust valuable medical related applications to improve the quality of life.
A study published recently in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare carried out a thorough and robust study analyzing the validity, usefulness, and practicality of all pain management applications across all smartphone platforms. Not surprisingly, the authors of the study found that the majority of pain management applications were available for the iPhone (79%), the Android (16%) or Blackberry (5%) while no applications have been created for the Nokia/Symbian or Windows Mobile.
The applications focused on a range of pain categories (acute, chronic, sharp, localized, diffused, low, moderate, high, neuropathic, phantom pain, etc...) and specific health conditions with some overlap and the authors found that approximately 79% of applications were classified as primarily designed to be pain-relevant.
Types of applications
Application sizes ranged from a few kilobytes to a hundreds of megabytes and cost ranged from free to about $10.00 USD. About 24% of all applications have some type of journal component in order to record the localization, type and intensity of pain on a daily basis and how the pain affected daily chores and the quality of life. A few of the applications also emphasized the emotional aspect of pain which usually contributes significantly to pain intensity. In addition to using a pain scale (1 through 10 for most intense), these applications provide emoticons that can be used to describe the emotional component of pain. Over half of the applications included medical and technical related information about pain (symptoms, underlying causes, treatment) and includes a variety of pain reducing or quelling techniques such as massage therapy, and topical treatments. Information about acupuncture and headache prevention were included in a few applications. Only 17% of all applications contain hypnosis and relaxation related techniques as additional tools to help alleviate and quell different types of pain.
These are the most popular pain related applications:
1. Habit changer- It costs $2.00 and maybe a quick and simple e-book for pain management. Habit Changer is a 42 Day Challenge system that helps you kick old habits and experience a new way of living by accessing and heeding a full range of medical related advice. There are no videos and is mostly a text-based application.
2.Pocket Therapy- Costs $4.00. Own a pain management medical encyclopedia with all sorts of factoids! The Pocket Therapy app provides a list of painful injuries. Information on cause, location and symptoms associated with each injury is provided, along with exercises to improve range of motion and strength.
3. Chronic Pain Tracker- The best application with great reviews so far! It is free for the raw/bare version of the application and other modules can be added for a fee. Statistics is the key for making fundamental medical related decisions and the application allows the user to usually highlight the area of the body that is affected by pain on an hourly to daily basis. The application will graph intensity and duration of pain and generate all sorts of quantifiable data that can be analyzed by healthcare professional. It also contains a medication diary that keeps track of the doses and types of medication taken by the patient on a daily basis.
4. My Pain Diary- For a very small price, you can track and record the pain intensity, location, type, trigger, remedy taken and free-text notes. it is a very simple application. Pain intensity is rated on a scale from 0–10 and the data can be relayed to a healthcare professional for further analysis.
5. iPosture- This application tracks the posture and stance of each patient using the iPosture tracking sensor (this device is not free for $70.00 USD). The more the patient crouches or arches the body is related to increased propensity for developing abdominal or back pain. The sensor will alert you through your application of maintaining a correct posture and monitors your balance on a daily basis.
What are applications?
Applications are downloadable, highly visual and easy to use programs coded in different languages based on the smartphone's running operating system (OS, UNIX or Windows based). Most applications these days connect to the web and collect information live (GPS, read barcodes, etc..) and are usually available free of charge or for a very small fee (<$15.00 USD).
It is worrisome that there is currently no FDA approval or expert oversight required for the generation and selling of medical related smartphone applications. In addition, only a small fraction of those applications are created by a medical doctor, nurse or healthcare professional which underscores the need to involve the healthcare industry in creating more and robust valuable medical related applications to improve the quality of life.
A study published recently in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare carried out a thorough and robust study analyzing the validity, usefulness, and practicality of all pain management applications across all smartphone platforms. Not surprisingly, the authors of the study found that the majority of pain management applications were available for the iPhone (79%), the Android (16%) or Blackberry (5%) while no applications have been created for the Nokia/Symbian or Windows Mobile.
The applications focused on a range of pain categories (acute, chronic, sharp, localized, diffused, low, moderate, high, neuropathic, phantom pain, etc...) and specific health conditions with some overlap and the authors found that approximately 79% of applications were classified as primarily designed to be pain-relevant.
Types of applications
Application sizes ranged from a few kilobytes to a hundreds of megabytes and cost ranged from free to about $10.00 USD. About 24% of all applications have some type of journal component in order to record the localization, type and intensity of pain on a daily basis and how the pain affected daily chores and the quality of life. A few of the applications also emphasized the emotional aspect of pain which usually contributes significantly to pain intensity. In addition to using a pain scale (1 through 10 for most intense), these applications provide emoticons that can be used to describe the emotional component of pain. Over half of the applications included medical and technical related information about pain (symptoms, underlying causes, treatment) and includes a variety of pain reducing or quelling techniques such as massage therapy, and topical treatments. Information about acupuncture and headache prevention were included in a few applications. Only 17% of all applications contain hypnosis and relaxation related techniques as additional tools to help alleviate and quell different types of pain.
These are the most popular pain related applications:
1. Habit changer- It costs $2.00 and maybe a quick and simple e-book for pain management. Habit Changer is a 42 Day Challenge system that helps you kick old habits and experience a new way of living by accessing and heeding a full range of medical related advice. There are no videos and is mostly a text-based application.
2.Pocket Therapy- Costs $4.00. Own a pain management medical encyclopedia with all sorts of factoids! The Pocket Therapy app provides a list of painful injuries. Information on cause, location and symptoms associated with each injury is provided, along with exercises to improve range of motion and strength.
3. Chronic Pain Tracker- The best application with great reviews so far! It is free for the raw/bare version of the application and other modules can be added for a fee. Statistics is the key for making fundamental medical related decisions and the application allows the user to usually highlight the area of the body that is affected by pain on an hourly to daily basis. The application will graph intensity and duration of pain and generate all sorts of quantifiable data that can be analyzed by healthcare professional. It also contains a medication diary that keeps track of the doses and types of medication taken by the patient on a daily basis.
4. My Pain Diary- For a very small price, you can track and record the pain intensity, location, type, trigger, remedy taken and free-text notes. it is a very simple application. Pain intensity is rated on a scale from 0–10 and the data can be relayed to a healthcare professional for further analysis.
5. iPosture- This application tracks the posture and stance of each patient using the iPosture tracking sensor (this device is not free for $70.00 USD). The more the patient crouches or arches the body is related to increased propensity for developing abdominal or back pain. The sensor will alert you through your application of maintaining a correct posture and monitors your balance on a daily basis.
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