MEDICAL FRONTIERS

Diabetes Can be Cured

Washington: A new research has come up with material that can be used to encapsulate human islet calls and can cure diabetes for up to six months, reports ANI.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have designed a material that can be used to encapsulate human islet cells before transplanting them. In tests on mice, they showed that these encapsulated human cells could cure diabetes for up to six months, without provoking an immune response. 
Daniel Anderson, Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering, a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and his colleagues have come up with a way to make encapsulated islet cell transplantation a viable therapeutic approach.
They began by exploring chemical derivatives of alginate, a material originally isolated from brown algae. Alginate gels can be made to encapsulate cells without harming them, and also allow molecules such as sugar and proteins to move through, making it possible for cells inside to sense and respond to biological signals.
The researchers found that 1.5 millimeter diameter capsules made from their best materials (but not carrying islet cells) could be implanted into the intraperitoneal space of nonhuman primates for at least six months scar tissue building up.
The researchers are also investigating why their new material worked so well. They found that the best performing materials were all modifies with molecules containing a triazole group, a ring containing two carbon atoms and three nitrogen atoms. The study is published in the journal Nature Medicine.   


Paracetamol and baby’s asthma risk

London: Children are more likely to develop asthma if their mothers use paracetamol – a common painkiller – during pregnancy, a new study has warned, reports PTI.
Using data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, researchers compared associations between several conditions during pregnancy (with and without the use of paracetamol) and asthma developing in the 114,500 children in the study.  They examined asthma outcomes at ages three and seven and evaluated the likelihood of the association being as a result of the three most common triggers for paracetamol use in pregnancy – pain, fever, and influenza.
“Uncovering potential adverse effects is of public health importance, as paracetamol is the most commonly used painkiller among pregnant women and infants,” said Maria Magnus from the University of Bristol in UK.   Results showed that 5.7 per cent of the children had asthma at age three, and 5.1 per cent had asthma at age seven.
The research found a consistent link between children having asthma at age three and having been exposed to paracetamol during pregnancy. The strongest association was seen if the mother used paracetamol during pregnancy for more than one complaint with a child having asthma at three years old.
The findings indicated that prenatal paracetamol exposure showed an independent association with asthma development. The association was similar whether used for influenza, fever, or pain. The research was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

Diseases Diagnosis Accuracy Possible 

Geneva: Scientists have developed a low-cost, portable device that can accurately diagnose diseases such as Ebola and may help monitor epidemics even in remote regions with limited health facilities. Such microfluidic devices are composed of silicone rubber with minuscule channels the width of a hair. They can rapidly detect a number of different biomarkers in very small quantities of blood, reports PTI.
Researchers at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) in Switzerland developed a new type of microfluidic platform that runs on battery power and is completely self-sustained. It operates seamlessly with inexpensive microscopes and provides very high levels of accuracy and detection.It can quantify up to 16 different biomarkers in a tiny amount of blood (less than 0.005 millilitres).
Digital detection is highly sensitive and can detect the presence of a single biomarker. However, it is less effective when the concentration of biomarkers is too high, due to signal saturation. Analogue measurements, on the other hand, function best at higher biomarker concentrations. Using these two detection mechanisms simultaneously, the composition of a drop of blood can be thoroughly analysed in a short amount of time.
Researchers also found that they could load the blood sample directly onto the device and perform on-chip biomarker quantitation without requiring any sample pre-treatment. “For researchers, it is quite interesting to be able to avoid having to separate the blood,” said lead author Francesco Piraino. Blood plasma separation requires centrifuges, large volume samples and a long processing time. “The platform will lead the development of new kinds of tests to meet the increasing demand for on-site diagnostic testing,” said Piraino. “It will prove very useful for medical staff working in resource-limited regions,” he said. The device could, for example, be used to monitor endemic, epidemic, and pandemic disease outbreaks.

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