Biology & Medicine News and Discussions

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Ghana first to approve 'world-changer' malaria vaccine

14 hours ago

Ghana is the first country to approve a new malaria vaccine that has been described as a "world-changer" by the scientists who developed it.

The vaccine - called R21 - appears to be hugely effective, in stark contrast to previous ventures in the same field.

Ghana's drug regulators have assessed the final trial data on the vaccine's safety and effectiveness, which is not yet public, and have decided to use it.

The World Health Organization is also considering approving the vaccine.

Malaria kills about 620,000 people each year, most of them young children.

It has been a massive, century-long, scientific undertaking to develop a vaccine that protects the body from the malaria parasite.

Trial data from preliminary studies in Burkina Faso showed the R21 vaccine was up to 80% effective when given as three initial doses, and a booster a year later.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65252511
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Less painful, more convenient antibody treatments
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04- ... ments.html
by Kim Krieger, University of Connecticut

Antibody treatments exist for many diseases, but require injections or IV infusions, which are painful, inconvenient and carry risks. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Connecticut has created a way to deliver multiple doses of antibodies over a period of weeks using a small, biodegradable skin patch instead.

"It solves a lot of problems," says Thanh Duc Nguyen, an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, a joint department between the UConn Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, and Engineering.

Antibody therapies have been successful in treating HIV, autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, and certain types of cancer. But as Nguyen points out, administering antibody therapies can cause problems. Repeated injections can be painful, get infected, and scar veins. They also require a trained medical professional to administer, and the used needles are biohazardous waste.
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Healing the unhealable: New approach helps bones mend themselves
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04- ... bones.html
by University of Pittsburgh

Young babies and newborn mice can naturally heal damage to the bones that form the top of the skull, but this ability is lost in adults. In a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Pittsburgh researchers developed a novel approach that promoted bone regeneration in mice without implantation of bone tissue or biomaterials.

The technique uses a device similar to an orthodontic wire used to realign teeth to carefully stretch the skull along its sutures, activating skeletal stem cells that reside in these wiggly seams. In adult mice, the technique repaired damage to the skull that otherwise would not have healed on its own.

"Our approach is inspired by babies because they have an amazing ability to regenerate bone defects in the calvarial bones that make up the top of the skull," said senior author Giuseppe Intini, D.D.S., Ph.D., associate professor of periodontics and preventive dentistry at the Pitt School of Dental Medicine, member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and an investigator at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.

"By harnessing the body's own healing capacity with autotherapies, we can stimulate bone to heal itself. We hope to build on this research in the future to develop novel therapies for people."

Trauma, congenital defects and surgery to treat cancer or other diseases are common causes of damage to the skull. After people reach the age of about 2 years, such injuries don't heal on their own.
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Newly developed test allows for quick onsite salmonella detection
By Ben Coxworth
April 17, 2023
https://newatlas.com/science/quick-test ... almonella/
Salmonella bacteria are responsible for the most common type of food poisoning, which can cause people to become quite ill. A new test, however, is able to detect the microbes' presence in food faster and easier than ever before.

One of the problems with salmonella-tainted foods – most often meats, fruits and vegetables – is the fact that they typically don't look, smell or taste any different than they usually do. And while it already is possible to test food samples for the bacteria, those tests involve growing bacterial cultures in a lab over the course of at least one day.

By contrast, the new technique can be performed on location, and it delivers results within no more than an hour. It was designed by scientists at Canada's McMaster University.

At the heart of the technology is a novel McMaster-created synthetic nucleic acid molecule, which is sandwiched between layers of gold microparticles. That composite material lines the inside of the tip of a glass pipette, which is used to draw in a liquified sample of the food in question.
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Researchers develop wound dressing that can reveal infection
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-wound-rev ... ction.html
by Linköping University
A nanocellulose wound dressing that can reveal early signs of infection without interfering with the healing process has been developed by researchers at Linköping University, Sweden. Their study, published in Materials Today Bio, is one further step on the road to a new type of wound care.

The skin is the largest organ of the human body. A wound disrupts the normal function of the skin and can take a long time to heal, be very painful for the patient, and may—in a worst-case scenario—lead to death if not treated correctly. Also, hard-to-heal wounds pose a great burden on society, representing about half of all costs of out-patient care.

In traditional wound care, dressings are changed regularly, about every two days. To check whether the wound is infected, care staff have to lift the dressing and make an assessment based on appearance and tests. This is a painful procedure that disturbs wound healing as the scab breaks repeatedly. The risk of infection also increases every time the wound is exposed.

Researchers at Linköping University, in collaboration with colleagues from Örebro and Luleå Universities, have now developed a wound dressing made of nanocellulose that can reveal early signs of infection without interfering with the healing process.
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Wearable patch can painlessly deliver drugs through the skin

by Anne Trafton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04- ... -skin.html
The skin is an appealing route for drug delivery because it allows drugs to go directly to the site where they're needed, which could be useful for wound healing, pain relief, or other medical and cosmetic applications. However, delivering drugs through the skin is difficult because the tough outer layer of the skin prevents most small molecules from passing through it.

In hopes of making it easier to deliver drugs through the skin, MIT researchers have developed a wearable patch that applies painless ultrasonic waves to the skin, creating tiny channels that drugs can pass through. This approach could lend itself to delivery of treatments for a variety of skin conditions, and could also be adapted to deliver hormones, muscle relaxants, and other drugs, the researchers say.
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Study finds early RSV infection linked to significantly increased risk of asthma in children
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04- ... antly.html
by Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection has long been associated with the onset of childhood wheezing diseases, but the relationship between RSV infection during infancy and the development of childhood asthma has remained unclear.

A new observational study by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers has found that RSV infection in the first year of life is associated with a significantly increased risk of asthma in children. The study, the first to look at the effects of RSV infections of all different severities on childhood asthma risk at a population level, was published in The Lancet.

RSV is a seasonal respiratory virus that affects almost all children by the age of 2 and repeatedly throughout life. It is the leading cause of bronchiolitis, a lower respiratory tract infection that presents as coughing and wheezing in infants and young children. The symptoms are mild in most children and usually resolve in about a week, but it can lead to serious illness and death especially in premature or very young infants and those with chronic lung disease or congenital heart disease.
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A quarter of Mississippi's rural hospitals could close within three years, report shows
Mississippi’s struggling rural hospitals haven’t improved their financial outlook much over the past quarter, a newly updated report shows.

A report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform shows that about a third of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are still at risk of closure, and over a half of those still at risk of immediate closure.

The report, which the organization updates every three months, shows 27 hospitals are currently at risk of closure in Mississippi, with 20 of those at risk of immediate closure.

The January version of the report previously showed that 28 of Mississippi’s 74 rural hospitals were at risk of closure. Of those, 19 were at risk of closing immediately.

https://mississippitoday.org/2023/04/25 ... -closures/
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Innovative therapy brings hope to chronic lower back pain sufferers
By Bronwyn Thompson
May 03, 2023

https://newatlas.com/medical/innovative ... sufferers/
There’s new hope for chronic lower back pain sufferers after an innovative trial combining psychological and physical approaches empowered patients to manage pain and movement, resulting in a dramatic reduction in the condition and related mobility issues.

It’s estimated around 80% of adults will experience lower back pain during their lives, with its prevalence only increasing with age. For around a quarter of people, it turns into a frustrating chronic condition, lasting more than three months and can persist for years.

A new treatment known as cognitive functional therapy (CFT) was put to work in a randomized controlled clinical trial of nearly 500 chronic back pain sufferers across 20 physiotherapy practices. The findings of the trial revealed that those receiving CFT – which involved seven individual sessions with specially trained clinicians over 12 weeks, and a booster visit six months later – reported greatly improved movement and pain levels, which continued long after therapy.

CFT, developed by professor Peter O’Sullivan from Perth's Curtin School of Allied Health, Australia, takes a physical and psychological approach, arming chronic pain suffers with the tools to confidently manage their condition and the skills to move in ways that reduces disibility.

“This new treatment takes on board the individual characteristics of the person who has been living with chronic back pain by addressing their concerns and movement limitations under the skilled guidance of a trained physiotherapist,” said O’Sullivan. “This differs to traditional, more passive approaches – including massage, spinal manipulation, medication and injections – because it puts the person in charge of their condition, helping them to understand the factors contributing to their pain, building control and confidence in their body to get back to valued activities.

“It was particularly rare and thrilling to discover that the significant reduction in pain and distress that these people living with chronic back pain experienced had remained right up to one year,” he added.
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Team discovers new drugs with potential for treating world's leading causes of blindness in AMD, other diseases
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05- ... d-amd.html
by University of California, Irvine
In a University of California, Irvine-led study, researchers have discovered small-molecule drugs with potential clinical utility in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

The study, titled, "Stress resilience-enhancing drugs preserve tissue structure and function in degenerating retina via phosphodiesterase inhibition," was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"In this study, we introduce a new class of therapeutics called "Stress Resilience-Enhancing Drugs" (SREDs) for the treatment of neurodegenerative conditions, specifically the world's leading causes of blindness in age-related and inherited retinal diseases," said Krzysztof Palczewski, Ph.D., Donald Bren Professor of Ophthalmology at the UCI School of Medicine and corresponding author on the study. "Through selective, pharmacological inhibition of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases, our prototypical SREDs slowed or halted the development and progression of retinopathies in a number of genetic and environmental animal models."
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