Archive for October, 2008
Medical Research Feared To Be Negatively Affected By Economic Downturn
by bethany on Oct.27, 2008, under general research
According to professor David Wield, director of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Innogen Centre, venture capital investment is likely to fall short of the £32-billion total it received in 2007.
“[Venture capital] is often the main source of funding in the early stages of development and, without this, biotech firms will struggle to get their projects off the ground,” he says.
“This year started well but in recent months it has started drying up. It is a real worry.”
He added: “Like many other sectors, the pharmaceutical industry has had tough times recently - there is seemingly no way to speed up and improve the drug discovery pipeline, and heavily increased R&D has not increased the number of new drugs.
“As a result, big companies have been laying off staff and closing down research units.”
FDA Said To Regularly Approve Experimental Procedures
by bethany on Oct.27, 2008, under FDA
The New York Times had an article today on how the FDA sometimes approves new treatment techniques without thoroughly vetting them. The article cites Karen Medlock as an example. A breast cancer patient, Medlock was given the option to prevent an excised cancerous lump from returning using radioactive “seeds” that are inserted into the tumor site. The treatment could be completed in five days as opposed to conventional irradiation that takes typically six weeks. The only problem, she learned, was that the procedure is still highly experimental.
Her case is indicative of a wider trend, the New York Times claims. In fact, Medicare often pays doctors more money for using new procedures, which thus become widely adopted.
From the article:
F.D.A. officials defend the quick-review process as a way to promote innovation. Because most new products are simply an improvement on an existing device, they say, there is rarely need for a full review.
Demanding lengthy study of such devices would be “very, very inappropriate and a waste of resources,” said Dr. Daniel G. Schultz, the director of the F.D.A.’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
The agency let MammoSite on the market on the basis of a study involving only 25 women that did not answer the fundamental question of how effective it is against breast cancer. Six years later, many cancer specialists say there is still no conclusive proof that it works as well as conventional radiation. The F.D.A. says it did require a label warning that the system had not been shown to be a substitute for conventional radiation.
Dr. Valery Uhl, the radiation oncologist who provided Ms. Medlock’s second opinion, outlined the evidence behind the available treatments. Ms. Medlock chose conventional external-beam radiation because of its well-documented record of success in preventing the return of cancer. To use an unproven therapy like MammoSite, Dr. Uhl said, “makes me really nervous.”
Critics say the F.D.A.’s process for reviewing medical technology, under which medical devices have become a $75 billion-a-year industry in this country, is often too lax. More devices, they say, should get the same scrutiny applied to new drugs. While that process is not perfect, a new drug is typically studied in hundreds or even thousands of patients before the F.D.A. will approve it as safe and effective.
But under the fast-track review for most devices, a product’s effectiveness is never directly established. Regulators simply determine if the device does what its maker says it does — in MammoSite’s case, that it delivers radiation — and whether it poses any undue safety risks.
In response to a Congressional request to study the effectiveness of the F.D.A.’s device-review process, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office is expected to release a report next month.
Critics say that when the F.D.A. clears a device, the public may wrongly assume that the government has proof it is medically effective. F.D.A. approval has been “widely misinterpreted,” said Dr. Jay R. Harris, the chairman of radiation oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Wiping Away Memories
by andreas on Oct.27, 2008, under Uncategorized
An image of the cerebral lobes
For those of you who have seen the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, this may seem familiar:
Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia were able to selectively erase unique memories in laboratory mice. Potential applications of the research include therapies for for phobias, depression, PTSD, and other similar conditions.
According to a press release from the group, Dr. Joe Z. Tsien, who is a brain scientist and a codirector of the Brain & Behavior Discovery Institute located at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine, have created a mouse unable to store memories through the elimination of the NMDA receptor, which receives messages from other neurons. Tsien also created a smart mouse (which incidentally is named “Doogie”) by overexpressing the NMDA receptor.
From the press release:
This time [Tsien] was examining downstream cascades of the NMDA receptor to learn more about memory formation. An abundant protein found only in the brain, called αCaMKII, was a logical place to look because it’s a major signaling molecule for the NMDA receptor. He found that when he over-expressed αCaMKII while a memory was being recalled, that single memory was eliminated.
Receptors such as the NMDA receptor are like front doors to cells, providing an opening for signaling molecules such as calcium. Synapses are the point of communication between two cells, and NMDA receptors are on the receiving end of the message. Like people, neurons change with the signals they receive. “Learning changes the way cells connect to each other,” says Dr. Tsien. To form a memory, the NMDA receptor is activated, which results in the insertion of AMPA receptors into those synapses and subsequent strengthening of the synaptic connections among hundreds of thousands of neurons. Scientists believe that αCaMKII plays an important role in the insertion of AMPA receptors into synapses during learning and subsequent strengthening of connections between neurons to create a memory.
Memory has four distinct stages: learning, consolidation, storage and recall. It has been difficult to dissect the molecular mechanisms of these stages because researchers lacked techniques to manipulate proteins quickly. For example, when researchers disable a gene suspected to play a role in the memory process, the deletion typically occurred throughout the entire period so it was impossible to tell which parts of processes were impaired. Previous technology would take several days to switch off a protein, which is the product of a gene.
So Dr. Tsien’s team developed a powerful chemical-genetic method that allows him to use a pharmacologic inhibitor to instantly turn αCaMKII off and on in a mouse that he genetically engineered to over express this signaling molecule. That enabled him to study exactly what happened if he threw off the natural balance during the retrieval stage.
Medical Tourism On The Rise
by bethany on Oct.27, 2008, under observations
Westerners and Arabs are flocking to Asia for affordable medical care. While medical tourism in the past was mainly relegated to cosmetic and dental procedures, a gowing number of patients are travelling abroad for procedures including coronary bypass surgery, transplants, and other complex procedures.
From the site My Sinchew:
With the cost of medical treatment skyrocketing in their home countries, more and more patients are travelling overseas for health care each year, a phenomenon now known as ‘medical tourism’.
And the most favoured destination is Asia where hospitals offer world-class medical services at just a fraction of the cost in the US or Europe with a vacation at an exotic resort as an inviting option.
A recent report, Asian Medical Tourism Analysis (2008-2012), said the region generated revenues worth US$3.4 billion from medical tourism in 2007, accounting for nearly 12.7% of the global market.
The Asian medical tourism market is expected to grow at an annual average of 17.6% between 2007 and 2012, the report said.
The report identified the five biggest Asian medical tourism markets as Thailand, Singapore, India, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Researchers Rediscover Promising Closed-Circuit Breathing Device
by andreas on Oct.26, 2008, under medical devices
North face of Mount Everest
Scientists have resurrected forgotten research to develop a closed-circuit breathing device that could transform the lives of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which will be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2030, according to the World Health Organisation. The new technology is based on a closed circuit oxygen device invented over 50 years ago by the British rocket scientist Tom Bourdillon, who hoped that it would help take him to the top of the world.
The project is a result of a partnership between Smiths Medical and the University College London
Three days before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953, Bourdillon nearly got there first with the help of his ground-breaking invention. When he and his climbing partner Charles Evans, a British brain surgeon, set out on the first ever summit attempt they were breathing pure oxygen from the device. It helped them climb higher than any man had ever been before and at speeds that have rarely been matched since.
The two men were just 90 metres from the summit when Evans’ device malfunctioned dashing their hopes of becoming the most celebrated mountaineers in the world. Three days later Hillary and Norgay claimed that honour using open circuit oxygen devices. Bourdillon believed that closed circuit oxygen was more efficient and effective than open circuit because a closed circuit efficiently recycles exhaled oxygen, which would be lost to the atmosphere in an open circuit.
His research was forgotten for 50 years but now Smiths Medical and UCL have developed Bourdillon’s idea into a breakthrough medical device that could help patients with COPD, which is a disease of the lungs in which the airways become narrowed leading to a limitation of the flow of air to and from the lungs, causing shortness of breath.
“We are hoping that this new technology will transform the lives of people living with COPD by allowing them to breathe more easily, exercise and ultimately reduce their dependence on oxygen. It is incredible to think that this breakthrough device is based on a British invention designed to help the first mountaineers reach the top of the world,” said Dr Jeremy Russell, head of research and development at Smiths Medical International.
“Bourdillon recognized that the problem on Everest was low levels of oxygen and if you solved the problem of delivering oxygen you would effectively reduce the height of the mountain to sea level,” said Dr McMorrow. “No-one knows exactly why his device failed but when I tested my prototype on Cho Oyu in the Himalayas 2005 it also failed. In my case the soda lime CO2 absorber malfunctioned and it is possible Bourdillon had the same problem although another theory is that it was a frozen valve. A recently invented CO2 absorber called ExtendAir solved the problem on my circuit.”
Last year the device was successfully tested on Mount Everest at the Smiths Medical High Altitude Laboratory at Namche Bazaar, Nepal at 3,400m, (11,154 ft) as part of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest Study (CXE), a medical research project conducted by CASE. Smiths Medical is now optimizing and miniaturizing the prototype for patients.
Exercise is important for COPD patients but existing oxygen systems mean it is often not possible. The size of current open circuit systems mean that patients are often confined to their hospital beds or treated at home with large cylinders that severely restrict their mobility. Portable open circuit systems are not able to deliver high enough volumes of oxygen for long enough to permit exercise. In an open circuit system the faster a person breathes the more they dilute the oxygen with ordinary air. This means that if a patient dependent on oxygen starts to exercise their oxygen levels actually drop as their breathing grows faster.
Dr Russell added: “The new system is portable and should deliver a very high concentration of oxygen for a sustained period of time. It should help keep oxygen levels constant no matter how fast or slowly a patient is breathing.”
More information is available at www.caudwell-xtreme-everest.co.uk.
