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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 28, 2014 at 8:23am

A new project could help revolutionize the way doctors screen new drugs through a surrogate body system.

Scientists are developing a project called Advanced Tissue-engineered Human Ectypal Network Analyzer (ATHENA), which aims to essentially be a testing station for new drugs on the human body. ATHENA will be a $19 million project that includes a liver, heart, lung and kidney all connected together and able to fit neatly on a desk.

“By developing this ‘homo minutus,’ we are stepping beyond the need for animal or Petri dish testing: There are huge benefits in developing drug and toxicity analysis systems that can mimic the response of actual human organs,” Rashi Iyer, a senior scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said in a statement

Using A Surrogate To Test Drugs’ Effects On The Human Body
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113104796/surrogate-body-to-t...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 27, 2014 at 6:31am

Biodegradable battery could melt inside the body

Medical implants would monitor vital signs or dispense therapies before vanishing.
http://www.nature.com/news/biodegradable-battery-could-melt-inside-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 27, 2014 at 6:28am

Human Nose Can Detect 1 Trillion Odors
What the the nose knows might as well be limitless, researchers suggest.
http://www.nature.com/news/human-nose-can-detect-1-trillion-odours-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 27, 2014 at 6:24am

Apoptosis: Keeping inflammation at bay
Cells dying by apoptosis can trigger an anti-inflammatory gene response in other cells by releasing a compound called adenosine monophosphate.
AMP molecules released by apoptotic cells can trigger an anti-inflammatory response in phagocytes.
http://elife.elifesciences.org/content/3/e02583

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 27, 2014 at 6:22am

How does the brain process rhythm?
A region of the brain called the putamen has a central role in our ability to keep a beat in our head.
http://elife.elifesciences.org/content/3/e02658

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 26, 2014 at 10:21am

E-cigarettes don’t help smokers quit, study finds
People who tried electronic devices no more likely to give up smokes a year later
Electronic cigarettes may not shut off the urge to smoke cigarettes. A survey of 949 smokers found no difference in quit rates a year after some had taken up e-cigarettes while others hadn’t, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco report March 24 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

E-cigarettes deliver nicotine in vapor form without the cancer-causing combusted materials of a lit cigarette. Manufacturers suggest that using them is a first step toward quitting smoking. Of 949 smokers who answered online questionnaires, 88 reported trying e-cigarettes at the study’s outset. One year later, about 13.5 percent of all participants had quit smoking during the year. Roughly equal percentages of e-cigarette users and smokers who didn’t use them had successfully quit regular cigarettes; differences in quit rates between the two groups fell within the study’s margin of error.

Separately, studies published in 2013 in the Lancet and the American Journal of Preventive Medicine similarly found no more quitting among smokers who took up e-cigarettes. The UCSF authors suggest that regulators prohibit ads claiming that e-cigarettes help people quit smoking unless scientific evidence emerges to prove it.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/e-cigarettes-don%E2%80%99t-help...

http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797%2812%2900822-7/abstract

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2813...

E-cigarettes, with or without nicotine, were modestly effective at helping smokers to quit, with similar achievement of abstinence as with nicotine patches, and few adverse events. Uncertainty exists about the place of e-cigarettes in tobacco control, and more research is urgently needed to clearly establish their overall benefits and harms at both individual and population levels.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 26, 2014 at 9:59am

Scientists have found that commonly used anti-inflammation drugs could also be used as antibiotics
Some commonly used drugs that combat aches and pains, fever and inflammation are also thought to have the ability to kill bacteria, research published in Chemistry & Biology shows.

These drugs, better known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), act on bacteria in a way that is fundamentally different from current antibiotics. The discovery could open up new strategies for fighting drug-resistant infections and “superbugs.”
http://www.cell.com/chemistry-biology/retrieve/pii/S1074552114000672
Evidence suggests that some nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) possess antibacterial properties with an unknown mechanism. We describe the in vitro antibacterial properties of the NSAIDs carprofen, bromfenac, and vedaprofen, and show that these NSAIDs inhibit the Escherichia coli DNA polymerase III β subunit, an essential interaction hub that acts as a mobile tether on DNA for many essential partner proteins in DNA replication and repair. Crystal structures show that the three NSAIDs bind to the sliding clamp at a common binding site required for partner binding. Inhibition of interaction of the clamp loader and/or the replicative polymerase α subunit with the sliding clamp is demonstrated using an in vitro DNA replication assay. NSAIDs thus present promising lead scaffolds for novel antibacterial agents targeting the sliding clamp.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 26, 2014 at 9:57am

A study of patients with chronic headaches suggests that pain is linked with the brain’s ability to change with use.
New insights into how the human brain responds to chronic pain could eventually lead to improved treatments for patients, according to University of Adelaide researchers.

Neuroplasticity is the term used to describe the brain’s ability to change structurally and functionally with experience and use.
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/

The Brain’s Inability To Change Linked To Chronic Pain

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 26, 2014 at 9:55am

Scientists have developed nanoparticle-based colors that could be used to make paint and electronic displays that never fade.
Nanoparticles Give Color Without Pigments
Most of the colors we see around us arise from paints and dyes that absorb certain wavelengths of light and reflect the remainder. In contrast, structural color is created when an object’s very nanostructure amplifies a specific wavelength.

Although examples of structural color have been found in nature, producing structural color in the lab is difficult as it requires a material’s molecules to be in a very specific crystalline pattern.

Taking a different approach inspired by the feathers of the cotinga bird, researchers have devised a system to obtain structural color using microcapsules filled with a disordered solution of nanoparticles suspended in water. When the microcapsule is partly dried out, it shrinks, bringing the particles closer and closer together. Eventually the average distance between all the particles will give rise to a specific reflected color from the capsule.
Full-Spectrum Photonic Pigments with Non-iridescent Structural Colors through Colloidal Assembly
Structurally colored materials could potentially replace dyes and pigments in many applications, but it is challenging to fabricate structural colors that mimic the appearance of absorbing pigments. We demonstrate the microfluidic fabrication of “photonic pigments” consisting of microcapsules containing dense amorphous packings of core–shell colloidal particles. These microcapsules show non-iridescent structural colors that are independent of viewing angle, a critical requirement for applications such as displays or coatings. We show that the design of the microcapsules facilitates the suppression of incoherent and multiple scattering, enabling the fabrication of photonic pigments with colors spanning the visible spectrum. Our findings should provide new insights into the design and synthesis of materials with structural colors.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201309306/abstract;...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 26, 2014 at 9:52am

Nanowire ‘Fingerprints’ To Fight Counterfeiting
Nanowire fingerprints are cheap to produce and extremely difficult to replicate, making them useful in anti-counterfeiting measures, scientists say.
Researchers from South Korea have utilized the unique patterns made from tiny, randomly scattered silver nanowires to authenticate goods and tackle the growing problem of counterfeiting.

The nanoscale ‘fingerprints’ are made by randomly dumping 20 to 30 individual nanowires, each with an average length of 10 to 50 µm, onto a thin plastic film, and could be used to tag a variety of goods from electronics and drugs to credit cards and bank notes.

According to the researchers, the fingerprints are almost impossible to replicate because of the natural randomness of their creation and the difficulty associated with manipulating such small materials.
Anti-counterfeit nanoscale fingerprints based on randomly distributed nanowires
http://iopscience.iop.org/0957-4484/25/15/155303/

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