Stem cell protein may help find blood cancer cure
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Study finds cancer-fighting gene to prevent birth defects
Study finds cancer-fighting gene to prevent birth defects
ANI
Last Updated at April 10, 2019 17:05 IST
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The study was published in the journal 'Cell Reports.'
The findings explain p53's involvement in a molecular process specific to females called 'X chromosome inactivation'. The new findings helped to clarify why more females are born with neural tube birth defects such as Spina Bifida than males. One of the researchers said that the study showed how p53 influenced the function of genes required for fostering the production of healthy neural tube cells in the female embryo.
"Healthy development is a very precise and precariously balanced process. p53 helps with this balancing act in the female embryo by producing normal levels of Xist RNA, part of an intricate molecular process important for X chromosome inactivation. This, in turn, leads to healthy neural tube development. Simply put, healthy neural tube development in the female embryo requires the help of p53," said the researcher.
Another researcher states that the study confirmed a long-standing theory that females had an additional risk factor for neural tube defects and that a breakdown in the associated X chromosome inactivation process could help to explain why females were more likely than males to have neural tube-related birth defects.
"Females have two copies of the 'X' sex chromosome, while males only have one copy. In order to maintain health in females, one of these X chromosomes must be inactivated in cells early on during development. If this inactivation does not occur efficiently, the neural tube will not form properly. Previous research indicated that p53 plays a role in normal neural tube development, but it had never been shown exactly how this worked until now," opines the researcher.
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
New wearable device that collects live cancer cells from blood may help avoid biopsy
New wearable device grabs cancer cells from blood
Mathrubhumi English
Biopsy alternative: 'Wearable' device captures cancer cells from blood ...
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190401105317.htm
1 day ago - In animal tests, the cell-grabbing chip in the wearable device trapped 3.5 times as many cancer cells per milliliter of blood as it did running samples collected by blood draw. ... Research shows that most cancer cells can't survive in the bloodstream, but those that do are more likely to start a new tumor.
New wearable device grabs cancer cells from blood
Most cancer cells cannot survive in the bloodstream, but those that do are more likely to start a n...
Read more at: https://english.mathrubhumi.com/health/health-news/new-wearable-device-grabs-cancer-cells-from-blood-1.3696237
Read more at: https://english.mathrubhumi.com/health/health-news/new-wearable-device-grabs-cancer-cells-from-blood-1.3696237
New wearable device grabs cancer cells from blood
Most cancer cells cannot survive in the bloodstream, but those that do are more likely to start a n...
Read more at: https://english.mathrubhumi.com/health/health-news/new-wearable-device-grabs-cancer-cells-from-blood-1.3696237
Read more at: https://english.mathrubhumi.com/health/health-news/new-wearable-device-grabs-cancer-cells-from-blood-1.3696237
New wearable device grabs cancer cells from blood
Most cancer cells cannot survive in the bloodstream, but those that do are more likely to start a n...
Read more at: https://english.mathrubhumi.com/health/health-news/new-wearable-device-grabs-cancer-cells-from-blood-1.3696237
Read more at: https://english.mathrubhumi.com/health/health-news/new-wearable-device-grabs-cancer-cells-from-blood-1.3696237
Biopsy alternative: 'Wearable' device captures cancer cells from blood
- Date:
- April 1, 2019
- Source:
- Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan
- Summary:
- A prototype wearable device, tested in animal models, can continuously collect live cancer cells directly from a patient's blood. Developed by a team of engineers and doctors, it could help doctors diagnose and treat cancer more effectively.
- Share:
FULL STORY
A prototype wearable device, tested in
animal models, can continuously collect live cancer cells directly from a
patient's blood.
Developed by a team of engineers and doctors at the University of
Michigan, it could help doctors diagnose and treat cancer more
effectively.
"Nobody wants to have a biopsy. If we could get enough cancer cells from the blood, we could use them to learn about the tumor biology and direct care for the patients. That's the excitement of why we're doing this," says Daniel F. Hayes, M.D., the Stuart B. Padnos Professor of Breast Cancer Research at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and senior author on the paper in Nature Communications.
Tumors can release more than 1,000 cancer cells into the bloodstream in a single minute. Current methods of capturing cancer cells from blood rely on samples from the patient -- usually no more than a tablespoon taken in a single draw. Some blood draws come back with no cancer cells, even in patients with advanced cancer, and a typical sample contains no more than 10 cancer cells.
Over a couple of hours in the hospital, the new device could continuously capture cancer cells directly from the vein, screening much larger volumes of a patient's blood. In animal tests, the cell-grabbing chip in the wearable device trapped 3.5 times as many cancer cells per milliliter of blood as it did running samples collected by blood draw.
"It's the difference between having a security camera that takes a snapshot of a door every five minutes or takes a video. If an intruder enters between the snapshots, you wouldn't know about it," says Sunitha Nagrath, Ph.D., associate professor of chemical engineering at U-M, who led the development of the device.
Research shows that most cancer cells can't survive in the bloodstream, but those that do are more likely to start a new tumor. Typically, it is these satellite tumors, called metastases, that are deadly, rather than the original tumor. This means, cancer cells captured from blood could provide better information for planning treatments than those from a conventional biopsy.
The team tested the device in dogs at the Colorado State University's Flint Animal Cancer Center in collaboration with Douglas Thamm, VMD, a professor of veterinary oncology and director of clinical research there. They injected healthy adult animals with human cancer cells, which are eliminated by the dogs' immune systems over the course of a few hours with no lasting effects.
For the first two hours post-injection, the dogs were given a mild sedative and connected to the device, which screened between 1-2 percent of their blood. At the same time, the dogs had blood drawn every 20 minutes, and the cancer cells in these samples were collected by a chip of the same design.
The device shrinks a machine that is typically the size of an oven down to something that could be worn on the wrist and connected to a vein in the arm. For help with the design, the engineering team turned to Laura Cooling, M.D., a professor of clinical pathology at U-M and associate director of the blood bank, where she manages the full-size systems.
"The most challenging parts were integrating all of the components into a single device and then ensuring that the blood would not clot, that the cells would not clog up the chip, and that the entire device is completely sterile," says Tae Hyun Kim, Ph.D., who earned his doctorate in electrical engineering in the Nagrath Lab and is now a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology.
They developed protocols for mixing the blood with heparin, a drug that prevents clotting, and sterilization methods that killed bacteria without harming the cell-targeting immune markers, or antibodies, on the chip. Kim also packaged some of the smallest medical-grade pumps in a 3D-printed box with the electronics and the cancer-cell-capturing chip.
why not make it 100% trap for cancer cells using same technology?
The chip itself is a new twist on one of the highest-capture-rate devices from Nagrath's lab. It uses the nanomaterial graphene oxide to create dense forests of antibody-tipped molecular chains, enabling it to trap more than 80 percent of the cancer cellswhy not make it 100% using same technology? in whole blood that flows across it. The chip can also be used to grow the captured cancer cells, producing larger samples for further analysis.
In the next steps for the device, the team hopes to increase the blood processing rate. Then, led by Thamm, they will use the optimized system to capture cancer cells from pet dogs that come to the cancer center as patients. Chips targeting proteins on the surfaces of canine breast cancer cells are under development in the Nagrath lab now.
Hayes estimates the device could begin human trials in three to five years. It would be used to help to optimize treatments for human cancers by enabling doctors to see if the cancer cells are making the molecules that serve as targets for many newer cancer drugs.
"This is the epitome of precision medicine, which is so exciting in the field of oncology right now," says Hayes.
"Nobody wants to have a biopsy. If we could get enough cancer cells from the blood, we could use them to learn about the tumor biology and direct care for the patients. That's the excitement of why we're doing this," says Daniel F. Hayes, M.D., the Stuart B. Padnos Professor of Breast Cancer Research at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and senior author on the paper in Nature Communications.
Tumors can release more than 1,000 cancer cells into the bloodstream in a single minute. Current methods of capturing cancer cells from blood rely on samples from the patient -- usually no more than a tablespoon taken in a single draw. Some blood draws come back with no cancer cells, even in patients with advanced cancer, and a typical sample contains no more than 10 cancer cells.
Over a couple of hours in the hospital, the new device could continuously capture cancer cells directly from the vein, screening much larger volumes of a patient's blood. In animal tests, the cell-grabbing chip in the wearable device trapped 3.5 times as many cancer cells per milliliter of blood as it did running samples collected by blood draw.
"It's the difference between having a security camera that takes a snapshot of a door every five minutes or takes a video. If an intruder enters between the snapshots, you wouldn't know about it," says Sunitha Nagrath, Ph.D., associate professor of chemical engineering at U-M, who led the development of the device.
Research shows that most cancer cells can't survive in the bloodstream, but those that do are more likely to start a new tumor. Typically, it is these satellite tumors, called metastases, that are deadly, rather than the original tumor. This means, cancer cells captured from blood could provide better information for planning treatments than those from a conventional biopsy.
The team tested the device in dogs at the Colorado State University's Flint Animal Cancer Center in collaboration with Douglas Thamm, VMD, a professor of veterinary oncology and director of clinical research there. They injected healthy adult animals with human cancer cells, which are eliminated by the dogs' immune systems over the course of a few hours with no lasting effects.
For the first two hours post-injection, the dogs were given a mild sedative and connected to the device, which screened between 1-2 percent of their blood. At the same time, the dogs had blood drawn every 20 minutes, and the cancer cells in these samples were collected by a chip of the same design.
The device shrinks a machine that is typically the size of an oven down to something that could be worn on the wrist and connected to a vein in the arm. For help with the design, the engineering team turned to Laura Cooling, M.D., a professor of clinical pathology at U-M and associate director of the blood bank, where she manages the full-size systems.
"The most challenging parts were integrating all of the components into a single device and then ensuring that the blood would not clot, that the cells would not clog up the chip, and that the entire device is completely sterile," says Tae Hyun Kim, Ph.D., who earned his doctorate in electrical engineering in the Nagrath Lab and is now a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology.
They developed protocols for mixing the blood with heparin, a drug that prevents clotting, and sterilization methods that killed bacteria without harming the cell-targeting immune markers, or antibodies, on the chip. Kim also packaged some of the smallest medical-grade pumps in a 3D-printed box with the electronics and the cancer-cell-capturing chip.
why not make it 100% trap for cancer cells using same technology?
The chip itself is a new twist on one of the highest-capture-rate devices from Nagrath's lab. It uses the nanomaterial graphene oxide to create dense forests of antibody-tipped molecular chains, enabling it to trap more than 80 percent of the cancer cellswhy not make it 100% using same technology? in whole blood that flows across it. The chip can also be used to grow the captured cancer cells, producing larger samples for further analysis.
In the next steps for the device, the team hopes to increase the blood processing rate. Then, led by Thamm, they will use the optimized system to capture cancer cells from pet dogs that come to the cancer center as patients. Chips targeting proteins on the surfaces of canine breast cancer cells are under development in the Nagrath lab now.
Hayes estimates the device could begin human trials in three to five years. It would be used to help to optimize treatments for human cancers by enabling doctors to see if the cancer cells are making the molecules that serve as targets for many newer cancer drugs.
"This is the epitome of precision medicine, which is so exciting in the field of oncology right now," says Hayes.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Materials provided by Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
London HIV Patient World's Second [“We haven’t cured HIV,this gives us hope
The Wire
Patient Cleared of HIV Virus Becomes World's Second AIDS Cure Hope
The
case is a proof of the concept that scientists will one day be able to
end AIDS, doctors said, but does not mean a cure for HIV has been found.
A
laboratory technician examines blood samples for HIV/AIDS in a public
hospital in Valparaiso city, about 75 miles (120 km) northwest of
Santiago, November 14, 2008. Credit: Reuters/Eliseo Fernandez
Almost three years after receiving bone marrow stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV infection – and more than 18 months after coming off antiretroviral drugs – highly sensitive tests still show no trace of the man’s previous HIV infection.
“There is no virus there that we can measure. We can’t detect anything,” said Ravindra Gupta, a professor and HIV biologist who co-led a team of doctors treating the man.
The case is a proof of the concept that scientists will one day be able to end AIDS, the doctors said, but does not mean a cure for HIV has been found.
Gupta described his patient as “functionally cured” and “in remission”, but cautioned: “It’s too early to say he’s cured.”
The man is being called “the London patient”, in part because his case is similar to the first known case of a functional cure of HIV – in an American man, Timothy Brown, who became known as the Berlin patient when he underwent similar treatment in Germany in 2007 which also cleared his HIV.
Also read: How An HIV Prevention Pill Is Changing Sexual Behaviour Among Men
Brown, who had been living in Berlin, has since moved to the United States and, according to HIV experts, is still HIV-free.
Some 37 million people worldwide are currently infected with HIV and the AIDS pandemic has killed around 35 million people worldwide since it began in the 1980s. Scientific research into the complex virus has in recent years led to the development of drug combinations that can keep it at bay in most patients.
Gupta, now at Cambridge University, treated the London patient when he was working at University College London. The man had contracted HIV in 2003, Gupta said, and in 2012 was also diagnosed with a type of blood cancer called Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Last chance
In 2016, when he was very sick with cancer, doctors decided to seek a transplant match for him. “This was really his last chance of survival,” Gupta told Reuters in an interview.
The donor – who was unrelated – had a genetic mutation known as ‘CCR5 delta 32’, which confers resistance to HIV.
The transplant went relatively smoothly, Gupta said, but there were some side effects, including the patient suffering a period of “graft-versus-host” disease – a condition in which donor immune cells attack the recipient’s immune cells.
Most experts say it is inconceivable such treatments could be a way of curing all patients. The procedure is expensive, complex and risky. To do this in others, exact match donors would have to be found in the tiny proportion of people — most of them of northern European descent — who have the CCR5 mutation that makes them resistant to the virus.
Also read: What These Exceptional Cases of HIV Remission Tell Us About Solutions for All Infected Patients
Specialists said it is also not yet clear whether the CCR5 resistance is the only key – or whether the graft versus host disease may have been just as important. Both the Berlin and London patients had this complication, which may have played a role in the loss of HIV-infected cells, Gupta said.
Sharon Lewin, an expert at Australia’s Doherty Institute and co-chair of the International AIDS Society’s cure research advisory board, told Reuters the London case points to new avenues for study.
“We haven’t cured HIV, but (this) gives us hope that it’s going to be feasible one day to eliminate the virus,” she said.
Gupta said his team plans to use these findings to explore potential new HIV treatment strategies. “We need to understand if we could knock out this (CCR5) receptor in people with HIV, which may be possible with gene therapy,” he said.
The London patient, whose case was set to be reported in the journal Nature and presented at a medical conference in Seattle on Tuesday, has asked his medical team not to reveal his name, age, nationality or other details.
(Reuters)
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