The miR-182 was safely delivered to the tumors using spherical nucleic acids, DNA and RNA arranged around a gold nanoparticle center.
Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a small RNA molecule called miR-182 that can suppress cancer-causing genes in mice with glioblastoma mulitforme (GBM), a deadly and incurable type of brain tumor.

While standard chemotherapy drugs damage DNA to stop cancer cells from reproducing, the new method stops the source that creates those cancer cells: genes that are overexpressing certain proteins.

"Our study identified miR-182 as a glioblastoma tumor suppressor that reduces the expression of several oncogenes that promote cancer development," said senior author of the study Alexander Stegh, an assistant professor in the Ken and Ruth Davee department of neurology and of medicine at Northwestern 

University Feinberg School of Medicine.

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The study, published April 2 in Genes and Development, used a nanostructure called spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) to safely deliver miR-182 across the blood-brain barrier to reach tumor cells. There it directly targeted multiple oncogenes at once, increasing cancer cell death and reducing cancer cell growth. SNAs are composed of multiple strands of DNA and RNA densely arranged around a nanoparticle center.

"We demonstrate a more specific, more personalized approach to therapy," Stegh said. "SNAs are a very promising platform to silence the particular genes that drive or contribute to cancer progression in individual patients."

There are 16,000 new cases of the deadly brain tumor reported in the U.S. every year. Patients have a very poor prognosis, with median survival of just 14 to 16 months.

The molecule miR-182 is a microRNA, a type of short non-coding RNA that can bind to hundreds of genes to reduce their protein expression in cells. Looking at large-scale genomic datasets, Stegh and colleagues saw that patients with higher levels of miR-182 had a better chance of surviving glioblastoma mulitforme longer.

In the study, they found that miR-182 suppressed Bcl2L12, a cancer gene that blocks cancer cell death in response to chemo- and radiation therapy. The microRNA also impeded two other oncogenes, c-Met and HIF2A. The next challenge was establishing a way to get miR-182 to those specific targets.

The solution was in SNAs, a structure invented by Northwestern colleague and co-author Chad Mirkin, the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of medicine at Feinberg.
"We designed a novel delivery method for miR-182 using SNAs," Stegh said.

 "Small gold nanoparticles are conjugated with miR-182 sequences. They cross the blood-brain/blood-tumor barrier, and accumulate within brain tumor sites, where they target oncogenes, regulate cell growth and differentiation, reduce tumor burden and prolong survival in our mouse models."

SNAs have unique properties that allow them to reach cells safely without causing toxicity or activating the immune system.

"Our approach to gene silencing has not been demonstrated before in such a powerful way for the treatment of brain cancers," Stegh said. "These particles, microRNA based SNAs, could also potentially be used for gene silencing in other cancers and diseases of genetic origin."

Additional studies will be needed to test miR-182 and the nanoparticle delivery before it becomes an option for patients with glioblastoma mulitforme. But first, Stegh and colleagues want to hone the particle design and to investigate treatments that combine miR-182 with established chemotherapy drugs in mouse models.

This News is republished from site http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150403095933.htm 
"It may surprise you to learn that most of the bacteria found on elevator buttons and restroom surfaces can also normally be found ON YOUR HANDS!"

In their quest to culture every object on planet Earth, researchers have found that hospital elevator buttons are more contaminated with bacteria than restroom surfaces.
Of 120 randomly cultured elevator buttons, 73 (61%) grew bacteria. Washroom surfaces were cultured 96 times with 41 (43%) showing microbial growth.

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As is customary with papers like this, the media sensationalized the findings with headlines like, “Why you should never ever touch that hospital elevator button.”
Most stories eventually mentioned the fact that the authors said the majority of bacteria found “had low pathogenicity,” but some, including Vox.com, mrsaidblog.com, newsok.com, and mynews13.com, did not. In fact, the MRSAID blog also confused the benign streptococcus found in this paper with the pathogen that causes strep throat.
I’ve written several posts about the culturing of various inanimate objects and pointed out that disease transmission has not been documented for almost all surfaces on which bacteria are found.
Like most papers in this genre, this one has some flaws. You can read the full text here.
It was published in an open-access journal called Open Medicine. It is not among the top 40 internal medicine journals listed by impact factor. In fact, it has no discernible impact factor at all and is not listed PubMed.
The title of the paper, “Elevator buttons as unrecognized sources of bacterial colonization in hospitals” overstates the case a bit.
Table 1 of the paper shows the types of bacteria found on both the elevator buttons and surfaces in the restrooms.
Pathogens were few. Multiple organisms were found in several instances accounting for some of the numerical discrepancies. I could not figure out how the percentages were calculated. In neither column did the percentages add up to 100%.
Samples of restroom surfaces were taken “a few months” after the elevator buttons were cultured. The authors conceded that this may have confounded the results.
Washroom sample swabs were taken from the exterior and interior entry-door handles, the privacy latch, and the toilet flusher. They did not swab toilet seats, which previous studies have shown are the gold standard to which all inanimate surfaces should be compared.
It may surprise you to learn that most of the bacteria found on elevator buttons and restroom surfaces can also normally be found ON YOUR HANDS!
Skeptical Scalpel is a retired surgeon and was a surgical department chairman and residency program director for many years. He is board-certified in general surgery and critical care and has re-certified in both several times. He blogs at SkepticalScalpel.blogspot.com and tweets as @SkepticScalpel.

This news is reprinited from site http://www.physiciansweekly.com/wear-hazmat-suit-operate-elevator/#sthash.fZKHB180.dpuf

A study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and colleagues in the Netherlands evaluated the relationship between nutritional conditions in very early life and adult health, and found that famine exposure during the first pregnancy trimester was associated with increases in mortality from a variety of causes other than cancer or cardiovascular disease.


This is the first study to quantify the possible long-term effects of nutrition deprivation at different stages of pregnancy and long-term mortality from causes of death coded by the current International Statistical Classification of Diseases.
Findings are published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
The study evaluated how famine exposure--defined as 900 calories or less per day--during the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944-1945 at different stages of pregnancy affected mortality through age 63.

Of more than 41,000 men born in the Netherlands from January 1944 to December 1947 and examined at age 18 years for military service in the Netherlands, 22,952 were born at the time of the Dutch Famine in six famine-stricken cities. A total of 5,011 deaths recorded during the follow-up period included 1,938 deaths (39 percent) from cancer, 1,040 (21 percent) from heart disease, and 1,418 (29 percent) from other natural causes, including diseases of the circulatory system (excluding heart disease) and diabetes. In addition, there were 523 deaths (10 percent) from external causes, such as transportation accidents, and intentional self-harm. The researchers adjusted for father's occupation, religion, education, body mass index, and fitness for military service.
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"The circumstances of the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944-1945, with civilian starvation caused by the conditions of World War II, offer a unique opportunity to study the possible fetal origins of common diseases and adult health and critical periods in gestation," said L.H. Lumey, MD, PhD, Mailman School associate professor of Epidemiology and lead author. Prior studies by the Mailman School of Public Health and other institutions have reported an increase in body mass index and a prevalence of type 2 diabetes in both men and women after prenatal famine exposure, but until now results have been inconsistent with respect to cardiovascular disease.

"The robustness of the patterns we observed in the different control groups points to very early gestation as the period when the fetus is especially sensitive to the environment. It also suggests that early childhood exposure to the famine for people born just before the famine had no impact on long-term mortality in this population," according to Lumey.

Continuing Research

Further follow-up of the participants will provide more accurate risk estimates of mortality from specific causes of death after nutritional disturbances during gestation and very early life.

"These are the first study results of a very long-term project. The men in our study population were 63 years of age at follow-up and 85 percent of the cohort is still alive. They will now be entering a period of rapidly increasing mortality," said Lumey, "and this will provide significantly more study power in the future to detect small but important associations between famine exposure by stage of gestation and even more narrowly defined causes of death."

With a recent renewal of funding from the National Institutes of Health, the study will soon be expanded to include socio-economic outcomes (employment, wages, and disability benefits) for analysis with state-of-the-art epidemiologic and econometric methods. "Our new analyses will integrate currently separate research traditions from medical and social sciences and are likely to lead to a better understanding of 'fetal programming' and its implications," said Lumey.
The expanded study will include as co-investigator Nobel Laureate James Heckman from the University of Chicago to look at long-term effects of early deprivation on human capital outcomes.

This news is reprinted from site http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150327132238.htm

Scientists at the University of Michigan have, for the first time, succeeded in growing 3D mini lungs from human stem cells, and the resulting structures resemble both the large proximal airways and the small distal airways. The advantage of growing 3D structures is that their organization bears greater similarity to the human lung.

First 3D Mini Lungs

The ingredients included in the process were embryonic stem cells, proteins involved in lung development, growth factors, inhibitors of intestine development, growing media, petri dish, protein mixture, and method for 'morphogenesis in a dish.' Researchers first, added the protein ActivinA to stem cells and left them for four days. Then they added Noggin, another protein, and a transforming growth factor, and left it for another four days. Researchers found the endoderm is induced to form 3D spherical structures called the foregut spheroids. These spheroids were then transferred to protein mixture and incubated at room temperature for 10 minutes until the mixture solidifies. They were treated with additional proteins every four days and transferred into a new protein mixture every 10-15 days. 

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The resulting lung organoids were able to survive in culture for over 100 days and develop into well-organized structures containing cell types found in the lung. The lung organoids are self-organizing, and do not require further manipulation to generate 3-dimensional tissues. Since these structures were developed in a petri dish, they lack several components of the native lung, including blood vessels, which are a critical component of gas exchange. 

The study appears in eLife.

This news is republished from site http://www.medindia.net/news/us-scientists-develop-first-3d-mini-lungs-from-human-stem-cells-147713-1.htm#ixzz3VYkoL0RX
A review published today by The Lancet Infectious Diseases warns of a potential upsurge in mosquito and tick-borne diseases across Europe as the climate gets warmer

Insects, such as mosquitoes and ticks, are responsible for transmitting a range of diseases, such as malaria, chikungunya, dengue fever, and West Nile virus. The risk of contracting such illnesses is generally only considered when booking an exotic holiday. However, experts from the Emergency Response Department at Public Health England have warned that climate change could allow such vector-borne diseases to emerge closer to home.

In the last 10 years, vector-borne diseases have emerged in new areas across Europe, eg, malaria in Greece, West Nile virus in Eastern Europe, chikungunya in Italy and France. The authors predict that disease-carrying mosquitoes may also become prevalent in the UK within the next few decades as the climate becomes increasingly mild and wet. Such conditions provide ideal breeding conditions for the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), which spreads the viruses that cause dengue and chikungunya. The mosquito responsible for the transmission of West Nile virus (Culex modestus) has already been identified at a number of sites across Kent, although there is currently no indication of virus transmission.
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Author of the review, Dr Medlock commented “Given the ongoing spread of invasive mosquitoes across Europe, with accompanying outbreaks of dengue and chikungunya virus, Public Health England has been conducting surveillance at seaports, airports, and some motorway service stations. Although no non-native invasive mosquitoes have been detected in the UK so far, a better system to monitor imported used tyres, in which disease-carrying mosquitoes lay their eggs, needs planning”

Dengue fever is currently considered to be a tropical disease, since the larvae and eggs of the transmitting mosquito cannot survive freezing temperatures. However, climate change models indicate that by 2030 temperatures will have risen sufficiently to enable the Aedes mosquito to survive across large parts of England and Wales.

Author Professor Leach added “We are not suggesting that climate change is the only or the main factor driving the increase in vector-borne diseases in the UK and Europe but that it is one of many factors, including socioeconomic development, urbanisation, widespread land-use change, migration, and globalisation, that should be considered.”

In order to avoid future outbreaks of vector-borne diseases, we must ensure that public health systems worldwide have the ability to adapt to cope with the infectious diseases that might result from climate change.

This new is republished form site http://www.news-medical.net/news/20150323/Insect-borne-diseases-increase-with-warmer-climate.aspx

Women who give birth to four or more children are more likely to have cardiovascular changes that can be early indicators of heart disease than women who have fewer children, new research by UT Southwestern Medical Center cardiologists finds.

"This study adds to a body of evidence that pregnancy, which generally occurs early in a woman's life, can provide insight into a woman's future cardiovascular risk," said Dr. Monika Sanghavi, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and lead author of the study
Using data gathered for the Dallas Heart Study, researchers compared the number of live births reported by women in the study with their coronary artery calcium (CAC) levels and aortic wall thickness (AWT). High levels of coronary artery calcification and thicker aortic walls are markers of heart disease that show up before symptoms develop.
Women were divided into three groups: One or no live births, two to three live births, and four or more live births. Women who reported four or more live births had a 27 percent prevalence of a high calcium score compared with 11 percent among those with two to three live births. The trend was similar when looking at AWT measurements.

The associations were not affected by adjusting for socioeconomic status or traditional cardiovascular risk factors, suggesting that physiological changes associated with pregnancy may account for the change, Dr. Sanghavi said.
Further studies will be needed to identify the causes, but researchers said one possibility might be that women who have many pregnancies may have more visceral fat (fat around abdominal organs), which has been linked to increased heart disease risk. Another possibility could be that increased cholesterol and higher blood sugar associated with pregnancy may lead to increased risk.
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"During pregnancy, a woman's abdominal size increases, she has higher levels of lipids in her blood, and higher blood sugar levels," Dr. Sanghavi said. "Each pregnancy increases this exposure."
The study also found slightly higher rates of high CAC and AWT measurements among women who had one or no children, compared with women who gave birth to two or three children, suggesting a U-shaped association between number of births and heart disease, with the lowest risk at two or three births.
"It's likely that there is a different mechanism for the increased risk at the low end," Dr. Sanghavi said. "Some of these women could have some underlying disease that prevents them from carrying births to term and increases their risk for heart disease."
"We are learning that there are numerous physiologic changes during pregnancy that have consequences for future heart health," said senior author Dr. Amit Khera, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, who directs the Preventive Cardiology Program and holds the Dallas Heart Ball Chair in Hypertension and Heart Disease. "This study reminds us of the importance of taking a pregnancy history as part of cardiovascular disease screening."

This news is republished from site  http://www.news-medical.net/news/20150325/Women-who-give-birth-to-four-or-more-children-at-risk-of-heart-disease.aspx
We have all been there; whether in class at school or a meeting at work, sometimes it feels as if our brain just gives up and leaves the building. But according to a new study by researchers from Saarland University in Germany, a short daytime nap could significantly boost brain power.

Publishing their findings in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, the team reveals that a sleep of around 45-60 minutes could improve learning and memory by fivefold.
This is not the first study to associate daytime napping with improved memory performance. In January,Medical News Today reported on a study by researchers from the University of Sheffield in the UK, who found that a 30-minute nap within 4 hours of a learning task significantly improved infants' memory.
But this latest study reveals that power naps may also benefit memory for adults, with the team revealing how a short sleep may affect the brain to produce this outcome.
To reach their findings, study leader Alex Mecklinger, of the Experimental Neuropsychology Unit at Saarland, and his team enrolled 41 participants to take part in a learning task.
Participants were shown a list of 90 single words and 120 unrelated word pairs and were asked to learn them. The researchers explain that unrelated word pairs were used in order to eliminate the possibility that participants may have remembered the words as a result of familiarity.
"A word pair might, for example, be 'milk-taxi.' Familiarity is of no use here when participants try to remember this word pair," explains Mecklinger, "because they have never heard this particular word combination before and it is essentially without meaning. They therefore need to access the specific memory of the corresponding episode in the hippocampus."
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After the learning task, participants were immediately required to complete a memory recall test. Half of the participants were then asked to take a nap of up to 90 minutes, while the remaining subjects were asked to watch a DVD.
The brain activity of the napping participants was measured via electroencephalogram (EEG) while they slept, with the team specifically focusing on "sleep spindles" - a burst of activity in the hippocampus region that plays a key role in memory consolidation.
"We suspect that certain types of memory content, particularly information that was previously tagged, is preferentially consolidated during this type of brain activity," says Mecklinger.
Next, all participants were asked to retake the memory recall test, requiring them to once again remember the words and word pairs shown to them prior to napping or watching a DVD.

Better learning, memory linked to greater number of sleep spindles during nap

The researchers found that, compared with participants who watched the DVD, those who napped for around 45-60 minutes following the learning task performed approximately five times better when it came to remembering the word pairs.
In fact, the researchers note that word pair recall of the napping participants was just as good as it was on the memory tests completed immediately after learning.
Short naps were not associated with improvement in item memory - the ability to remember phone numbers, for example, or a friend's name - the team says.
According to the researchers, these findings suggest that a short nap can significantly boost associative memory - the ability to remember a link between items that are unrelated, such as the name of a person we have just met.
What is more, the team found that better learning and memory recall was associated with a greater number of sleep spindles in the EEG, supporting their theory that sleep spindles play a role in specific forms of memory; in this case - associative memory.

Commenting on their findings, Mecklinger says:
"A short nap at the office or in school is enough to significantly improve learning success. Wherever people are in a learning environment, we should think seriously about the positive effects of sleep."
Earlier this month, MNT reported on a study published in Nature Neuroscience, in which researchers found our head-direction cells - the "internal compass" that tells us which direction we should face - continue to be active during sleep.
This news is reprinted from site  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/291282.php