Wireless Automatic Drug Dispenser Implant

Implantable drug dispenser could be great solution for those on long-term prescriptions...

Researchers have developed a new implantable drug dispensary that automatically administers the correct amount of medication, at the push of a button.

The wireless chip, which is about the size of an average flash drive, promises to make drug delivery painless and more efficient.

The chip was designed by Robert Langer, the Institute Professor at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, who together with fellow MIT professor Michael Cima, developed the first version of the implantable drug-delivery chip in the late 1990s and set up a company called MicroCHIPS Inc to begin researching their device.

Devising a system that could work in living tissue wasn’t easy. To do this the researchers made the chip with an array of tiny wells that contain micro dosage of the drug. The wells are sealed with ultrathin layer of platinum and titanium.

Implantable Medical Device Will Dispense Medication

To administer the drug, an external radio frequency is send to the chip, which then applies a voltage to melt the metal film and release the drug. The team also had to ensure the chips could not be hacked.

The recent study the team attempted to treat 7 women suffering from osteoporosis with a widely used drug, teriparatide – known for reversing bone loss in people with severe osteoporosis.

Teriparatide needs daily injections, to work effectively, and it’s so potent that it must be administered in micrograms; these two factors made the drug an ideal candidate for the study.

The chips were implanted into the abdomens of the participants in January 2011. Each chip contain 20 doses of the drug,

One problem that occurs when foreign objects reside in the body for a long duration of time is the formation of a fibrous, collagen-based membrane that begins to grow around the object. To see if this caused any problems with the delivery of the drugs, the chip remained in the patients for 1 year.

All patients liked the implants and all devices successfully delivered the correct dosages, with no negative side effects.

The next stage is to test different drugs for longer periods of time. In the future, Koch hopes that the chip will no only be able to administer drugs, but will also be able to sense exactly when to do this, instead of have a doctor push a button, or set a pre-programmed administering time.

The study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Scientists Cure Hemophiliacs

Scientist use gene therapy to cure hemophilia…

Scientists say they have successfully cured four patients with Hemophilia – a disease the causes defective blood clotting which leads to excessive bleeding that can kill.

After years of preclinical trials, which including curing hemophiliac mice, scientist finally started trials on humans using gene therapy.

The patients were injected with a specially built virus containing a working version of the gene responsible for blood clotting. The virus implants the gene into liver cells where they begin to produce the chemical need for clotting.

Red and White Blood Cells

After 6 months of injections to maintain elevated levels of the working gene, four of them were able to stop receiving injections altogether.

The researchers are now monitoring the patients for any signs of liver cancer caused by the virus, a known risk of gene therapy, but so far there have been no complications.

The next stage will be the trial of 20 patients to assess what dosage of the virus is necessary to get enough liver cells making clotting factor so that all patients can stop receiving injections.

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Stem Cells Safe Procedure To Treat Blindness

The world’s first clinical trials using embryonic stem cells to treat blindness suggest the technique is safe…

The world’s first human trial using stem cells to treat blindness, suggests that the procedure is safe.

US-based Advanced Cell Technology together with the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, have announced their first results, which showed the embryonic stems can be successful attached to deteriorated retina, without showing signs of rejection.

Trials using the same technique have now begun at London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital.

The trials involved two patients; one elderly woman in her 70s with dry age-related macular degeneration, and another female patient in her 50s with Stargardt’s disease. Both had very poor vision and were registered blind.

The team injected a mixture, containing 50,000 retinal cells, into the eyes of the patients. The cells then attached to the retinal membrane and grow to replicate the function of other healthy cells surrounding it.

Four months after surgery, both patients were doing well, the team reported.

While the study was conducted to test if the procedure is safe, and not to test if it actually works, the patients did report improved vision following the operation.

If proved safe, the treatment should be able to treat patients with currently incurable blindness, however since using embryonic stem cells is a highly controversial topic, the technique will face great opposition, even if it’s deemed effective.

The team also notes that much more research needs to be conducted, and that it will be years before the treatment can be proven. Nevertheless, the results are certainly a step in the right direction for those who advocate stem cell therapy.

Worlds First Double Leg Transplant

Spanish surgeons perform the world’s first double leg transplant…

Spanish surgeons at the Le Fe Hospital, Valencia, have successfully performed the world’s first double leg transplant. Should the patient’s body accept the donor legs, doctors hope the man could be walking again within 6 months.

The 14 hour operation was lead by Pedro Cavadas, the surgeon who performed Spain’s first face transplant and several arm transplants.

The patient, who lost is legs in a traffic accident and faced life in a wheelchair because prosthetic limbs proved unsuitable, is already out of intensive care and was said to have cried tears of joy when he awoke.

The man and his donor remain unmanned.

Doctors are now waiting to see if the nerves in his legs will grow, and estimate that if the legs are not rejected, the patient should be able to move his knees within one month, stand unaided in swimming poll within two, and hopefully walk again within six.

However, even if nerves begin to grow, there is a long road ahead. Undergoing transplants of such a nature can have a great impact on the patient psychologically.
The first person to receive a new hand in 1998, New Zealander Clint Hallam, opted to have it removed three years later saying it was unsightly and he felt mentally detached from it.

There’s also concern as to whether the new legs will even be able to support his bodyweight.

Nadey Hakim, who performed the world’s first hand and double hand transplants explained that transplanted arms only regain about 50 percent of their original function and strength.

Smartphone Embedded In Prosthetic Limb

British man has smartphone embedded in his prosthetic limb…

A British man has become the world’s first person to have a smart phone embedded in his prosthetic limb.

Trevor Prideaux was born without his left forearm and has worn an artificial limb since he was three years old. Despite coping well with his disability, Prideaux, now 50, became feed up of balancing his smartphone on his prosthetic limb or on a flat surface, and decided to do something about it.

Smartphone Embedded In Prosthetic Limb

He approached Apple, hoping to get an iPhone casing for testing however Cupertino declined his proposal. The idea went on the back burner until he visited his local Nokia shop for an upgrade. Nokia took on his idea, and with help from the Exeter Mobility Center in Devon, UK, the team carefully carved out a dock in Prideaux’s fiberglass and laminate limb, and embedded a Nokia C7 smartphone.

Now, Prideaux can easily press the buttons using his one hand and take calls by holding his prosthetic limb up to his ear.

Although the upgrade to his prosthetic is far from the cyborg concepts of science ficition, it does open plethora of options for the future of prosthetic limbs; think accelerometers and motions sensors used to track health and fitness; or extra storage for digital data or batteries; additional displays or speakers; the possibilities are endless.

AeroShot Caffeine Inhaler

Nicotine addicts can now get their fix from a tasteless caffeine inhaler…

New studies that show the health benefits of caffeinekeep popping up, but whilst some researchers are working to change the bad reputation it has gained over the ages, no-one really seems to be changing the way we consume this lightly stimulating drug, all except the makers of AeroShot – the caffeine dispensing inhaler.

Each cartridge – which contains a small amount of vitamin B and 100 milligrams of caffeine – provides the same amount of caffeine as a large cup of coffee, without staining the teeth or causing bad breath.

And unlike caffeine energy drinks, AeroShot cartridges do not contain any sugar or calories, and it has no discernible flavor, according to the company.

The AeroShot was developed by Harvard professor David Edwards and Tom Hadfield, who founded a company called Breathable Foods specifically to market the device.

Aeroshot will go on sale in New York and Boston in the next couple of months.

Cuban Lung Cancer Drug Keeps Patients Alive

A new treatment for lung cancer is proving so successful it’s being hailed as a lung cancer vaccine…

A new anti-lung cancer drug developed in Cuba is being hailed as a ‘vaccine’ for the fatal disease that kills almost 1.5 million people every year.

Although the new drug is not a true vaccine – it does not actually prevent cancer – it has been shown to greatly reduce the symptoms enough to make the disease much more manageable.

New Treatment For Lung Cancer Shows Promise

The drug known as CimaVax-EGF, works by targeting the specific proteins responsible for the proliferation of cancer. By generating antibodies to combat these proteins, the CimaVax-EGF effectively limits the damage the cancer can cause.

Unfortunately the drug does not make the patient feel 100 percent better but it has been shown to keep them alive, even those diagnosed with stage 3 and 4 cancer who have not responded to other types of treatment.

CimaVax-EGF is the result of a 25 year project at Havana’s Center for Molecular Immunology, and has already been tested in over 1000 clinical trials, with much success. So much so that the drug is already being used in conjunction with chemo and radiotherapy, and is available free of charge to all hospitals on the island.

The drug is still undergoing trials, however if it proves successful, CimaVax-EGF could turn the fatal killer into a more manageable chronic disease.