Health

Biodegradable electronic implants that can be reabsorbed by the body have been used to administer drugs in mice, a group of international researchers has announced.

In a paper published in US journal Science, the researchers describe how electronic circuits made from silicon, magnesium and silk can be used as medical implants to deliver treatments before degrading into the surrounding environment.

Many biomedical implants only need to operate for a certain period of time, after which they [could now] dissolve and disappear to eliminate unwanted, and unnecessary, device load on the body, explained paper co-author John Rogers, a bioengineer and mechanical scientist at the University of Illinois, USA — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Nearsightedness, or myopia, affects more than 40 percent of people in the US and up to 90 percent of children in some parts of Asia. The problem begins in childhood and often progresses with age. Standard prescription lenses can correct the defocus but do not cure nearsightedness, and do not slow progression rates as children grow.

But recent experimental work by biomedical scientist David Troilo and colleagues at the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry in New York City supports the development of a potential cure for myopia by using specialty contact lenses that coax the eye to grow in a way that can correct nearsighted vision while reducing myopia progression. Troilo will describe his findings at the Optical Society’s (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2012, taking place 14 October in Rochester, NY — via redwolf.newsvine.com

A harmless virus that lives on our skin could be used as a treatment for acne, scientists believe.

The virus, called a phage, is naturally built to target and kill bacteria that cause acne — Propionibacterium acnes.

Experts at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Pittsburgh found 11 different versions of virus in this phage family that had this power.

They plan lab work to see if they can harness it as a therapy — via redwolf.newsvine.com

We’re lucky to live in a modern age, an age when, instead of ripping out a painful cavity-ridden tooth, we can have dentists drill away the rotten bit and plug up the hole with a filling. But a new discovery reveals that fillings aren’t just modern conveniences: they date back to the Stone Age. Researchers have discovered that a tooth on a 6500-year-old human jawbone has a large cavity covered by a beeswax cap—making that wax the oldest dental filling ever discovered.

The well-cared-for jaw was discovered in a cave in Slovenia. Radiocarbon dating indicates that both the jawbone and the wax filling come from the Stone Age. And a close examination of the teeth shows that the left canine has worn enamel, a vertical crack, and a beeswax cap that partially fills the cavity — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Japanese scientists have developed an ultra-thin material that can protect teeth from decay and restore tooth enamel. The material can be wrapped around the teeth to prevent the growth of bacteria, AFP reports — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Researchers have created a new type of miniature pump activated by body heat that could be used in drug-delivery patches powered by fermentation.

The micropump contains Baker’s yeast and sugar in a small chamber. When water is added and the patch is placed on the skin, the body heat and the added water causes the yeast and sugar to ferment, generating a small amount of carbon dioxide gas. The gas pushes against a membrane and has been shown to continually pump for several hours, said Babak Ziaie, a Purdue University professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering.

Such miniature pumps could make possible drug-delivery patches that use arrays of microneedles to deliver a wider range of medications than now possible with conventional patches. Unlike many other micropumps under development or in commercial use, the new technology requires no batteries, said Ziaie, who is working with doctoral student Manuel Ochoa.

This just needs yeast, sugar, water and your own body heat, Ziaie said — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Gene therapy has been used to give mice born without a sense of smell the ability to sniff their surroundings, an international team of researchers say.

The mice had a genetic disease which affected microscopic hairs in their body — called cilia — which can detect chemicals in the air.

Researchers hope their findings will lead to treatments for diseased cilia, which can cause blindness, deafness and kidney disease in people.

The study is in Nature Medicine.

Microscopic cilia stick out from many cells in the body. A range of genetic disorders called ciliopathies result in damaged cilia which can be fatal or severely debilitating. One symptom can be a lifetime without a sense of smell, called congenital anosmia — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Australian researchers have successfully performed the first implantation of an early prototype bionic eye with 24 electrodes. A blind woman, Ms Dianne Ashworth, 54, who has serious vision loss due to an inherited condition (retinitis pigmentosa) can now see spots of light after being implanted with an early prototype bionic eye, confirming the potential of the world-first technology.

Ms Ashworth has received what she calls a pre-bionic eye implant that enables her to experience some vision. After years of hard work and planning, Ms Ashworth’s implant was switched in July 2012 at the Melbourne Bionics Institute, while researchers held their breaths in the next room, observing via video link.

According to the researchers this the first time when a device successfully implanted behind the retina demonstrates the viability of this scientific approach — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Using small nets to extract blood clots from patients’ brains may be the future of stroke care, according to two studies.

Clots block blood vessels, starving parts of the brain of oxygen, which leads to symptoms such as paralysis and loss of speech.

Two studies, presented in the Lancet medical journal, suggest extracting clots with nets could improve recovery.

The Stroke Association said it was very excited by the treatment’s potential.

There are already techniques for reopening blocked blood vessels in people’s brains.

Some patients will be given clot-busting drugs, but this needs to be in the hours just after the stroke and is not suitable for everyone — via redwolf.newsvine.com

For millennia, face paint has helped soldiers avoid being seen by enemy forces. This Wednesday, however, a team of scientists from the University of Southern Mississippi announced that a new type of face paint may soon also be able to protect against the heat of bomb blasts and other explosions. Additionally, a clear version of the paint could be used by civilian fire-fighters.

The team created the material at the request of the U.S. Department of Defence, which was looking for an unobtrusive way of protecting soldiers’ exposed skin from the thermal blasts created by weapons such as roadside bombs.

It was definitely a challenge, as the scientists weren’t able to use traditional hydrocarbon-based make-up ingredients, as they are flammable when exposed to intense heat. Instead, they used silicones, as the wavelengths at which they absorb radiation are outside of the intense heat spectrum.

Making things more difficult was the fact that the paint did have to include DEET, the flammable insect repellent — the US military stipulates that all camouflage make-up it uses must be composed of at least 35 percent DEET. In this case, the researchers got around the problem by encapsulating the DEET within a hydrogel, to keep it from igniting — via redwolf.newsvine.com

The neural code used by a mouse’s retina to communicate to the brain has been deciphered and used to successfully restore normal vision to blind mice, US researchers reported.

The two scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, who published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have also deciphered the retinal neural code of monkeys — which is essentially identical to that of humans.

It’s an exciting time, said Sheila Nirenberg, a computational neuroscientist and lead researcher on the study. We can make blind mouse retinas see, and we’re moving as fast as we can to do the same in humans — via redwolf.newsvine.com

There are benefits to getting your own back. Especially if it is blood.

The bigger the operation, the more blood gets spilled. In procedures like open heart surgery and major trauma, blood loss can be so great that large quantities need to be replaced.

Blood transfusions are often the preferred option. But in a minority of cases there can be adverse reactions.

And then there is the cost. As Professor Terry Gourlay puts it: Blood is not cheap — via redwolf.newsvine.com