Science

The threat of flu looms large in the northern hemisphere as winter starts to set in. But getting a preventative shot might not be the best line of defence any more — because new research suggests a small dose of crystal meth might be effective too.

Researchers, from the National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan and the University of Regensburg in Germany, have been working together to investigate how methamphetamine interacts with different viral infections. Meth is a widely abused drug, and there’s a wealth of evidence that suggests chronic use can dramatically increase the risk of picking up viruses because it suppresses the immune response of the body.

The researchers guessed the same would be true for influenza, but, like all good scientists, they had to prove their hypothesis — so they set to testing it out. First, they took human lung cells and nurtured them in the lab before exposing some of them to cystal meth. They then exposed the cells to the H1N1 influenza virus.

What they observed surprised them. Instead of increasing the rate of development and spread of the virus, meth seems to reduce susceptibility to flu. The results are published in PLoS One — via redwolf.newsvine.com

A breakthrough new experimental treatment that uses nanoparticles covered with proteins to trick the immune system, managed to stop it attacking myelin and halt disease progression in mice with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). The researchers say the approach may also be applicable to other auto-immune diseases such as asthma and type 1 diabetes.

Corresponding author Stephen Miller is the Judy Gugenheim Research Professor of Microbiology-Immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago in the US. He says in a statement:

We administered these particles to animals who have a disease very similar to relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis and stopped it in its tracks.

We prevented any future relapses for up to 100 days, which is the equivalent of several years in the life of an MS patient, he adds — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Scientists have reversed paralysis in dogs after injecting them with cells grown from the lining of their nose.

The pets had all suffered spinal injuries which prevented them from using their back legs.

The Cambridge University team is cautiously optimistic the technique could eventually have a role in the treatment of human patients.

The study is the first to test the transplant in real-life injuries rather than laboratory animals.

In the study, funded by the Medical Research Council and published in the neurology journal Brain, the dogs had olfactory ensheathing cells from the lining of their nose removed.

These were grown and expanded for several weeks in the laboratory — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Scientists have created an artificial eye lens out of 800,000 layers of plastic that could revolutionise eye implants and aerial surveillance.

Based on research from 2008 published in journal Optics Express, the new plastic eye closely copies the structure of the human eye and other natural materials including tendons and butterfly wings.

Researchers at the Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, working with spin-off lab PolymerPlus, created the lens by stacking up layers of laminated plastic. Weighing a tenth of a traditional lens, the polymer version is up to three times more powerful and, crucially, had the capability to be flexible enough to incrementally change its refraction of light.

The new polymer lens can refract light thousands of different ways because each layer has its own refractive index. This multilayer lens design is called gradient refractive index optics, or GRIN optics. That contrasts to traditional lenses that have a single surface and a single refractive index — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Adding calm down genes to hyperactive brain cells has completely cured rats of epilepsy for the first time, say UK researchers.

They believe their approach could help people who cannot control their seizures with drugs.

The study, published in the journal Science Translation Medicine, used a virus to insert the new genes into a small number of neurons.

About 50 million people have epilepsy worldwide.

However, drugs do not work for up to 30% of them. The alternatives include surgery to remove the part of the brain that triggers a fit or to use electrical stimulation — via redwolf.newsvine.com

It sounds like the theoretical impossibility of perpetual motion, but engineers at the University of Michigan have created a pacemaker that is powered by the beating of your heart — no batteries required.

The technology behind this new infinite-duration pacemaker is one that we’ve discussed before at length on ExtremeTech: piezoelectricity. Piezoelectricity is literally pressure electricity, and it relates to certain materials that generate tiny amounts of electricity when deformed by an external force. Piezoelectricity is exciting because it can harvest energy from kinetic energy that is currently wasted — the vibration of machines, the straining of floorboards in public/commercial spaces, the wobbling of bridges, the soles of your feet as you walk.

A conventional pacemaker. The long electrode is embedded in the heart. The main unit must be replaced when the battery runs out.

Or, in the case of the perpetual pacemaker, the vibrations in your chest as your heart pumps blood around your body. Piezoelectric devices generate very small amounts of power — on the order of tens of milliwatts — but it turns out that pacemakers require very power, too. In testing, the researchers’ energy harvester generated 10 times the required the power to keep a pacemaker firing — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Researchers say they have seen the earliest ever warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease among a high-risk group of 20-somethings in the ongoing quest for early detection and prevention.

A major problem in the search for a cure for this debilitating form of dementia is that symptoms appear years after irreversible brain decay has already set in.

For the study, a team of scientists from the United States and Colombia tested 18- to 26-year-old members of an extended Colombian family that share a common ancestor and a genetic predisposition to develop an inherited form of Alzheimer’s — via redwolf.newsvine.com

A cheap test which could detect even low levels of viruses and some cancers has been developed by UK researchers.

The colour of a liquid changes to give either a positive or negative result.

The designers from Imperial College London say the device could lead to more widespread testing for HIV and other diseases in parts of the world where other methods are unaffordable.

The prototype, which needs wider testing, is described in the journal Nature Nanotechnology — via redwolf.newsvine.com

In a medical breakthrough, Australian surgeons have managed to regrow breast tissue for women who have had cancer surgery.

They say in one patient, breast tissue was successfully grown from her own fat cells.

It is hoped regrowing breasts after a mastectomy could one day become an alternative to silicone implants — via redwolf.newsvine.com