Bangalore, April 4
<b>Indian stem cell researchers at the Manipal hospital here today announced the first worldwide case of a recovery from Parkinson's disease by use of stem cells from the patient's own body.</b>
The claim is significant because the patient, Andrew Kisana, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, had come to Manipal hospital for treatment for Parkinson's disease after receiving both conventional as well as surgical treatment for the disease in the US. âThis is clearly the first such clearly documented case in which a patient has recovered from Parkinsonâs disease after the use of stem cellsâ, hospital managing director R. Basil disclosed.
Andrewâs recovery is significant. His daughter Kusma told TNS that her father found it difficult to walk and was dragging his right leg when he was admitted to the Manipal hospital last year. Andrew had found it difficult to swallow and even breathe when he was admitted to the hospital.
Andrew walked unaided to meet mediapersons today. Though his speech has improved, it is still slightly blurred. So he put across his thoughts via his laptop. Andrew said since his treatment here his general muscle strength had improved as had his gait, handwriting and bowel movements. He can walk unaided, which was impossible earlier and his tremors have reduced significantly.
Andrew said earlier though his motor skills had improved after a deep brain stimulation surgery conducted on him in the USA, he started having side effects, including severe laryngeal spasms. He said the current treatment had ensured an end to these spasms also. Andrew has been off all drugs for Parkinsonâs disease since the past six months.
<b>Explaining how this came about, hospitalâs nuerological disease institute head Dr N.K Venkataramana said Andrew had received three injections of isolated mesenchymal cells which had been harvested from his bone marrow. As many as 1.5 million of these stem cells had been transplanted into his brain. He said each injection cost Rs 75,000 adding that the cost could be reduced at a later stage.</b>
<b>Dr Venkataramana said stem cell research seemed to be promising in regenerating hope to cure Parkinsonâs disease as the present treatment at the best removed some of the symptoms but did not stop the progression of the disease.</b> He said the present initiative would motivate patients across the world to explore this new modality which did not involve any issue of ethics as adult stem cells were used. <b>âHowever, we need to observe the long term clinical effects in large number of patients to decide its role in the treatment of degenerative diseasesâ,</b> he added.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Indian stem cell researchers at the Manipal hospital here today announced the first worldwide case of a recovery from Parkinson's disease by use of stem cells from the patient's own body<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I will wait; I hope itâs not that same South Korean Hoax. I know in UCLA and San Diego , they are doing research on patients for some time, no promising results till now. CHina and Thailand hospitals also claimed but no verification after announcement or no further data available.
Why Indian Doctorâs donât announce finding via research paper with some data which gives credibility? Why they opt for propaganda on media?
I hope he can produce more data and cured patients.
The stem cell advance is creating waves.
Op-Ed from Tribune, Chandigarh, 6 April, 2007
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Stem cellâs potential
Wide-ranging research needed
The potential of stem cells in treating and even curing debilitating diseases, that have proved intractable to other forms of medical intervention, has been known for some time. The field is unfortunately embroiled in a controversy because of opposition from religious conservatives in the United States. This has, however, not prevented scientists in other parts of the world from going ahead, and the news that stem cell researchers at Manipal Hospital in Bangalore have claimed to have âcuredâ a patient of Parkinsonâs disease is intriguing. Apparently, the treatment was provided by using stem cells from the patientâs own body. In the West, even donated stem cells from another person have been transplanted to successfully treat patients suffering from blood cancer.
But Parkinsonâs has been particularly difficult to treat. To date, there is no cure or prevention. The disease attacks a specific part of the brain, and by the time it is identified, 80 per cent of the cells there have been damaged. The patientsâ movement and coordination, from walking and speaking to autonomous functions like swallowing and sweating, are affected. And the harrowing struggle begins. Treatment with pills has its own side-effects, ranging from jerky, uncontrolled movements to compulsive behaviours. Patients complain that since only a small number (relatively speaking) are affected, pharmaceutical companies do not spend enough money on research to cure Parkinsonâs.
This is where stem cells come in. If the doctors have indeed come up with a remedy, it is a dramatic breakthrough and will help millions world-wide. Manipal Hospitalâs neurological disease institute head Dr N.K. Venkataramana made the additional point that the present treatment did not stop the progression of the disease, but the potential was clear. He also added that since adult stem cells were used, the chances of the success causing a controversy were less. Much of the opposition is to embryonic stem cells. Scientists, however, aver that the greatest disease-curing potential lies in embryonic stem cells, and even in the US, a Democratic-dominated Congress appears ready to pass fresh legislation freeing up research. Manipalâs results, if validated, are indeed a step in the right direction.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->If the doctors have indeed come up with a remedy, it is a dramatic breakthrough and will help millions world-wide. Manipal Hospitalâs neurological disease institute head <b>Dr N.K. Venkataramana made the additional point that the present treatment did not stop the progression of the disease, but the potential was clear</b>. He also added that since adult stem cells were used, the chances of the success causing a controversy were less. Much of the opposition is to embryonic stem cells. Scientists, however, aver that the greatest disease-curing potential lies in embryonic stem cells, and even in the US, a Democratic-dominated Congress appears ready to pass fresh legislation freeing up research. <b>Manipalâs results, if validated, are indeed a step in the right direction</b>.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Why they care what US Congress is doing?
No validation, it should be a big news but no blip on any news channel.
04-09-2007, 02:26 PM (This post was last modified: 04-09-2007, 02:29 PM by Husky.)
Does this belong here? Saved this a short while back (content at link would by now have been replaced with something else): http://au.news.yahoo.com/070317/2/12s3v.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Saturday March 17, 11:11 AM
<b>Memory workouts 'beat computer games'</b>
Training the brain with a computer workout program may be better than classic computer games at staving off age-related mental decline, scientists reported on Friday.
While the computer and video game store has long been the bastion of teenagers and hard-core gamers, a host of new games for older folk have made their way into the stores.
The games, from companies like Nintendo and Mattel Inc, are based on studies showing that with a little training, older people can improve their brain power.
Researchers in Israel compared how one brain-training program, MindFit, fared versus a workout with a sampling of classic computer games, such as the puzzle game Tetris.
The study, funded by a grant from game maker CogniFit Ltd, involved 121 volunteers over 50 who used the MindFit training program or a sampling of computer games for three months. Volunteers were divided into groups. They were not told whether they were playing the brain workout program or a dummy program.
Both groups benefited, but the group using the MindFit program showed a statistically significant improvement in spatial short-term memory, spatial learning and focused attention.
These areas would be especially helpful with things like driving or preventing falls, a major source of injury in the elderly, said Dr Nir Giladi, a neurologist at Tel Aviv University in Israel who conducted the study.
"It looks like at least some cognitive domains are improved significantly even after a relatively short period of practice," Giladi said in a telephone interview.
Improvement was especially pronounced in users who started out with some form of cognitive decline.
The findings, which were presented on Friday at an Alzheimer's conference in Salzburg, Austria, were similar to a smaller study done at the University of California last year.
In that study, researchers studied 45 patients with mild cognitive impairment using either the Posit Science Brain Fitness program or comparable computer-based tasks.
The group using the Posit Science program showed a significant improvement in visual spatial memory and a trend toward short-term and long-term memory improvement.
Memory expert Dr Gary Small, who developed Mattel's Brain Games, said any brain workout program needs to be fun.
"If it is boring people are not going to do it," he said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Better than medicine one has to swallow or undergoing an operation is to train your brain and keep it young and more disease-resistant.
One knows this already, it is the general rule that applies with everything: excessive decline comes from disuse. It can be slowed down by keeping the organ in practise.
<b>Scar-free surgery procedures explored </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->PITTSBURGH - A 4-year-old boy lay on an operating table here a few weeks ago with a tumor that had eaten into his brain and the base of his skull. Standard surgery would involve cutting open his face, leaving an ugly scar and hindering his facial growth as he matured.
But doctors at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center knew a way to avoid those devastating consequences. They removed much of the tumor through the boy's nose.
Since then, doctors in New York and in France have announced they removed gall bladders through the vaginas of two women. <b>And doctors in India say they have performed appendectomies through the mouth.</b>
It's a startling concept and a little unpleasant to contemplate. But researchers are exploring new ways to do surgery using slender instruments through the body's natural openings, avoiding cutting through the skin and muscle.
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<!--emo&:thumbsup--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbup.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbup.gif' /><!--endemo--> Woman Survives 'Internal Decapitation'
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
(05-16) 15:04 PDT DENVER (AP) --
Even her surgeon calls her a miracle.
Shannon Malloy was critically injured Jan. 25 when a car crash slammed her into the dashboard. Her skull separated from her spine, although her skin, spinal cord and other internal organs remained intact.
The rare condition is known as clinically as internal decapitation, and it left her with no control over her head.
Her injuries left Malloy with nerve damage that made her eyes cross, and she has difficulty swallowing. She was not paralyzed.
Dr. Gary Ghiselli, an orthopedic spine surgeon at the Denver Spine Center, said he and his colleagues had never seen such an injury in someone still living.
"I've seen it once before," Ghiselli said, "and, unfortunately, the patient didn't make it."
Even after the crash, physicians in Nebraska, where Malloy lives, told relatives they should prepare to say their goodbyes.
Ghiselli said a will to survive kept Malloy, 30, alive long enough for surgeons to insert screws in her head and neck and attach a halo to minimize movement â no easy task.
"My skull slipped off my neck about five times," Malloy said. "Every time they tried to screw this to my head, I would slip."
Doctors eventually stabilized her head and strengthened her neck. The halo has since been removed.
"It's a miracle that she was able to survive from the actual accident," Ghiselli said. "It's a miracle that she's made the progress that she's made."
<b>Police arrest doctor parents of teen 'surgeon' who performed caesarean in India</b> <!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->NEW DELHI (AP) - Indian police arrested the physician parents of a 15-year-old boy who allegedly carried out a caesarean section birth under their supervision in an attempt to set a Guinness record, an official said Monday. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Not sure whether you are following this story, this is crazy, I just can't believe doctor parents are just out of their minds or just crazy to have name on some book. They have least concern about patient or new child life.
<b>ON THE RUN: Teen 'surgeon' flees from police in southern India</b> <!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Raj Sekharan, superintendent of police in Tiruchirappalli district in southern Tamil Nadu state, said that the boy had absconded and that police were looking for him.
On Monday, police arrested the parents of Dhileepan Raj, both doctors who supervised their son while he allegedly performed the Caesarean section. They were charged with cheating, forgery of records, endangering human life, concealing evidence and abetting a crime.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Immune system taught to fight deadly skin cancer</b>
First-of-a-kind treatment trains immune system to fight deadly skin cancer, doctors report
Marilynn Marchione, AP Medical Writer
On Saturday May 30, 2009, 3:33 pm EDT
   Buzz up! Print ORLANDO, Florida (AP) -- For the first time, a novel treatment that trains the immune system to fight cancer has shown a modest benefit in late-stage testing against the deadly skin cancer melanoma.
The approach is called a cancer vaccine, even though it treats disease rather than prevents it as most vaccines do.
Doctors say that in a study of 180 patients already getting standard treatments, the vaccine doubled the number of patients whose tumors shrank, and extended the time until their cancer worsened by about six weeks.
Results were reported Saturday at a cancer conference in Orlando.
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<!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo--> Cure for corneal blindness!
A team at the University of New South Wales harvested stem cells from patients' own eyes to rehabilitate the damaged cornea. The stem cells were cultured on a common therapeutic contact lens which was then placed onto the damaged cornea for 10 days, during which the cells were able to re-colonise the damaged eye surface.
<!--emo&:thumbsup--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbup.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbup.gif' /><!--endemo--> "CHIP may be a useful therapeutic target for treatments to break down LRRK2 in people with Parkinson's," said Goldberg.
He added: "Our next step is to identify cellular mechanisms that signal LRRK2 to be degraded by CHIP or by other mechanisms. Because LRRK2 mutations are believed to cause Parkinsonism by increasing the activity of LRRK2, enhancing the normal mechanisms that target LRRK2 for degradation by CHIP may be therapeutically beneficial."
The study has been published in the journal Public Library of Science.
<!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo--> Pee power: Hydrogen from urine to fuel cars?
7 Jul 2009, 0053 hrs IST, AGENCIES
Scientists have combined refuelling your car and relieving yourself by creating a new catalyst that can extract hydrogen from urine.
The catalyst could not only fuel the hydrogen-powered cars of the future, but could also help clean up municipal wastewater, physorg.com reported on Monday.
Predicting the future is by no means an easy task,
it requires considerable erudition, creativity,
imagination and wisdom.
Our website provides a vast database of articles
and ideas which examine the future of humanity
and how science, technology and evolution
may shape our common future.
<b>IS ABORTED FETAL DNA LINKED TO AUTISM?</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Autism and autism spectrum disorder are polygenic diseases, meaning that multiple genes have been shown to be associated with these diseases. Studies have also clearly shown that there is an environmental component, a trigger, that is required. Vaccines are an obvious potential environmental trigger for autism because of the almost universal childhood exposure to vaccines in first world countries. The vaccine-autism connection was first hypothesized following the introduction of a new measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to the U.S. in 1979, with complete U.S. market share by 1983, and to the UK in 1988. Autism rates began to rise in the U.S. after 1979 and rose dramatically after 1983, and likewise rose in the UK after 1988, leading physicians to suspect a link. Initially, the measles component of this vaccine, MMR II, was suspected to be the culprit. Subsequent studies have also focused on the presence of mercury in vaccines, which incidentally, the MMR II vaccine did not contain.
Those studies have largely ruled out the new measles portion of the MMR II or mercury as the environmental trigger for autism. However, the compelling temporal association between this new MMR vaccine and autism cannot be ignored or explained away. What has been ignored is the fact that this new MMR vaccine introduced the use of aborted fetal cells for vaccine production. At one point, as much as 94 percent of children in the U.S. and 98 percent of children in the UK were given this vaccine.
Today, more than 23 vaccines are contaminated by the use of aborted fetal cells. There is no law that requires that consumers be informed that some vaccines are made using aborted fetal cells and contain residual aborted fetal DNA. While newer vaccines produced using aborted fetal cells do inform consumers, in their package inserts, that the vaccines contain contaminating DNA from the cell used to produce the vaccine, they do not identify the cells as being derived from electively aborted human fetuses. (See the Varivaxâchicken poxâpackage insert for the presence of MRC5 residual DNA.)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Whole article is interesting, this is from pro-life website
<!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo--> 44-year-old Harding, who battled to get her youngest child Bradley to sleep as a baby, said: "Sleep deprivation is draining. This product would have been a godsend for me so I'd like to see it help other parents."
Now, researchers at the University of Brighton have also developed a prototype. The product will be launched at the Baby Show in London in October.
Jeanne Tarrant, from the Royal College of Midwives, said: "Babies do respond to hearing their mother's heartbeat or white noise and it usually sends them to sleep. A rocking motion can also help. Anything that reminds them of being in the womb is useful." http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/he...how/4899153.cms
08-27-2009, 05:12 AM (This post was last modified: 08-27-2009, 05:13 AM by Capt M Kumar.)
<!--emo&:thumbsup--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbup.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbup.gif' /><!--endemo--> The researchers say catheters would help those at high risk of heart attack or stroke aggravated by high blood pressure, and who are resistant to conventional drug treatment. The research results have been promising with an excellent safety profile of catheter-based therapy, which is also very brief besides being effective. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20090827/main7.htm
No long-term adverse events resulted from the procedure that was carried out under a local anesthetic and used radio energy frequency delivered to the targeted nerve area via a catheter. This caused the nerves to be silenced in the renal artery that supplies blood to the kidneys. It has long been believed this region is a key regulator of BP.
An 11-year-old got a new lease of life after he became the first patient at AIIMS to receive âleftoverâ veins from another surgery to correct his condition.
A resident of Samaipur Badli in the Capital, Rahul was admitted at AIIMS two months ago with a rare disorder called Aorta Arteritis â the condition led to shrinking of vessels carrying blood to the kidneys. In the disease, the aorta, which carries blood from heart to different organs, gets constricted leading to limited supply of blood. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/an-aiims...ave-boy/520335/
<!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> The researchers then compared the computer-estimated threat of dying at the time of the emergency call with the actual patientsâ condition upon arrival at the hospital emergency department to find that the algorithm was effective in assessing the life risk of a patient with over 80% sensitivity.
Ohshige, the lead researcher, said: âA patientâs life threat risk can be quantitatively expressed at the moment of the emergency call with a moderate level of accuracy. The algorithm for estimating a patientâs like threat risk should be improved further as more data are collected.â http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sc...how/5146853.cms
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> The researchers then compared the computer-estimated threat of dying at the time of the emergency call with the actual patientsâ condition upon arrival at the hospital emergency department to find that the algorithm was effective in assessing the life risk of a patient with over 80% sensitivity.