Click here to support 'Attorney fees to Help a Young Mother keep her Child'

Click here to support 'Attorney fees to Help a Young Mother keep her Child'

This is a bit unusual for me to post something like this to my blog but this is personal. I babysit this little boy and we need your help. In order for his mother to go forward in the fight to retain full custody of him she needs to raise money for her legal expenses as well as her expenses for travel back and forth to AZ where the little boys father lives. They aren't married but the courts in AZ have ruled that she left the state with the child illegally when he was 3 months old.

Please whatever you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Discovery Could Change The Way Your Doctor Treats Your Autoimmune Disease or Cancer

Researchers in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta have made an important discovery that provides a new understanding of how our immune system "learns" not to attack our own body, and this could affect the way doctors treat patients with autoimmune diseases and cancer.

When patients undergo chemotherapy for cancer or as part of experimental therapies to treat autoimmune diseases such as diabetes and lupus, the treatment kills the patients' white blood cells. What can be done afterwards, is to give these patients blood stem cells through transplantation. Stem cells are taken from patients then injected back into them – with the theory being that the patients' immune system won't attack their own cells, and the stem cells can get to work healing their bodies.

But U of A medical researchers Govindarajan Thangavelu, Colin Anderson and their collaborators discovered that if a particular molecule is not working properly in T-cells, the body will attack itself. This is significant for stem-cell transplantation treatment because it means the immune systems of the patients could consider their own cells "foreign" and initiate an attack.

"So your own cells would be killing you," says Thangavelu, a PhD student specializing in immunology, who was the first author in the research study, which was recently published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Autoimmunity. "What we found is if this molecule is absent in T-cells, if the pathway isn't intact, it will cause severe autoimmunity to the subject's own body. In essence, subjects become allergic to their own cells."

Anderson, an associate professor with the Alberta Diabetes Institute and Principal Investigator added: "The ability of our immune system to attack dangerous microbes while not attacking our own cells or tissues is a delicate balance. Restarting the immune system after wiping it out in patients with autoimmune diseases or cancer requires re-establishing this appropriate balance. We discovered that a particular immune system molecule is critical to prevent the immune system from attacking our own cells or tissues when the immune system is restarted. If that molecule is missing, the immune system will wreak havoc on the body."

T-cells are supposed to protect people and animals from things invading their bodies. But this research demonstrates if these cells become unregulated because they are missing a molecule, it can lead to autoimmunity – particularly dangerous in scenarios where patients have lost white blood cells when they are being treated for autoimmune diseases or cancer.

Thangavelu has won awards for this research. He was invited to present his work at an international conference of immunology in Japan last year. He has also travelled to the United Kingdom to talk about his findings with the medical community.

Provided by University of Alberta (news : web)

Get Pain Relief From An Injectable Gel?

Some 25 million people in the United States alone suffer from rheumatoid arthritis or its cousin osteoarthritis, diseases characterized by often debilitating pain in the joints. Now researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) report an injectable gel that could spell the future for treating these diseases and others.

Among its advantages, the gel could allow the targeted release of medicine at an affected joint, and could dispense that medicine on demand in response to enzymes associated with arthritic flare-ups.

"We think that this platform could be useful for multiple medical applications including the localized treatment of cancer, ocular disease, and cardiovascular disease," said Jeffrey Karp, leader of the research and co-director of the Center for Regenerative Therapeutics at BWH.

Karp will present the findings April 15 at the annual meeting of the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) as part of winning the coveted SFB Young Investigator Award for this work. The work was also reported by Karp and colleagues in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research (JBMR): Part A, and is currently available on the journal's website.

Local Delivery

Arthritis is a good example of a disease that attacks specific parts of the body. Conventional treatments for it, however, largely involve drugs taken orally. Not only do these take a while (often weeks) to exert their effects, they can have additional side effects. That is because the drug is dispersed throughout the body, not just at the affected joint. Further, high concentrations of the drug are necessary to deliver enough to the affected joint, which runs the risk of toxicity.

"There are many instances where we would like to deliver drugs to a specific location, but it's very challenging to do so without encountering major barriers," says Karp, who also holds appointments through Harvard Medical School (HMS), Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST).

For example, you could inject a drug into the target area, but it won't last long--only minutes to hours--because it is removed by the body's highly efficient lymphatic system. What about implantable drug-delivery devices? Most of these are composed of stiff materials that in a dynamic environment like a joint can rub and cause inflammation on their own. Further, most of these devices release medicine continuously--even when it's not needed. Arthritis, for example, occurs in cycles characterized by flare-ups then remission.

Toward the Holy Grail

"The Holy Grail of drug delivery is an autonomous system that [meters] the amount of drug released in response to a biological stimulus, ensuring that the drug is released only when needed at a therapeutically relevant concentration," Karp and colleagues write in JBMR. His coauthors are Praveen Kumar Vemula, Nathaniel Campbell, and Abdullah Syed of BWH, HMS and HSCI; Eric Boilard (now at Université Laval), Melaku Muluneh, and David Weitz of Harvard University; and David Lee of BWH, currently at Novartis. Karp notes the key involvement of Lee, a doctor who is "treating patients with the problem we're trying to solve."

The researchers tackled the problem by first determining the key criteria for a successful locally administered arthritis treatment. In addition to having the ability to release drug on demand, for example, the delivery vehicle should be injectable through a small needle and allow high concentrations of the drug. The team ultimately determined that an injectable gel seemed most promising.

Next step: what would the gel be made of? To cut the time involved in bringing a new technology to market, the team focused only on materials already designated by the Food and Drug Administration as being generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for use in humans.

Ultimately, they discovered a GRAS material that could be coaxed into self-assembling into a drug-containing gel. "The beauty of self-assembly is that whatever exists in solution during the assembly process--in this case, a drug--becomes entrapped," says Vemula, first author of the paper, who also has an appointment at HST.

They further expected that the same material would disassemble, releasing its drug payload, when exposed to the enzymes present during inflammations like those associated with arthritis.

Promising Results

A series of experiments confirmed this. For example, the team created a gel containing a dye as a stand-in for a drug, then exposed it to enzymes associated with arthritis. The drug was released. Further, the addition of agents that inhibited the enzymes stopped the release, indicating that the gel "can release encapsulated agents in an on-demand manner," the researchers write. Although the team has yet to test this in humans, they did find that dye was also released in response to synovial fluid taken from arthritic human joints.

Among other promising results, the researchers found that gel injected into the healthy joints of mice remained stable for at least two months. Further, the gel withstood wear and tear representative of conditions in a moving joint.

Additional tests in mice are underway. The technique has yet to be demonstrated in humans, but the researchers write that it "should have broad implications for the localized treatment of many…diseases" caused by the enzymatic destruction of tissues.

The researchers have applied for a patent on the work, which was sponsored by the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT) through the U.S. Army and by the Harvard Catalyst Program.

Provided by Brigham and Women's Hospital

Illusion Can Cut Osteoarthritis Pain in Half

(PhysOrg.com) -- A serendipitous discovery by academics at The University of Nottingham has shown that a simple illusion can significantly reduce -- and in some cases even temporarily eradicate -- arthritic pain in the hand.

By tricking the brain into believing that the painful part of the hand is being stretched or shrunk, the researchers were able to halve the pain felt by 85 per cent of sufferers they tested.

The research could point to new technologies of the future which could assist patients in improving mobility in their hand by reducing the amount of pain they experience while undergoing physiotherapy.

The Nottingham team stumbled on its finding completely by chance during the University’s Community Open Day in April last year.

As part of the event they invited members of the public to experience some of the body distortion illusions they use as part of their every day research using Nottingham’s unique MIRAGE technology — which takes a real-time video capture image of a hand and uses computer manipulations combined with physically pulling or pushing on the hand to fool the brain into believing the hand is stretching or shrinking.

Up until now, the technology has been used for fundamental research into body representation — the way in which our brain puts together what we see and what we feel.

Dr Roger Newport who is leading the research in the School of Psychology said: “The majority of people who come to these fun events are kids — the illusions really capture their imagination and they think it’s a cool trick and can become a bit obsessed with working out how we do it.”

Dr. Catherine Preston, who is now at Nottingham Trent University and collaborated on the study, added: “During the course of the day the grandmother of one of the children wanted to have a go, but warned us to be gentle because of the arthritis in her fingers. We were giving her a practical demonstration of illusory finger stretching when she announced: “My finger doesn’t hurt any more!” and asked whether she could take the machine home with her! We were just stunned — I don’t know who was more surprised, her or us!”

To capitalise on their lucky discovery, the team immediately contacted a local osteoarthritis support group and asked them to take part in a series of tests to confirm the effectiveness of MIRAGE for pain relief.

The study attracted 20 volunteers with an average age of 70, all clinically-diagnosed with arthritic pain in the hands and/or fingers and none medically managing their pain on the day by anything stronger than paracetamol. Before starting the test they were asked to rate their pain on a 21-point scale, with 0 indicating no pain and 20 representing the most unbearable pain imaginable.

The team then compared the MIRAGE body illusion to just physically pushing and pulling on the painful parts of the volunteers’ hands to test the effect on their pain. Other control tests were conducted by stretching or shrinking a non-painful part of the hand and visually enlarging or reducing the whole hand.

The results, reported in a letter to the latest edition of the journal Rheumatology, showed a marked reduction in pain —on average halving the discomfort for 85 per cent of volunteers. Some reported greater reduction in pain for stretching, some for shrinking and some for both. The pain reduction only worked when painful parts of the hand were manipulated.

Remarkably, stretching or shrinking the painful part of the hand temporarily eliminated pain in one-third of all volunteers. Anecdotally, many volunteers also reported an increased range of movement.

Osteoarthritis is a debilitating and painful inflammatory condition which affects the joints and is one of the most common arthritic conditions. Around one million people consult their GPs about OA every year — mostly people aged over 50 who are more prone to developing the disease.

There is currently no cure for osteoarthritis but the symptoms can be managed by a range of treatments including painkillers and physiotherapy — although pain can be a barrier to sufferers trying to exercise and keep joints mobile.

The Nottingham team are hopeful their finding could be the first step towards new technologies for physiotherapy, allowing health professionals to reduce the pain for sufferers while exercising their joints. Eventually, cheaper technology may allow a low-cost model of the system to be produced which could be small enough for sufferers to keep in their home and offering brief periods of respite from their discomfort.

Dr Newport added: “This research is an excellent example of how fundamental research can often produce unexpected and significant results. In my early career I was lucky enough to receive internal funding to develop the MIRAGE technology which is unique to The University of Nottingham.”

“Without that support we never would have unearthed this surprising and exciting result, which potentially could be extremely important to the millions of people who suffer from this painful and debilitating illness.”

Provided by University of Nottingham (news : web)

First Breakthrough in 50 Years For Lupus

(Medical Xpress) -- A Monash researcher has played a crucial role in the first major lupus treatment breakthrough for over 50 years.

Professor Fabienne Mackay Head of the Department of Immunology at Monash University, discovered a new factor in the development of the disease, something known as BAFF - B cell Activating Factor.

It has led directly to the development of a medication called Benlysta, which was approved by the US Food and Drug Authority for release last month.

Professor Mackay explains that B cells make antibodies for invaders such as bacteria and other foreign bodies, like pollen.

“BAFF helps B cells survive, which is a good thing. But if there is too much BAFF, then there can be an overproduction of B cells and they hang about for longer than they should - in particular B cells that are normally meant to die because they are harmful. Autoimmunity will be initiated, and this is how the immune system ends up attacking the body’s own cells,” Professor Mackay said.

Lupus is an autoimmune inflammatory disease affecting about five million people worldwide. An autoimmune problem is one where the body’s immune system attacks the body itself.  In the case of lupus, the immune system attacks connective tissue in the joints, lungs, kidneys and heart, causing joint and skin diseases in most patients, and organ and blood disorders in about half of lupus sufferers.

Professor Mackay was the first to show that the overproduction of BAFF was driving lupus. In a follow up study, elevated levels of BAFF were discovered in patients with a number of autoimmune diseases including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and Sjögren’s syndrome.

She said this was an exciting discovery as it implied that if BAFF production can be blocked, the entire cascade effect that resulted in autoimmune disease could be prevented.

Manufacturers of the drug, GlaxoSmithKline designed their clinical trials in line with the insights from Professor Mackay’s experimental data.

Professor Mackay says that one of the reasons for her interest in lupus is its affect on the Indigenous Australian population. Aboriginal Australians suffers from lupus at a rate double that of the non-Aboriginal population.

“I am very pleased to have created the platform of knowledge from which effective therapies can springboard. In particular, I have long been concerned about the higher incidence of this disease and associated morbidity within Indigenous Australians populations and the limited arsenal of therapies, many very toxic, and it is wonderful news that a medication has been developed which may be able to help them.”

Provided by Monash University (news : web)