http://antidepressionguide.org depression symptoms - depression treatment - depression help - Depression Causes, Symptoms, Types, Signs, Facts, Medication Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:31:05 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.2 http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/09/02/pre-diabetes-test/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/09/02/pre-diabetes-test/#comments Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:34:00 +0000 Tom Over 170 million people suffer from diabetes – just under 3% of the world's population – and experts say that number will double by 2030.

Most cases are type II diabetes, linked to obesity and lifestyle factors. But that condition can be prevented if it is caught in the early stage, called "pre-diabetes". That phase seems to last over a period of months or years before the full-blown condition develops.

Now Gerald Hart, a chemist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and colleagues say they know how to reliably spot pre-diabetes.

They claim these early stages of the disease are characterised by increased reaction rates between sugars called hexosamines and proteins in the body.

The results can be seen in the blood as raised levels of a particular sugar, known as O-linked ?-N-acetylglucosamine. Hart and colleagues have developed a test to measure levels of that compound and say this can be used to diagnose pre-diabetes.

In this way, they hope that people with pre-diabetes can be made aware of their condition and advised to take steps such as changes of diet to prevent the development of full-blown diabetes.

Read the full pre-diabetes test patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant

]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/09/02/pre-diabetes-test/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/06/04/supergrass-for-superlawns/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/06/04/supergrass-for-superlawns/#comments Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:13:00 +0000 Tom bahiagrass (Paspalum notatutri).

It is popular because it flourishes in poor-quality soil, is resistant to many insects and tolerates conditions of drought and heat.

It may sound ideal, but Fred Altpeter and colleagues at the University of Florida in Gainesville, US, think they can improve it.

Bahiagrass grows 60cm seed heads during the summer, so it must be mowed regularly. It also has a low-density growth pattern that allows weeds to invade.

Altpeter says that adding just one gene to bahiagrass from every geneticist's favourite plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, fixes both those problems.

That gene, Arabidopsis ATHB 16 protein, suppresses the formation of seed heads and encourages bahiagrass to spread out more underground.

The modified plant has performed well in tests but whether people will want GM grass along their roadsides and on the lawns is another matter.

Read the full GM supergrass for superlawns patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/06/04/supergrass-for-superlawns/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/04/30/genital-herpes-vaccine/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/04/30/genital-herpes-vaccine/#comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:17:00 +0000 Tom
However, many infections have resisted all attempts at producing vaccines.
One of these is the herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), which is usually the cause of genital herpes.

Now Michal Margalith at Vical, a biopharmaceutical company based in San Diego, says he and colleagues have developed an HSV-2 vaccine using the emerging technology of DNA vaccines.

This involves injecting the patient with a circular piece of DNA called a plasmid that programs their cells to produce HSV-2 proteins that trigger an immune response. That should train the vaccinated person's immune system to fight off the real virus.
The team says that the technique has successfully produced an immune response in mice. However, DNA vaccines are still highly experimental in humans.

Read the full genital herpes vaccine patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/04/30/genital-herpes-vaccine/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/03/05/immune-system-in-a-jar/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/03/05/immune-system-in-a-jar/#comments Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:50:00 +0000 Tom antigen, for example a virus.

But nobody wants to be first to test a vaccine. Trying it on animals such as mice is one option, but their immune systems may differ from humans' in some important way. That risks unforeseen effects when eventually tested in people, like the disastrous leukaemia drug trial in 2006 .

Now virologist George Lewis, at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, US, says he has found a way to grow a simple replica immune system in the lab.

Lewis and colleagues culture some of the white blood cells involved in the immune system in the presence of an antigen or vaccine. The culture responds by producing white blood cells that make antibodies specifically against the antigens.

The researchers say the technique could be useful for testing the effectiveness of vaccines by determining whether they trigger production of required antibodies in the test tube, without having to inject them into real humans.

Read the full immune system in a jar patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/03/05/immune-system-in-a-jar/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/12/13/green-tech-kidney-cell-battery/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/12/13/green-tech-kidney-cell-battery/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:15:00 +0000 Will Simon Levinson, a biophysicist at the University of Colorado Medical School in Denver, US, says this generates a potential difference and so could be exploited to make a biobattery.

Levinson believes that kidney cells, which are particularly good at transporting ions, could be well suited to making a miniature battery. This would be formed by stacking up large numbers of cell layers to boost the voltage and current they can produce.

He suggests that such biobatteries might be ideal for powering devices inserted in the body, such as insulin pumps or pacemakers.

The cell culture could then draw oxygen and nutrients from the host's bloodstream. And, if the monolayers are made from immortalised cell lines, the biobattery should live as long as the host.

One problem, however, is producing biobatteries with the kind of voltages needed to run medical devices. But Levinson says he is working on it.

Read the full biobattery patent application.

Justin Mullins]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/12/13/green-tech-kidney-cell-battery/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/11/01/hair-guided-nerve-regeneration/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/11/01/hair-guided-nerve-regeneration/#comments Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:02:00 +0000 Will
The idea dates back to the 19th century and has had some success - importantly the tube prevents scar tissue from growing in the damaged area, which is one of the main reasons why nerves fail to mend. But finding a tube that does the trick is difficult. It must be small enough to house a nerve, flexible enough to be implanted into the body and sufficiently biocompatible so that the body doesn't reject it.

Mark Van Dyke at the Institute of Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, US, says the perfect material might be keratin, a tough protein found in hair. Van Dyke proposes to use keratin from human hair as a kind tubular scaffold inside which nerves can regrow. The tubes should thereby meet the demands of flexibility, size and biocompatibility. Van Dyke even says he has tested the idea on rats with promising results.

Read the full nerve repairing hair patent application.]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/11/01/hair-guided-nerve-regeneration/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/09/24/bio-briefcase/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/09/24/bio-briefcase/#comments Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:10:00 +0000 Will In January 2003, the US Department of Homeland Security began deploying a national system of monitors capable of detecting airborne pathogens such as anthrax and sarin gas.

The large devices, developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, US, were the size of filing cabinets, which limited their portability and the areas in which they could be placed.

Now John Dzenitis and colleagues at the Livermore labs have developed a similarly capable device the size of a briefcase, containing a microfluidic laboratory that looks for the telltale signs of airborne pathogens.

The size of the bio-briefcase makes it far more portable – it can even be carried as hand luggage aboard a plane. It also means detectors can be placed in other important places, such as inside air ducts in buildings. An important feature of the new device is that it can automatically carry out its analysis within about an hour of taking a sample, so it gives as early a warning as possible in the event of an attack.

Read the full bio-briefcase patent application.
Justin Mullins]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/09/24/bio-briefcase/feed/ 0