Study overturns scientific ideas on energy distribution in muscle

A new study overturns longstanding scientific ideas regarding how energy is distributed within muscles for powering movement. Scientists are reporting the first clear evidence that muscle cells distribute energy primarily by the rapid conduction of electrical charges through a vast, interconnected network of mitochondria, the cell’s “powerhouse”, in a way that resembles the wire grid that distributes power throughout a city. The study offers an unprecedented, detailed look at the distribution system that rapidly provides energy throughout the cell where it is needed for muscle contraction.
The scientists accomplished the results using state-of-the-art imaging technologies at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. This new information may lead to a better understanding of many diseases linked to energy utilization in the heart and skeletal muscle such as heart disease, mitochondrial diseases, and muscular dystrophy, they say.
“The discovery of this mechanism for rapid distribution of energy throughout the muscle cell will change the way scientists think about muscle function and will open up a whole new area to explore in health and disease,” says Robert S. Balaban, Ph.D.

New diagnostic tool Ovarian Cancer treatment

A new type of diagnostic system using sophisticated computer software capable of analyzing and comparing cancerous tissue against a vast databank of digital images of cancer samples could speed up treatment for ovarian cancer.
The system, being designed by Aïcha BenTaieb, a Simon Fraser University computing science PhD student, aims to automate the identification of ovarian carcinomas for a more reliable, faster and available diagnosis. What is known is that there are five main subtypes. Effective treatment depends on identifying the subtype as soon as possible. But current methods are subjective, time-consuming and prone to error. Using information collated via computers, BenTaieb believes she has found a better way to identify these subtypes. Each ovarian cancer subtype shows individual structural and cellular characteristics. For treatment to be effectively targeted, the subtype must first be identified.
Currently, pathologists analyze tissue samples using a microscope, digital scanner and computer software. However, identification can easily be impaired by technical factors such as lighting and the pathologist’s experience.
With BenTaieb’s method, an artificial intelligence feature is integrated into the software that helps the pathologist analyze the tissue sample. This feature is trained, through a large dataset of expert annotated slides, to automatically identify the characteristic visual patterns for each subtype of carcinoma.
“We’re looking at the whole image, in different regions, in a more efficient way, using computers to extract image-based features,” BenTaieb said.

Obama orders world's fastest computer

The supercomputer would be 20 times quicker than the current leading machine, which is in China.
It would be capable of making one quintillion (a billion billion) calculations per second, a figure which is known as one exaflop. A body called the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) will be set up to research and build the computer.
The US is seeking the new supercomputer, significantly faster than today's models, to perform complex simulations, aid scientific research and national security projects.
It is hoped the machine would help to analyse weather data for more accurate forecasts or assist in cancer diagnoses by analysing X-ray images.
Richard Kenway at the University of Edinburgh says he thinks the plan is "spot on" in terms of strategy, bringing together both the ambition to develop new hardware and also improved analysis of big data.
He explained the computer could aid the development of personalised medicines, tailored to specific individuals.
"Today, drugs are designed for the average human and they work OK for some people but not others," he told the BBC.
"The real challenge in precision medicine is to move from designing average drugs to designing drugs for the individual because you can know their genome and their lifestyle."

V-Smart tech could be answer to Brain Tumor Treatment

Lauren Sciences LLC, the private New York biotechnology company developing breakthrough V-Smart™ Nanomedicines for brain diseases, announced today the receipt of a grant from Voices Against Brain Cancer (VABC). The grant will support the development of a V-Smart™ drug delivery for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive malignant primary brain tumor in humans.
The Lauren Sciences’ research team and laboratories are located at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where the V-Smart™ technology was invented before it was licensed to Lauren Sciences.
“V-Smart™ for GBM, formulated with a potent anti-tumor agent, has promise as an effective new treatment for GBM patients,” said Irwin Hollander, Ph.D., vice president for research and development at Lauren Sciences. “Our goal for this new V-Smart™ drug is to stop progression of, or eradicate, GBM, unlike standard treatments that in the vast majority of patients merely delay disease progression.“We anticipate future efficacy studies of V-Smart™ in GBM pre-clinical models and, thereafter, clinical studies in patients. Our goal is clinical validation and approval of this V-Smart™ for GBM.”
V-Smart™ for GBM will target and deliver a known chemotherapeutic that has proven potential to treat the brain tumor, but does not cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) on its own. V-Smart™ Nanomedicines are designed to target and deliver therapeutics across the BBB and into selective brain cells both non-invasively and effectively.

New treatment options for Leukemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of cancer in children. It can occur in various forms, differing not only by specific changes in the genetic material of the leukemia cells but also by their response to therapies. Now, an international team of scientists from Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hannover, Heidelberg, Kiel, and Zurich have succeeded in decoding the molecular characteristics of an as yet incurable subtype of leukemia, paving the way for new therapeutic approaches.
The consortium team decoded the genome of the leukemic cells using sophisticated bioinformatics methods. The team found genetic aberrations in addition to the known translocation. "We are glad that we could contribute to this important project with genomic data analysis of leukemia cells to unravel some of the molecular changes in this disease", says Bodo Lange (CEO, Alacris Theranostics)."This technique provides a quantitative read out of the actual genetic program occurring in the cancer cells, which allowed us to uncover relevant molecular mechanisms cooperating to promote tumorigenesis, and to identify possible druggable targets. These findings could only be achieved through analysis of the messenger RNAs", says Marie-Laure Yaspo.

Targeted therapy of the Brain Tumor Medulloblastoma

A targeted therapy already used to treat advanced skin cancer is also effective against the most common subtype of the brain tumor medulloblastoma in adults and should be considered for treatment of newly diagnosed patients, according to research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
The drug, called Vismodegib, is designed to block a key protein in the sonic hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway. The pathway is normally active during fetal development and is inappropriately switched on in about 30 percent of medulloblastoma tumors, including about 60 percent of tumors in adults and 25 percent of tumors in children. Only patients with the SHH subtype responded to vismodegib; however, researchers also reported that the drug was not universally effective against all tumors in the subtype."While it was disappointing that not all medulloblastoma patients with the SHH subtype will benefit, for the right patients these results mark the beginning of a new era of targeted therapy for treatment of this tumor,"

Early detection of Ovarian Cancer

Early detection has come in the form of a blood test that screens for a protein called CA-125 (Cancer Antigen 125), which is commonly found on cancer cells in the ovary. A new study from the University College London has found that, with regular blood screenings for this protein, 86 percent of ovarian cancers can be found earlier than they might be detected through ultrasound. For women at high risk, this can be a very valuable test. Estimates indicate that there will be over 21,000 new cases of ovarian cancer in 2015. An even more startling statistic is that 14,000 are expected to die of ovarian cancer each year. Only 20 percent of these cancers are found at an early enough stage to cure patients long term. Compared to breast cancer, where 90 percent of cancers are detected early, there's a lot of room for improving early detection by figuring out who is at risk (women with a family history of ovarian and breast cancer as well as other genetically transmitted cancer syndromes) and then following these women closely with a blood test to catch this disease when the CA-125 just starts to rise. Screening tests may not be appropriate for women of average risk but, for those in the high-risk category, it is important to consult with health care experts familiar with the most current screening standards.