No Camels » Health News

Israel And US Combine Efforts To Improve Pediatric Health

NoCamels Team — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:00:07 +0000

A collaboration to address the lack of medical devices designed specifically for children is being launched by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCH) in the UD, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and BGN Technologies in Be’er Sheva, Israel.

The project combines the medical expertise of physicians at Cincinnati Children’s with the extensive technical and engineering capabilities of faculty at BGU, said Netta Cohen, CEO of BGN, the technology commercialization company of BGU.

According to Cohen, the goal is to improve overall health in hospitalized children by ensuring device design that is customized to meet the unique physiological differences and medical needs of children.

“The pediatric sector of medical device development has been neglected throughout the years,” Cohen said. “Only a small fraction of medical research and development funding has been devoted to pediatric medicine.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the development of pediatric devices lags years behind the development of adult devices.

Insufficient solutions for children

In reports to the U.S. Congress, the FDA has cited prohibitive development costs for pediatric devices as a significant barrier. Factoring into this is the limited size of the pediatric market and related economic factors.

Children represent only ten percent of the total medical market. As a result, insufficient resources have been channeled to the invention of dedicated surgical and medical devices for the pediatric population. When devices cannot be adapted, physicians often must resort to more invasive treatments or less effective therapies.

“Many devices used today to treat children are actually miniaturized adult devices that do not sufficiently address the clinical needs of children. Pediatric patients vary greatly due to a range of differences in size, anatomy, activity levels, and physiology,” said Dr. Richard Azizkhan, Surgeon-in-Chief in Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

“The challenge with adapted devices is they frequently are not the ideal solution, especially for very small and fragile infants. This collaboration is an opportunity to target new solutions and improve medical outcomes for children.”

Meeting the challenges

Under the BGU-Cincinnati Children’s collaborative structure, medical center physicians will provide detailed insight on specific medical device challenges and development opportunities. This information will be provided to BGU engineers and technology researchers who can match development opportunities with technical solutions.

Assisting with the evaluation of new device concepts for their market potential will be CincyTech, a Cincinnati-based public-private seed-stage investor that collaborates with Cincinnati Children’s on technology commercialization efforts.

Photo by expertinfantry

New Minimally Invasive System For Spinal Correction

Natassia Gerrard, NoCamels — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:52:15 +0000

For reasons not completely understood in the medical world, some children over the age of ten suffer from a side curvature of their spine, known as Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS). According to Scoliosis & Spine Associates, three to five percent of adolescents have some form of scoliosis.

Symptoms of scoliosis include back pain, leg length discrepancy and uneven hips. Patients with AIS may have one shoulder higher than the other and visible curving of the spine to one side. Progressive scoliosis, left untreated, can result in significant deformity.

ApiFix is an Israeli company developing a minimally invasive correction system for adolescent patients with a curvature of the spine of over 40 degrees.

Currently, although there are procedures available for very young children with scoliosis, there is no similar treatment for grown AIS patients on the market, ApiFix says. In addition, traditional treatment models for AIS are usually invasive surgeries that can leave complications and side-effects.

ApiFix might be able to offer a new solution that is less invasive, thereby reducing the risk of full-blown surgery.

Allowing the body to adjust

Uri Arnin, co-founder of ApiFix tells NoCamels that the problem with the conventional surgery is that “the physician is trying to fix the spine that has built itself in a deformed shape for many years, at one time, which is very difficult.”

Correction using only two screws

The ApiFix system incorporates a miniature ratchet mechanism that captures incremental corrections performed by the patient in the corrective direction. The deformity correction process is spanned over several months to allow the soft tissues to accommodate any minor correction.

ApiFix uses only two screws and a small expandable rod in between. The contraption is inserted through a small incision. A patented control mechanism enables the surgeon to access a control feature that can lock or un-lock the ratchet system at any time.

Arnin says: “After the operation, as the patient does spontaneous bending to the corrective direction, a miniature ratchet mechanism incorporated in the system to capture any minor correction. The soft tissues are then allowed to accommodate the correction along time. The patient gets accustomed to the new position, and the process is then repeated in a step-by-step process, over several months allowing the body to get adjusted.”

Currently, according to Arnin, conventional surgery involves fusing an average of 10 spinal levels using many screws, in a six-hour procedure that can cost up to $100,000.

Clinical trials in Europe

ApiFix, was founded in 2010 by Uri Arnin and Prof. Yizhar Floman, and is backed by The Trendlines Group, an Israeli seed stage investment group. Arnin has over ten years of experience in the spinal field and was inventor and CTO of Impliant Inc., along with Spine21 Ltd. Floman is a leading Israeli spine surgeon and chairman of the Israel Spine Centre at Assuta Hospital. He is also the President of the Israel Spine Society and is a member of the Scoliosis Research Society, the international Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine, the Spine Society of Europe and the North American Spine Society.

ApiFix is currently undergoing clinical trials in Europe.

According to Arnin, “our timing is tied to budget and once we have additional funding it will take one year to be on the market. We are looking to complete the first cases, and based on the outcome of the clinical cases, we will raise additional money to get approval and then the device can be commercialised.”

New Anti-Bacterial Packaging To Prolong Pepsi’s Shelf-Life

Sivan Kriboshe, NoCamels — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:08:46 +0000

Oplon Pure Science, a developer of anti-bacterial plastic sheets for packaging, has signed an $8 million agreement with PepsiCo Corporation for a joint project that will lead to the supply of packaging solutions for their products.

C. Mer Industries, which holds 25 percent of Oplon, initially announced the closing of a deal with a worldwide food and beverage company. It was then divulged that the company is PepsiCo, which owns the brands Pepsi Cola, Doritos and Chewy. With the deal, Oplon will receive royalties from future sales.

The packaging of Oplon, which is still in experimental stages, is supposed to significantly delay the development of germs and bacteria in food products. For instance, milk could stay at room temperature for a month instead of a day, and a fruit juice might stay at room temperature for two weeks instead of a day and a half, the company says.

Oplon sprays a layer of anti-bacterial material on the inner part of the package, which prolongs the shelf-life of the product. The innovation is meant to make the distribution of products easier in countries where cooling methods are not as easily available as they are in western countries.

The company says: “Typically, micro-organisms thrive on surfaces and it is simply a matter of time before they impact the environment within. Using chemicals to protect against these micro-organisms has historically been successful; however, the toxicity of the chemicals used and its effect on materials remains a major concern.”

“Oplon has developed a range of effective surface protection, as well as antimicrobial compounds that are used as coatings. These coatings challenge the negative effects of contamination.”

Oplon’s antimicrobial coatings are a composition of polyelectrolytes contained within a polymer matrix. On contact with liquids, a surface electric field is created, which disrupts cell membranes safely. Based on this physical phenomenon, Oplon’s coatings act as an electric shield that kills yeast, mold, bacteria and certain viruses – disrupting and destroying them upon contact.

The main share holders of Oplon are C. Mer Industries with 25 percent, Wanaka Capital with 22 percent, and the co-founders Gleb Zilberstein and Dr. Shmuel Bukshpan. C. Mer has invested $2.6 million in Oplon over the past two years.

The company also manufactures other products, such as water purifying tanks, anti bacterial layers for dental plants and a skin ointment against acne.

Photo by moaksey

Mom’s Stress During Pregnancy Affects Baby’s Iron Levels

NoCamels Team — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:05:35 +0000

Newborns whose mothers are under stress during the first trimester of pregnancy may be at risk of low iron definiency, which could lead to physical and mental delays, according to a new study.

Iron plays an important role in the development of organ systems, especially the brain. Well-known risk factors of poor iron status in infants are maternal iron deficiency, maternal diabetes, smoking during pregnancy, preterm birth and low birth weight.

The study, conducted by researchers from Ashkelon Academic College and Barzilai Medical Center in Israel and the University of Michigan, was presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston. It is the first study to suggest that maternal stress early in the pregnancy is another risk factor for low iron status in newborns.

Researchers, led by Rinat Armony-Sivan, director of the psychology research laboratory at Ashkelon Academic College, recruited pregnant women who were about to give birth at Barzilai Medical Center. The first group of women, which was the stress group, lived in an area where there were more than 600 rocket attacks during their first trimester of pregnancy.

The control group lived in the same area but became pregnant three to four months after the rocket attacks ended.

Women were questioned briefly at the delivery room reception desk to determine whether they were healthy and without pregnancy complications. Eligible women who agreed to participate in the study were interviewed one or two days after delivery about their background and health during pregnancy. They also filled out questionnaires about depression and anxiety and rated their stress level during pregnancy.

Stress can affect iron levels

In addition cord blood was collected from newborns, and serum ferritin (iron) concentrations were measured. The results showed that the 63 babies whose mothers were in the stress group had significantly lower cord-blood ferritin concentrations than the 77 infants in the control group.

“Our findings indicate that infants whose mothers were stressed during pregnancy are a previously unrecognized risk group for iron deficiency,” says Dr. Armony-Sivan. “Pregnant women should be aware that their health, nutrition, stress level and state of mind will affect their baby’s health and well-being.”

Dr. Armony-Sivan concluded that it may be advisable to consider additional blood work before the regular check-up visit at 12 months of age, especially in high-risk populations, so that iron deficiency, with or without anemia, can be detected early and treated before it becomes chronic and severe.

Photo by tommo4074

Can The Immune System Help Recovery From Stroke?

Tal Hefer, NoCamels — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:03:42 +0000

Stroke and other injuries to the brain are often followed by severe inflammation, caused by a reaction of the body’s immune system. Whilst it is a natural reaction process to repair the damage to the brain, excessive inflammation causes further damage. This has led a tendency to administer anti-inflammation drugs that hinder the immune system.

Now researchers Lund University in Sweden and the Weizmann Institute in Israel are testing the assumption that the immune system could in fact be helpful with recovery following a stroke, the second leading cause of death worldwide.

The immune system’s role

One of the biggest enigmas in the field of acute or chronic neurodegenerative diseases, such as stroke and Alzheimer’s disease, is the role of immune cells in the recovery from these diseases.

“If there is a sterile wound, such as a scratch, the cells of the immune system are recruited to clean dead cells from the affected area, and to facilitate regeneration and tissue restoration,” says Prof. Michal Schwartz, one of the project’s lead researchers.

“In the case of brain damage, spinal cord injuries, or stroke, only minimal recovery occurs, and the patient remains paralyzed. This led to the widespread assumption that the brain has no ability to recruit immune cells to aid healing,” she adds.

Solving the enigma

In the fall of 2010, the European Union announced a call for research proposals in the field of Neuroinflammation, with the aim of recruiting a group of scientists to join forces and contribute to the resolution of the enigma regarding the role of inflammation in the central nerve system. The overall goal was to identify the conditions under which such inflammation is beneficial and should be boosted – and when it is detrimental and should be regulated.

Prof. Schwartz from the Weizmann Institute in Israel and Prof. Zaal Kokaia, Head of Laboratory of Neural Stem Cell Biology & Therapy at Lund Stem Cell Center in Sweden, are now heading the project, calledTargetBraIn. Their team consists of research groups from six countries – Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, England, Italy and Israel, and has received a Euro 12 million grant from the European Union.

Shifting paradigms

Due to the assumption that immune cell entry to the brain is harmful, not only did doctors not encourage immune cell entrance, they even administered anti-inflammatory drugs to prevent any immune cell infiltration. It was assumed that the brain was too delicate to accept help from the immune system.

“My group at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, a pioneer in this field since 1998, decided to reexamine the assumption that the brain is hurt by any immune activity, because it didn’t make sense,” says Prof. Schwartz.

The overall study is still at the experimental stage and according to researchers, the road to general application on patients will be long.

Photo by Ben Brahim Mohammed

Two heads not better than one, research suggests

Telegraph — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 09:08:32 +0000

A study by scientists found that individuals could be better at problem solving on their own, as long as they were confident in their own answers.

When they attempted to answer in groups, those who offered the right answer tended to be drowned out by more confident members who confused them or led them astray, the research found.

The findings suggest the old adage “too many cooks spoil the broth” could indeed be more accurate than “two heads are better than one”, as people are better off thinking for themselves.

Pairs arrived at more wrong answers

The study, led by Professor Asher Koriat of Haifa University, Israel, asked participants a series of questions to determine how often an individual answered correctly compared with pairs or groups.

It found group decision-making was only better when the correct answer was the most logical, allowing them to reason out the most likely outcome together.

But when given trick questions, such as which object was bigger in a drawing designed to mislead them, they tended to get the answer wrong.

Those participants working in pairs actually arrived at more wrong answers than those working alone.

The pattern was repeated when asked relatively difficult but simple questions which many people fail on, such as ‘what is the capital of Australia?’

Confidence is key

Professor Koriat said the results suggested people who were most confident with their own answers tended to be right when working alone.

If people were always honest about how confident they were, he said, the results should be repeated within pairs and group.

Instead, he said: “In such cases it is the low confidence individuals who are more likely to be correct, and reliance on the more confident members should lead the group astray.”

He added previous studies which found “two heads were better than one” were not incorrect, but only if the answer was the most popular, logical or obvious one.

The study, which tested 38 people individually and in pairs, has now been published in the journal Science.

Via the Telegraph

Air Pollution Raises Risk Of Repeat Heart Attack By 43 Percent

Haaretz — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:51:02 +0000

Israelis who have suffered a heart attack are far more at risk of a repeat attack if they live in an area with high levels of air pollution, new research has found.

The study, by Tel Aviv University and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, found that cardiac patients living in polluted areas were 43 percent more likely to have another heart attack than those who lived in areas with cleaner air. It also found they were 43 percent more likely to suffer congestive heart failure, and 46 percent more likely to have a stroke.

“Given that heart patients are already at least three times more likely than the general public to have another heart problem, they must be especially careful about air pollution,” said chief researcher Dr. Yariv Gerber, of the School of Public Health in Tel Aviv University’s medical department.

The researchers followed 1,120 heart patients aged up to 65 who had suffered heart attacks between 1992 and 1993 and were treated at eight hospitals in the central region. The research protocol neutralized the impact of age, sex and socioeconomic status. The patients were monitored through 2005.

Air quality was measured at 21 monitoring stations near the communities where the patients lived. The level of pollution exposure was determined by the number of pollutant particles up to 2.5 microns in size – small enough to penetrate a person’s airways – as well as by exposure to nitric oxide. Heavy vehicles and factories are primarily responsible for this type of pollution, making those who live in the center of the country particularly vulnerable.

A follow-up study conducted in 2011 found that the cardiac patients who were exposed to air pollution were 39 percent more likely to have died during the 19 years following their heart attack than those not so exposed.

“Arteriosclerosis is today considered to be a disease linked to inflammation, and air-polluting particles that irritate the cells lead to inflammation, in the same way smoking cigarettes does,” said Gerber, who noted that the findings supported the results of similar studies carried out in the United States and Europe.
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Via Haaretz
Photo by jepoirrier

Biodegradable Balloons Isolate Tumors To Reduce Radiation Risks

Natassia Gerrard, NoCamels — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:59:00 +0000

One of the major concerns during treatments involving radiation therapy in cancer patients is that radiations destroy healthy cells along with the diseased cells. High doses of radiation often damage healthy organs, which can lead to further complications.

An Israeli startup called BioProtect has found a way to make radiation therapy safer: It developed small biodegradable balloons that isolate the tumor from healthy tissues.

Prostate cancer is the first cancer that BioProtect was able to isolate with its balloons, called ProSpace. According to the company, radiation in the case of prostate cancer creates many complications, such as bleeding, because of the proximity of the rectum.

Medical Advantages

BioProtect says recent trials have shown that their balloons can significantly reduce the amount of radiation that reaches the rectal wall.

The BioProtect balloon can also allow higher radiation doses that would have otherwise been too dangerous.

The balloon in its expanded format

Inserting the ProSpace balloon requires a minimally invasive procedure, according to its developers.

The balloons are made from biodegradable polymers, which dissolve in the body within six months, meaning that there is no need for surgery to remove them.

The balloon is inserted as a folded cylinder, which is inflated with a solution of sterile saline once placed between the prostate and the rectum. Implanting the balloon in this location creates a “safe gap” of 15-20mm between the tumor and healthy tissues.

Minimizing health complications

The American Cancer Institute approximates that one in eight deaths around the world is caused by cancer, and around 12 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed annually worldwide.

These statistics are expected to increase in future years due to increased life expectancy, aging populations and technological progression leading to more sophisticated screening techniques and early cancer detection.

Currently, the three main methods of treating cancer are radiation therapy, chemotherapy and surgery, all of which can be used as stand-alone treatment or in combination, depending on the type of cancer being treated. The National Cancer Institute says that radiation therapy is administered to 50 percent of cancer sufferers in the United States.

Successful trials

BioProtect has completed its pre-clinical studies and recently completed a multicenter pivotal study for the European market that included participant centers in the United States, Germany, Italy and Israel.

The pre-clinical trials showed positive results, with 24 patients with median follow-up of 6 months having an average of 90 percent reduction in radiation of the prostate prescribed dose and significant reduction in any important radiation parameters at the rectum.

BioProtect ProSpace received the CE Mark in 2010 and the company consequently began marketing the product in Europe. However, the product is still not available for the US market and awaits further clinical investigation.

BioProtect says it plans to expand the use of the ProSpace balloons to other types of cancers such as colon and breast cancer.

Photo courtesy of BioProtect

Virtual Reality Therapy To Treat Fear Of Flying

NoCamels Team — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 01:51:17 +0000

Are you afraid of flying? The University of Haifa in Israel claims it has recently implemented an effective and proven form of therapy that uses virtual reality technology to treat the common phobia.

While lending itself to a wide range of disciplines, the technological advancement known as virtual reality continues to shift beyond the world of games. Virtual reality is now proving its significance in supporting the treatment form called Cognitive Behaviorial Therapy (CBT).

CBT’s effectiveness in treating phobias such as the fear of flying, also known as aviophobia, was tested by Prof. Marilyn Safir and Dr. Helene Wallach from the University of Haifa’s Department of Psychology. The two developed Virtual Reality-assisted CBT to treat patients suffering from aviophobia at their research lab.

Controlled environment

Safir and Wallach explain that the main component of phobia therapy is exposure to the cause of fear, which for aviophobia sufferers may cause anxiety, fear, panic attacks, vomiting and fainting spells.

“While exposing individuals to their fears is imperative to the productivity of CBT, people just don’t want to be exposed to the cause of their phobia, which is what perpetuates the phobia and thwarts the whole course of therapy,” explains Wallach. The new virtual reality program developed by the two implements the CBT treatment is able to control the exposure.

Full flying experience

Instead of asking patients to try to imagine they are on board a flight, they are exposed to a simulated environment by using a helmet that provides a 3D experience of all stages of flying.

The aviophobia patient who comes to the lab sits on an airline seat and undergoes the full flying experience from start to end. It starts with the patient getting comfortable in the seat, hearing the safety instructions from the flight attendant, taxiing down the runway, followed by takeoff, the flight itself – including some turbulence – and landing safely.

Using Virtual Reality also gives the researchers the ability to simulate complicated and more extreme conditions. “Using virtual reality has enormous benefits in providing treatment for this type of phobia. We have full control over exposure to different situations and the patient does not reach overwhelming anxiety at any point. We can also go over and over any stage of therapy, which in the real world would be too costly for most patients and therapists,” note the researchers.

“Since exposure is controlled, the patient realizes that he/she will never become overwhelmed by anxiety during the course of this CBT process. As a result, he/she will experience a reduction in anxiety, as the anticipated catastrophic events do not occur, allowing the patient to practice both behavioral and cognitive coping skills that develop further during therapy,” Wallach ensures.

The experience challenges patients’ thoughts and perceptions about flying, helping them to develop cognitive skills, and hence alleviates thoughts of being unable to adequately cope with the situation, the researchers explain.

According to the researchers, CBT showed an impressive success rate and a high percentage of people have shown improvement following therapy.

Photo by Dushan and Miae

Study Discovers Important Cause For Cancer Growth

NoCamels Team — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:15:17 +0000

New research from the Technion Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute and the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, may lead to the development of new methods for controlling the growth of cancer, and perhaps lead to treatments that will transform cancer from a lethal disease to a chronic, manageable one, similar to AIDS.

By placing cancer cells in and near a growth developed from a population of human stem cells, scientists have demonstrated that the cancer cells grow and proliferate more robustly when exposed to human cells than they do in a typical petri dish or mouse model. The cancer cell population is also more diverse than had previously been understood, according to the Technion.

Blocking the cancer cell’s self-renewal process

The study was published in the current advanced online issue of the journal Stem Cells. Maty Tzukerman, Rambam’s project leader and senior co-author on the report, says that this model will facilitate targeted drug discovery aimed at blocking the cancer cell’s self-renewal process.

Previous studies have determined that some tumor cells appear to be differentiated, while others retain the self-renewal property that makes cancer so deadly. According to Technion Professor Karl Skorecki, director of Medical Research and Development at Rambam Health Care Campus and senior co-author on the report, this new research attempts to understand how cancer grows, and to find ways to halt the runaway replication.

The effect of the human environment

In order to mimic the human cancer environment as closely as possible, the research team developed a teratoma — a tumor made of a heterogenous mix of cells and tissues — by enabling the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into a variety of normally occurring human cell lines on a carrier mouse. The human cellular teratoma constitutes a new platform of healthy human cells for monitoring the behavior and proliferation of human cancer cells.

For this study, the team took cells from one woman’s ovarian clear cell carcinoma and injected them either into or alongside the human stem cell-derived environment. “We noticed very early on, rather strikingly, that the human cancer cells grow more robustly when they are in the teratoma environment compared to any other means in which we grew them, such as in a mouse muscle or under the skin of a mouse,” explains Skorecki.

The scientists were able to tease out six different kinds of self-renewing cells, based on behavior — how quickly they grow, how aggressive they are, how they differentiate — and on their molecular profile. This was a previously unknown finding, that one tumor might have such a diversity of cells with crucial fundamental growth properties. Tzukerman explains that the growth of the cancer cell subpopulations can now be explained by their proximity to the human cell environment.

The researchers cloned and expanded the six distinct cell populations and injected them into the human stem cell teratomas. One key observation is that some cells, which were not self-replicating in any other model, became self-replicating when exposed to the human cells.

Managing Cancer

Skorecki said that while he wasn’t surprised that the human environment affected the growth, he was in fact surprised by the magnitude of the effect: “We’ve known for years now that cancers are complex organs, but I didn’t think the power of the human stem cell environment would be so robust, that it would make such a big difference in how the cells were grown.”

The researchers point out that they do not yet know the cues that particularly enhance the cancer’s proliferation, and the team is now working on isolating the factors from human cells that promote such plasticity and self-renewing properties. The scientists explain that this may eventually allow physicians to manage cancer as a chronic disease: instead of one therapy against the entire tumor, researchers may develop a method to tease out the variety of self-renewing cell lines of a particular tumor and determine what allows each to thrive, then attack that mechanism.

Photo by GE Healthcare