When examining mice, researchers saw that elevated stress damages the immune system’s mechanism that battles inflammation. When the mice were placed under chronic stress, there was damage caused to the release of adequate levels of glucocorticoids (a steroid hormone).

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As a result, glucocorticoids cannot effectively fulfill their usual function, which is to inhibit the cells that encourage inflammation. This increased the number of cells that encouraged pathogenic inflammation compared to those that inhibit it.

It is important to note, that the mechanisms appeared more significantly in females than in males and may explain, in part, the higher rates of autoimmune disease in women than in men.

The Short-term solution is harmful long-term

Altogether, the results of the current study suggest that while a high level of glucocorticoids generally protect against the worsening of autoimmune diseases, for those under chronic stress, such treatment could lead to a worsening of their symptoms. Therefore, even though steroids is one of the treatments for chronic inflammation, use of such a treatment, particularly in patients suffering from chronic stress, should be carefully weighed and considered.

The researchers are also investigating the effects of glucocorticoids in aging and age-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, and report that there is a likely connection between the effects of glucocorticoids on the immune system and aging.

The study, Recently published in the European Journal of Immunology, was conducted by Doctor Idan Harpaz and Professor Alon Monsonego, in conjunction with Professor Hagit Cohen. Monsonego and Harpaz are from the Shraga Segal Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Monsonego is also a member of the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Desert. Cohen is the head of the Anxiety and Stress Research Unit, Division of Psychiatry at the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Photo by ian boyd

Researchers were examining the left atrial appendage, a part of the heart whose role is relatively unknown and is sometimes removed in heart-surgery, when they noticed something astonishing.

When a different part of the heart was placed in the left atrial appendage, tissue began growing on it, indicating that cells of the appendage function not unlike embryonic stem cells.

“Suddenly, tissue was seen growing inside the stent,” Professor Ronen Beeri, the director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at Hadassah and one of the study’s partners, reported in the study, according to Haaretz. “The tissue had a structural resemblance to tissue that was known to grow inside the atrial appendage,” he said.

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When analyzing the genetic component of the cells, it was concluded that these cells are very likely to possess the ability to become any type of tissue found in the heart, like embryonic stem cells.

A broken heart can heal itself

After documenting this phenomenon in sheep, researchers moved on to mice, to further examine the regeneration. They found that the atrial appendage actually contains stem cells for heart regeneration.

Up until now, cardiologist worked under the assumption that the heart cannot heal itself. This study challenges this notion. The study opens a whole different approach for heart regeneration.

Professor Beeri says that the most common form of heart damage is the result of cardiac-arrest, birth defects and valve problems. If applied to humans, this discovery could lead to a new form of bandaging.

The research, recently published in medical journal PLOS ONE, was conducted by Beeri along with Dr. Jussi Leinonen, Dr. Avishag Korkus-Emanuelov and Dr. Sara Hoss of Hadassah University Hospital.

Photo by Gabriela Camerotti

A recent study from Tel Aviv University may now prove to be a significant breakthrough in diagnosing the condition. By collecting tissue from the nose through a simple biopsy, researchers have actually been able to diagnose the condition in a “more sure-fire” way than ever before, according to lead researcher Dr. Noam Shomron.

This finding, which was reported in the journal Neurobiology of Disease, could not only lead to a more accurate diagnosis, it may also lead to the crucial, early detection of the disease, giving rise to vastly improved treatment overall.

Samples of olfactory neurons from patients diagnosed with schizophrenia

Until now, biomarkers for schizophrenia had only been found in the neuron cells of the brain, which can’t be collected before death. By that point it’s obviously too late to do the patient any good, says Shomron. Instead, psychiatrists depend on psychological evaluations for diagnosis, including interviews with the patient and reports by family and friends.

For a solution to this diagnostic dilemma, the researchers turned to the olfactory system, which includes neurons located on the upper part of the inner nose. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University collected samples of olfactory neurons from patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and a control group of non-affected individuals, then sent them to Shomron’s TAU lab.

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Shomron and his fellow researchers applied a high-throughput technology to these samples, studying the microRNA of the olfactory neurons. Within these molecules, which help to regulate our genetic code, they were able to identify a microRNA which is highly elevated in people with schizophrenia, compared to individuals who do not have the disease.

“We were able to narrow down the microRNA to a differentially expressed set, and from there down to a specific microRNA which is elevated in individuals with the disease compared to healthy individuals,” Shomron explains. Further research revealed that this particular microRNA controls genes associated with the generation of neurons.

Early detection – early treatment

In practice, material for biopsy could be collected through a quick and easy outpatient procedure, using a local anesthetic, says Shomron. And with microRNA profiling results ready in a matter of hours, this method could evolve into a relatively simple and accurate test to diagnose a very complicated illness.

Dr. Shomron concedes there is still much more to investigate, including whether this alteration in microRNA expression begins before schizophrenic symptoms start to exhibit themselves, or only after the disease fully develops, he says. If this change comes near the beginning of the timeline, it could be invaluable for early diagnostics. This would mean early intervention, better treatment, and possibly even the postponement of symptoms, he says.

If a person has a family history of schizophrenia, this test could reveal whether they too suffer from the disease, Shomron adds. And while such advanced warning does not mean a cure is on the horizon, it will help both patient and doctor identify and prepare for the challenges ahead.

The research was conducted by Shomron and Prof. Ruth Navon of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, together with PhD student Eyal Mor from Dr. Shomron’s lab and Prof. Akira Sawa of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland

Photo: Tel Aviv University

This has just been demonstrated by Prof. Michael Aviram and colleagues from Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center and Technion- Israel Institute of Technology.

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The research was published in the prestigious Journal of Agriculture Food Chemistry.

Aviram and his team, including Dr. Hamutal Borochov-Neori of Southern Arava Research and Development, have been studying the health benefits of dates for some time.

The most effective varieties are the yellow Barhi, Deri, Medjool and Halawi. The other date varieties are Amari, Deglet, Noor, Hadrawi and Hayani.

There are about 20 date varieties growing in various parts of the world, including North Africa and Arizona in the US, but the Israeli varieties growing in the Jordan Valley and the Arava (and in Jericho in the Palestinian Authority) are the best, said Aviram.

Aviram told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that it doesn’t matter if dates are eaten fresh or dried, but consuming silan – date syrup – can offer little improvement to healthy cardiovascular systems.

As silan is a sweet concentrate that does not contain fibers, it is far from the real thing.

A study the researchers published in the same journal four years ago showed that eating three dates a day does not raise blood sugar levels in healthy people, but it does reduce blood triglycerides and even “improves the quality” of blood cholesterol by reducing its oxidation. These effects reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and other vascular diseases, they said.

A 5,000 year-old remedy

Aviram said, however, that since dates contain a lot of sugar, they are not recommended for diabetics, and that they will not reduce blood sugar levels in this group.

He said that eating a small amount of pomegranate may slightly reduce blood sugar in diabetics but is not recommended as a regular regimen.
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Via The Jerusalem Post
Photo by Itinerant Tightwad

Although all the participants had underlying problems of loneliness, none had any history of psychosis or drug abuse, the team says.

Lead researcher Doctor Uri Nitzan of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Shalvata Mental Health Care Centre said: “As internet access becomes increasingly widespread, so do related psychopathologies. Computer communications such as Facebook and chat groups are an important part of this story.”

The study took an in-depth look at three of Dr Nitzan’s patients. The studies found a direct link between psychotic episodes and their internet or Facebook communications.

All three of Dr Nitzan’s patients sought refuge from a lonely situation and found solace in intense virtual relationships.

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Although these relationships were positive at first, they eventually led to feelings of hurt, betrayal, and invasion of privacy.

Doctor Nitzan said: “The patients shared some crucial characteristics, including loneliness or vulnerability due to the loss of or separation from a loved one, relative inexperience with technology, and no prior history of psychosis or substance abuse. In each case, a connection was found between the gradual development and exacerbation of psychotic symptoms, including delusions, anxiety, confusion, and intensified use of computer communications.

“The good news is that all of the patients, who willingly sought out treatment on their own, were able to make a full recovery with proper treatment and care.”

Doctor Nitzan said: “All of the patients developed psychotic symptoms related to the situation, including delusions regarding the person behind the screen and their connection through the computer. Two patients began to feel vulnerable as a result of sharing private information, and one even experienced tactile hallucinations, believing that the person beyond the screen was physically touching her.

“Some of the problematic features of the internet relate to issues of geographical and spatial distortion, the absence of non-verbal cues, and the tendency to idealize the person with whom someone is communicating, becoming intimate without ever meeting face-to-face.”

He added that mental health professionals should not overlook the internet’s influence when speaking to patients.
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Via the Daily Mail

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Such chronic inflammation is common in many severe health disorders, such as autoimmune diseases (diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and Crohn’s), chronic inflammatory disorders, chronic infections (HIV, leprosy, leishmaniasis) and cancer. What all these conditions have in common is that at a certain stage, the immune system becomes suppressed and results in disease progression.

Previous research done at the university has shown that the cause for the suppression is a kind of cell, called MSDC, which travels from the bone marrow to the circulatory system and imposes a general suppression of the immune system.

A natural mechanism gone wrong

The problem is that sometimes the body needs to suppress its own immune system in order to heal itself from harmful conditions. Researchers focused on a compound called TNF-a, which displayed beneficial effects in the initiation of immune responses directed against invading pathogens and tumor cells, when dealing with short episodes.

However, when a condition became chronic and reoccurring, TNF-a started displaying harmful effects, actually causing complications and disease progression. Such a negative phenomenon is characteristic of diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, type II diabetes, Crohn’s disease and cancer. For that reason, TNF-a blocking reagents are used for treatment of such pathologies.

What has remained unclear until now, however, is just how TNF-a plays its deleterious role in manipulating the host’s immune system towards the generation of a suppressive environment. The Hebrew University researchers were able to identify the mechanisms that influence the way TNF-a operates.

Hopes for future treatment

Prof. Michal Baniyash (left) and Moshe Sade-Feldman

Using mice, researchers were able to influence TNF-a with anti-TNF-a drugs. The treatment changed the features of MDSCs and abolished their suppressive activity, leading to the restoration of the host’s immune function.

Taken together, the results show clearly how the TNF-a-mediated inflammatory response, whether acute or chronic, will dictate its beneficial or harmful consequence on the immune system. While during acute inflammation TNF-a is vital for immediate immune defense against pathogens and clearance of tumor cells, during chronic inflammation, under conditions where the host is unable to clear the pathogen or the tumor cells, TNF-a is harmful due to the induction of immune suppression.

These results, providing new insight into the relationship between TNF-a and the development of an immune suppression during chronic inflammation, may aid in the generation of better therapeutic strategies against various pathologies when elevated TNF-a and MDSC levels are detected, as seen, for example, in tumor growths.

The results were published online in the journal Immunity by Ph.D. student Moshe Sade-Feldman and Professor Michal Baniyash of the Lautenberg Center for General and Tumor Immunology at the Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada at the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine.

Photo: Andres Rueda

The study showed that if doctors undergo a certain medical procedure, which they then also recommend to their patients, patients are more likely to go through with it themselves. Researchers isolated eight such procedures in the study.

The empiric part of the study was done in Israeli Health Maintenance Organization “Clalit.” Nearly 1,500 doctors were surveyed alongside 1.9 million patients. Procedures reviewed included vaccinations, blood-pressure tests, colonoscopies, mammograms and more.

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When it came to patients adhering to their doctor’s recommendations, the study found that patients whose doctors underwent the procedure they recommended were more likely to undergo the procedure themselves.

“We found a consistent, positive relation between physicians’ and patients’ preventive health practices,” the researchers wrote. “Objectively establishing this healthy doctor-healthy patient relation should encourage prevention-oriented health care systems to better support and evaluate the effects on patients of improving the physical health of medical students and physicians.

The study was conducted by Israelis Yizchak Dresner, Michal Shani and Shlomo Vinker and Canadian Erica Frank. The findings were published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Photo: andyde

The TED, or Technology, Entertainment and Design conferences that are viewed globally are renowned for riveting speeches given by outstanding individuals on innovative topics, carrying the slogan “ideas worth sharing”.

Streamed live to the Washington TEDMED conference, TEDMED Israel sported three local speakers chosen for their impressive innovation in the fields of medicine and health, and shared in some of the live speeches at the US conference. 

A vision shared by two borthers

When Yaron Eliram, a lawyer by profession, decided that he wanted to bring TED to Israel he harnessed the help of his brother, Dr. Eitan Eliram, advisor to the Prime Minister in Nanotechnology and New Media, to get the wheels moving. Together they contacted the TED organization and got the first international TEDMED conference up and running in just under two months, hearing of TEDMED curator Jay Walker’s appreciation for the medical community of Israel.

With the wind in their sails, the Eliram brothers succeeded in securing a meaningful location for the prestigious event, the state-of-the-art Peres Center for Peace, and a number of remarkable speakers to wow the global viewership. Although the US TEDMED conference spans three and half days, TEDMED Israel lasted only over three hours, yet the variety of the topics was still astonishing.

Knowing how to play with our DNA

Two of the speakers, Omri Drory of the Genome Compiler Corportation and Dr. Ido Bachelet from the Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials at Bar Ilan University, spoke of revolutionary uses for our genetic code that are shaping the future of medicine.

The Genome Compiler Corporation “democratizes creation”, according to Drory and it does so by allowing biologists to write out their own DNA sequences. For those who don’t know, DNA is a molecule that contains our genetic code that can be arranged in infinite sequences of four letters: G, A, T, and C. When these letters are arranged in different sequences they can produce or weaken certain traits in an organism, and this is called “writing” DNA.

The Genome Compiler that Drory presented at TEDMED is basically a DNA design start-up. The Genome Compiler software is available online for anyone to use (although experience is valued because playing with DNA can be dangerous) and allows the user to create and then physically order any DNA sequence they wish. This allows biologists to play around with DNA to make it into all kinds of different shapes, tastes, colors, smells and even effects. While the uses for such a program may only be fully understood by the experienced biologist, Drory spoke of a number of international DNA compiling competitions like iGem in which students compete for the most unique feats in biological engineering.

Creating “microscopic doctors” that swim around the body

Dr. Bachelet’s speech was no less eye-opening, as he discussed the creation of natural nanobots from DNA sequences that can be injected into the bloodstream. As the father of a chronic hospital patient, Dr. Bachelet felt the need to create a biological “robot” that could help his daughter during her healing process. Instead of having to go through the painful experience of being constantly hooked up to machines, Dr. Bachelet and his REBIT team set out to create a nanobot out of a DNA sequence that could be injected into the patient to do all of the necessary work.

Dr.Bachelet ordered a DNA sequence from a site like the Genome Compiler and began tweaking it to make it act like a microscopic robot that can be turned on and off as needed. Not only can these nanobots be controlled by simple hand gestures, Dr. Bachelet is working to make them self-destructible after they have completed their task in the blood stream. Although his project is still in development and has yet to be safely tested on humans, his and Drory’s “nano-size” thinking seems to echo the future of medical developments.

And once his company, Bonus BioGroup, has perfected its method of growing bones in a test tube, Meretzki said, it will also move on to developing joint replacements, which could help billions of older people regain their lost freedom of movement.

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Grow me a bone

“Our bone-regeneration methodology is a powerful tool for treating a variety of bone and joint diseases without the risk of tissue rejection and surgery failure, as with current methods of bone replacement and implants,” Meretzki claimed.

Dr. Shai Meretzki

Over two million bone-graft procedures are performed annually, and problems are endemic to most of them, Meretzki explained to The Times of Israel this week. A bone graft is a surgical procedure that replaces missing bone in the body. It may be needed when victims of particularly bad accidents find that their bones are too broken to be set in a cast. There are cases where bones are removed to prevent infection or other problems. In yet-other instances, doctors may have to remove bones that are not healing properly and are interfering with the body’s normal functions.
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Via The Times of Israel
Photos: Courtesy

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“Thirteen companies were chosen for this program; only two — including ours — were from outside the US, so we consider it a great honor,” said Dr. Leon Eisen, CEO of Oxitone and inventor of the device with the same name. Actually, Eisen told The Times of Israel, Oxitone is much more than a medical device. “We are actually trying to change the paradigm of safety, via constant monitoring of blood-oxygen levels. With our device and platform, doctors will be able to keep a much better eye on chronically ill patients, and save the lives of many patients who die from an unwitnessed attack.”

It’s a paradigm that might have made life a little more comfortable for Apple founder Steve Jobs, according to his biographer.

The Oxitone device is an innovative blood-oxygen monitor, called an oximeter, worn on the wrist. The blood-oxygen level is a critical statistic for patients with forms of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), who need to ensure that enough air is getting into their lungs. COPD usually accompanies diseases such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema, which cause the air passages to the lungs to become narrower and limit the availability of oxygen. Patients feel short of breath; they are limited in their capacity for physical activity and are at risk if they overdo it.

Relevant to half a billion people worldwide

COPD is the third-highest cause of death in the US; in 2007, it cost the American economy $42.6 billion in health-care costs and in lost productivity. Worldwide, over 500 million people suffer from chronic conditions that put them at significant risk of pulmonary or cardiac dysfunction, with an overall average annual cost of more than $120 billion in medical costs and lost productivity.

Doctors use a device called an oximeter, aka a saturometer, to monitor the oxygen saturation of a patient’s blood; this bypasses the need to take a blood sample. Medical care personnel can monitor the level of oxygen in the blood, and inform doctors if the oxygen levels fall too far. Oximeters in the doctor’s office or the hospital generally require the patient to be hooked up to a battery of machines and monitors, which analyze the information. Numerous examinations are necessary; the patient has to repeat the routine several times a day.

There is an alternative to full-scale blood-oxygen measurement — a handheld pulse oximeter, which uses infrared light to measure the pulsation of capillaries in the finger. These devices are considered only somewhat accurate and, to boot, often entail finger pain. Current iterations of the oximeter feature “jaws” that must be clamped on to a fingertip or an earlobe — translucent parts of the body that allow the oximeter (which is based on photodiode technology) to check the level of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin in the system. Considering that this procedure takes place several times a day for lengthy minutes, patients often complain of finger pain, said Eisen, even though the clamps are touted as being “pain free.”
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Via The Times of Israel
Photo by Oxitone