“A Study Reveals How Respiratory Tubes And Capillaries Form (Medical News Today)” plus 3 more

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• A Study Reveals How Respiratory Tubes And Capillaries Form (Medical News Today)
• FlowCardia commences enrollment in CROSSER CTO Recanalization Catheter study (News-Medical-Net)
• FlowCardia, Inc. Initiates CENTRAL Study Enrollment (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance)
• Neuroimaging study may pave way for effective Alzheimer's treatments (EurekAlert!)

A Study Reveals How Respiratory Tubes And Capillaries Form (Medical News Today) Posted: 09 Feb 2010 05:35 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry Also Included In: Genetics;  Cancer / Oncology Article Date: 09 Feb 2010 - 2:00 PST email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions These tubes or capillaries, formed by a single cell, connect the main tubes of the respiratory system with organs and tissues, thereby providing oxygen. The study has been published in the journal Current Biology, part of the Cell group. Jordi Casanova, professor at CSIC who heads a developmental biology group at IRB Barcelona, addresses the gene expression that leads to the formation of different parts of an organism. Revealing how respiratory tubes develop in Drosophila is relevant because the genes and mechanisms involved are very similar to those present in the mammalian respiratory and circulatory systems. "Our study explains the formation of the smallest tubes that develop to transport nutrients and oxygen to tissues", says Casanova. Capillary formation is tightly linked to the development of tumours since these have the capacity to generate new capillaries to obtain more nutrients, in a process known as angiogenesis. Indeed, one of the strategies under study to prevent tumour growth is to inhibit the formation of these supply routes. Studying cell-to-tube transformation in vivo The tubes measure only a few microns in diameter (one micron equals one thousandth of a millimetre) and are formed inside a cell. The lengthening of a cell and the development of a tube occur simultaneously. "If a tissue or organ requires oxygen, it sends a signal to cells in the main tube. At that point, a single cell begins to lengthen towards its target, while the tube is developing inside. It is like putting a finger into a wrinkled glove: the material stretches as the finger slides in". In order to follow the process in vivo, the researchers have filmed the development of embryos under a microscope. "Real time observation of embryo development has allowed us to see what happens in the entire organism and to understand the interaction with neighbouring tissue. After, using molecular biology techniques, we have identified the components that participate", explains the first author of the study, Louis Gervais, postdoctoral fellow in Casanova's group. The signal that the tissue cells emit is called Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) and the cell of the tube reacts by activating the Serum Response Factor (SRF), which is the same gene that is active in the capillaries of the circulatory system in mammals. "We have discovered how this genetic machinery acts inside the cell to ensure its reorganisation and cell-to-tube transformation." The researchers have identified the two main players: actin a protein linked to cell movement, which is concentrated in the tip of the cell where it will begin to extend, and microtubules, very fine fibres that anchor on one side to actin and on the other to the opposite side of the cell. The microtubule network is like rails along which the components to be incorporated travel both to the outer membrane of the cell and the inner membrane of the tube so that both grow, while actin acts as an explorer, indicating the direction of growth. Thus, the actin and microtubule conjunction organises the lengthening of the cell and tube growth towards the target tissue. Source: Institute for Research in Biomedicine IRB Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

FlowCardia commences enrollment in CROSSER CTO Recanalization Catheter study (News-Medical-Net) Posted: 09 Feb 2010 06:01 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. FlowCardia, Inc., a worldwide leader in the development of endovascular devices for the treatment of chronic total occlusions (CTOs), today announced Dr. John Paul Runyon from The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio successfully enrolled the first patient into the CENTRAL (Crosser ENters The Right Arterial Lumen) study. "The acute benefits of staying within the central lumen and not causing trauma to the artery wall are well documented and we are excited to be involved in this study," said Dr. John Paul Runyon, an interventional cardiologist at The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, OH. "Most treatment options for peripheral artery disease require staying in the central lumen to be most effective. Using the CROSSER Catheter as a front line therapy allows us to use further treatment options resulting in increased long term benefits to the patient." The 8 hospital, 100 patient CENTRAL study is designed as a single arm registry that involves recanalizing the occlusion and demonstrating successful navigation of the CROSSER Catheter in the central lumen of the artery as confirmed by Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS). Also noted in the study, will be the Re-Entry Ratio or utilization rate of lumen re-entry devices during CTO recanalization procedures. When CTOs are crossed within the central lumen of the artery, the need for these re-entry devices is dramatically reduced. "This unique study will validate the CROSSER Catheter's ability to provide treatment while staying within the central lumen of the artery to a greater degree than the currently available recanalization devices and techniques," said national principal investigator of the CENTRAL study, Dr. Tom Davis of St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, MI. The CROSSER CTO Recanalization Catheter is a minimally-invasive endovascular device that is delivered to the blockage within the artery using standard guidewire techniques. The doctor then activates the CROSSER Catheter which utilizes high-frequency, mechanical vibration to pass through the blockage in the central lumen of the artery. Once the CROSSER Catheter passes through the occlusion, physicians can then perform standard procedures to optimize the longer term outcomes. SOURCE FlowCardia, Inc. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

FlowCardia, Inc. Initiates CENTRAL Study Enrollment (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance) Posted: 09 Feb 2010 05:00 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- FlowCardia, Inc., a worldwide leader in the development of endovascular devices for the treatment of chronic total occlusions (CTOs), today announced Dr. John Paul Runyon from The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio successfully enrolled the first patient into the CENTRAL (Crosser ENters The Right Arterial Lumen) study. "The acute benefits of staying within the central lumen and not causing trauma to the artery wall are well documented and we are excited to be involved in this study," said Dr. John Paul Runyon, an interventional cardiologist at The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, OH. "Most treatment options for peripheral artery disease require staying in the central lumen to be most effective. Using the CROSSER Catheter as a front line therapy allows us to use further treatment options resulting in increased long term benefits to the patient." The 8 hospital, 100 patient CENTRAL study is designed as a single arm registry that involves recanalizing the occlusion and demonstrating successful navigation of the CROSSER Catheter in the central lumen of the artery as confirmed by Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS). Also noted in the study, will be the Re-Entry Ratio or utilization rate of lumen re-entry devices during CTO recanalization procedures. When CTOs are crossed within the central lumen of the artery, the need for these re-entry devices is dramatically reduced. "This unique study will validate the CROSSER Catheter's ability to provide treatment while staying within the central lumen of the artery to a greater degree than the currently available recanalization devices and techniques," said national principal investigator of the CENTRAL study, Dr. Tom Davis of St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, MI. The CROSSER CTO Recanalization Catheter is a minimally-invasive endovascular device that is delivered to the blockage within the artery using standard guidewire techniques. The doctor then activates the CROSSER Catheter which utilizes high-frequency, mechanical vibration to pass through the blockage in the central lumen of the artery. Once the CROSSER Catheter passes through the occlusion, physicians can then perform standard procedures to optimize the longer term outcomes. About FlowCardia FlowCardia, Inc. is a privately held medical device company established in 2002 to design and manufacture a portfolio of endovascular CTO recanalization products. Additional information is available on the company's web site at: www.flowcardia.com. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Neuroimaging study may pave way for effective Alzheimer's treatments (EurekAlert!) Posted: 09 Feb 2010 03:29 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Public release date: 9-Feb-2010 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Jennifer O'Brien jobrien@pubaff.ucsf.edu 415-476-2557 University of California - San Francisco Scientists have determined that a new instrument known as PIB-PET is effective in detecting deposits of amyloid-beta protein plaques in the brains of living people, and that these deposits are predictive of who will develop Alzheimer's disease. The finding, the result of a survey of more than 100 studies involving the instrument, including those by the scientists, confirms the sensitivity of the tool, not yet commercially available. In clinical practice, amyloid deposits are detected only on autopsy. The study also provides strong evidence supporting the so-called "amyloid hypothesis" the theory that accumulation of amyloid-beta protein plaques in the brain is central to the development of the disease. While significant evidence has supported this hypothesis, it has been questioned for two main reasons. First, amyloid deposits do not correlate with the severity of the disease, and are, in fact, found at autopsy in people who did not have clinical symptoms; and second, drugs targeting the plaques have shown disappointing results, even when the drugs were successful at substantially lowering plaque burden. Thus, the question of amyloid's role in the illness has remained. "Our survey of PIB-PET studies, which looked cross-sectionally and longitudinally at people with normal cognitive performance, mild cognitive impairment and full-fledged Alzheimer's disease, showed that amyloid deposits can be detected in a significant proportion of cognitively normal older adults, and that their presence is associated with Alzheimer's-like brain atrophy and changes in brain activity," says co-author Gil Rabinovici, MD, assistant professor of neurology in the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. The study also showed that older individuals with amyloid deposits were much more likely to show cognitive decline over time than their "amyloid-negative" counterparts, says Rabinovici, whose co-author was William Jagust, MD, of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The results of the survey, reported in a recent special issue of the journal Behavioral Neurology (vol. 21, Issues 1-2, 2009), may explain why patients with Alzheimer's disease have not responded to promising experimental drugs that target amyloid, and suggest that these drugs may be effective if administered earlier. "Amyloid deposits appear to reach a plateau early in the disease course, when patients experience very mild symptoms or no symptoms at all," says Rabinovici, a recipient of new investigator awards from the Alzheimer's Association and the National Institute on Aging. "By the time patients have developed the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, clinical decline and brain changes are occurring independently of further amyloid accumulation. This suggests that we have been starting treatment too late, and that amyloid-based therapies are most likely to work very early in the disease process." Existing drugs, such as Aricept, Exelon and Razadyne, treat symptoms but do not modify the biological progression of the disease, he says. Many treatments under development, however, target amyloid deposits in an attempt to arrest further decline. Thus far, these treatments have failed to produce a benefit in two phase III clinical trials in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease. PIB-PET involves injecting a tracer material known as Pittsburgh compound B (PIB) into the brain via the bloodstream, and imaging the brain with positron emission tomography (PET). PIB binds to amyloid-beta protein plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, and sends a signal that is then detected by the PET scanner and translated into an image reflecting the quantity and distribution of amyloid in the brain. In the studies surveyed, scientists complemented the PIB-PET investigations by using additional neuroimaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging or FDG-PET, which allowed them to measure the size of different brain structures, network connections or brain metabolism. While PIB-PET is used for research purposes only, due to its limited "half life," or amount of time it takes for the radioactive signal of the compound to decay, other amyloid imaging agents are being developed for commercial use. However, Rabinovici "strongly discourages" uses of the technology in cognitively normal individuals until effective and safe anti-amyloid therapies are available and the benefit of preventive treatment is demonstrated in clinical trials. Eventually, he predicts, the technology might be used for screening those genetically at risk for Alzheimer's, as well as those who are minimally symptomatic. Anti-amyloid treatments would then be prescribed to prevent the onset of the disease. The study was funded by grants from the National Institute on Aging, the Alzheimer's Association and the John Douglas French Alzheimer's Foundation. Approximately 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease, according to the National Institute on Aging. The direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer's and other dementias are estimated to be $148 billion per year, according to the Alzheimer's Association. The mission of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center is to provide the highest quality of care for individuals with cognitive problems, to conduct research on causes and cures for degenerative brain diseases, and to educate health professionals, patients and their families. UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. Related links: UCSF Memory and Aging Center http://memory.ucsf.edu/ University of California, San Francisco www.ucsf.edu [ | E-mail | Share ]   Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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