When the first heart transplant was carried out it was a startling event. But fantastic as it was, the poor patient had to exist on immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of his life. Okay, he was still alive; but his immune system was severely compromised, making it difficult for him to cope with any infections.

In the meantime, more and more body parts have been produced using a patient’s own tissue, thus negating the need for immunosuppressant drugs.

Several wind pipes are now being grown from scratch and transplanted into patients using their own stem cells. These have produced dramatic improvements in health without any need for drugs to suppress the immune system. Similarly, the bladder and urethra have been grown using stem cells and transplanted into patient successfully.

Aubrey De Grey, anti-ageing specialist, recently commented: “We are seeing the emergence of a new area of medicine where the diseases of ageing can be blocked or even reversed. These therapies are mostly in research now but eventually they will be commonplace.”

Even a decade ago, these procedures were regarded as on the very margins of research. They are now rapidly becoming mainstream. Regenerating more complex organs is going to take longer – but they will be developed, it’s just a matter of time.

Hearts, kidneys and livers will be able to be grown, sooner than we think. And knees and hips will be regrown by using stem cell therapy. Even clinical trials for regeneration of spinal cells are under way.

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• American Receives Stem-Cell Built Trachea In Sweden (pinkbananaworld.com)

Transplants Extend Human Lives is a post from: Living To 150

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It is illuminating to think back to the 1920’s when very many were still dying from the effects of bacterial infections – tuberculosis, syphilis, gonorrhoea, blood poisoning.

If you had told people back then that these diseases would be virtually wiped out within a decade, you would have been greeted with ridicule. But, penicillin was discovered – and they were wiped out.

James Watson is one of the giants of 20th century biology. Along with Francis Crick, he predicted accurately the structure of DNA to be a double helix.

Well, Watson is still active in research at the age of 83. His interesting prediction is that the back of most cancers will be broken within 5 to 10 years.

There is still a lot of fear around cancer. But just think that most cancers could, according to Watson, be curable by 2022.

The thing is, there are pathways through which cancer is able to multiply itself indefinitely – at least, it can now. But once these are found, then blocking these pathways will clobber any cancer easily.

Today, it’s hard to accept that. But it was equally hard for people in the 1920’s to imagine the effects of penicillin on bugs which had been killing a large proportion of the population for generations.

Hard as it is to accept, cancer is now on the run.

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• The high school student who devised a cure for cancer | Mail Online (madworldz.wordpress.com)

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In world first, a baby boy in London was saved from death due to a virus affecting his liver, by having donor liver cells injected into his abdomen. These injected cells were able to perform many of the functions his stressed liver could not, enabling him to live long enough for his body to fight off the infection.

The liver cells were treated with an extract from algae to delay the body’s immune system in attacking the cells. After two weeks his own liver had started its recovery, and begun to resume its usual activity. Six months later his liver function was normal. Previously, the poor lad was on dialysis treatment and had to breathe with the help of a machine.

This is an incredible achievement and no doubt more trials are planned to try to extend this treatment method to other similar situations.

The alternative treatment – a transplant – would have been a very much less attractive option. This choice was less invasive, enabled near enough complete recovery, and did not rely on the hope that a liver donor was available.

Potentially, a huge step forward.

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• Pioneering liver treatment with donor liver cells saves baby’s life (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)
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The Black Death, which swept through London in the 14^th century, killed around 40% of the population. That was some epidemic.

In an effort to understand microbial development and behaviour, with a view to helping us to deal with future infections, the science of paleomicrobiology has developed: the piecing together of genetic evidence from centuries ago.

It is interesting to paleomicrobiologists just why the Black Death was so very virulent. The ability to sequence of the genome – to know the precise composition of a human individual’s DNA from end to end – has made the task of finding out this information much more possible. The ability for paleomicrobiologists and historians to work together will deepen our understanding of the migrating activity of microbes and the progress of pandemics. This can only help us to spot them early and to be able to deal with them.

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• Bubonic plague genome: The Black Death decoded (nature.com)
• ‘Black Death’ bacteria likely extinct, study finds – msnbc.com (news.google.com)

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Stem Cell (Wikipedia Image)

Embryonic stem cells are to be used to treat blindness in the first trial of its kind outside the United States. The trial, taking place at Moorfields Hospital in London, will treat sufferers from a disease causing blindness at a relatively young age – Stargardt’s disease. The findings from the trial will have wider application, however, including age-related macular degeneration.

The American company Advanced Cell Technology will be running the trial at Moorfields. ACT is also running a trial in its home city of Massachusetts, and says that this placement of the trial in the UK confirms the U.K.’s place as the leading country in Europe for stem cell development.

Moorfields Hospital are also developing their own stem cell treatment for macular degeneration using different methodology. All these studies being run will produce information which will help the others.

This new study will proceed slowly, treating perhaps a dozen patients over 1 to 2 years.

This trial of the stem cell treatment for blindness holds huge help for those who sight is threatened now, or will be in the future.

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• Stem Cells in Ophthalmology Update 10: ACT Expands Trials for Embryonic Stem Cells for Stargardt’s to the UK (irvaronsjournal.blogspot.com)
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New Arthritis Drug Offers Hope (Wikipedia Image)

New potential benefits for arthritis from an existing osteoporosis drug have been identified following a study carried out on mice. The drug was shown to thicken cartilage by over 30% – a good first result.

This new use for it was identified by US researchers, working with mice. There is no evidence as yet that the same thing will happen in humans.

Cartilage erosion is one of the big problems with osteoarthritis so being able to build it would be valuable, if it was true. This is what supplements such as shark cartilage and glucosamine sulphate aim to do.

Drug treatment is bound to entail the risk of side-effects, as usual. But if a mechanism has been identified which promotes the regrowth cartilage this might inform the production of other treatments in the future. And if you found no help from more natural supplements, it would be one more avenue to consider if the initial results are confirmed to work in humans.

The drug is called Forsteo in the UK (generic name teriparatide), and works by influencing the hormone system which creates cartilage.

Drug companies are often looking to extend the existing uses of drug into other areas. Discovering a new use for an existing drug is always cheaper than starting from scratch.

The drug costs around £10 ($16) a day, but compared to the cost of joint replacement that is cheap.

This is the first drug treatment which has shown potential benefits for the cartilage in the joint. Currently, the standard – pre-joint-replacement treatment for severe arthritis is the use of steroid drugs which are intended just to mask the pain.

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Trial Of Heart Attack Stem Cell Treatment (Wikipedia)

Stem cells are being tested to improve the success rate of certain heart attack treatments.

If a blocked artery causes a heart attack, a common treatment is to insert a stent – a hollow tube – into the artery to re-enable the blood flow. The problem is that the insertion of the stent can cause tissue damage. By introducing large numbers of stem cells to the area at the same time it is expected that the healing process will be faster and better.

The difference with this trial is that when the stem cells are needed there is no time to grow the patient’s own stem cells – to avoid rejection by the immune system. Australian company Mesoblast has overcome that problem by growing a specific kind of stem cell found in bone marrow which does not trigger an immune response. In other words, they can be introduced into anyone’s body without fear of rejection.

These stem cells are also not embryonic stem cells which have caused controversy in the past. They are capable of being grown en masse and kept in storage for when they are needed.

The study will involve 225 patients who have suffered severe heart attacks in the UK, Netherlands and Belgium. Initial results are expected after 12 months. There appears to be a very good chance that this use of the specialised stem cells will significantly improve the recovery from the operation as well as the survival rate.

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Cost of Genome Sequencing Plunges (dullhunk, Flickr)

Genetic testing – sequencing the genome – will be used more and more for individuals – and health services – as the price comes down. The cost is now around $10,000, down from $100,000 only two years ago.  In a very few years the cost will be hundreds of dollars.

But what will we be able to use genetic testing for? Here are three areas.

Cancer

Knowing the genetic cause of a person’s cancer will become more and crucial to treatment. Already, research is being put into ‘smart drugs’ which work only when certain genetic mutations are present. This will make cancer treatment much more focused.

Infectious Diseases

Knowing the exact genome of a bacterium – such as MRSA – will enable treatment and prevention to be much more targeted. The sources of infections will be easier to find and deal with: and treatments will be more readily available, and more accurate.

Screening

Each year, hundreds of people die suddenly and prematurely from a variety of ailments including sudden heart attacks. Genetic screening will be able to identify those at risk, and preventive measures – of lifestyle and, perhaps, drugs – recommended.

In, five years, certainly, these measures will become commonplace in the Western world, as the cost of genetic testing continues to fall rapidly. More applications will be found, no doubt, for the insights genetic screening provides.

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Image via Wikipedia

In 2008, a woman in Italy with a windpipe ravaged by tuberculosis received a windpipe transplant. A donor windpipe was stripped of all cells, leaving just the cartilaginous framework, then the woman’s own stem cells were introduced to produce a complete windpipe.

The transplant was a success.

Then, in 2010, a child with a congenitally narrowed windpipe had the donor cartilage transplanted into his body along with a cocktail of growth factors plus his own stem cells. When it had grown, the new windpipe was swapped for the old one – and the child, at last, could breath properly.

Synthetic Windpipe

Now, in a further development, the donor is no longer needed. A completely synthetic windpipe has been grown at University College, London, exactly the same shape and size as a patient’s own, and seeded with stem cells. The whole growth process took around a week. The completely synthetic windpipe was then transplanted into the patient.

Being synthetic, no donor is needed and so the risk of rejection – a big problem with donor transplants – is zero. Because of this rejection problem a patient with a donated organ has to have their immune system heavily suppressed, increasing the chance of an life-threatening infection taking hold. In other words, with a synthetic transplant plus their own stem cells, patients will simply live longer.

A Massive Medical Breakthrough

This is a huge breakthrough. It is now only a matter of time before a large number of body parts will be able to be produced on request.

Does this seem just a little grotesque? In a sense, perhaps. But if you needed a replacement organ in a hurry I know most of us would be pleased one could be made this way.

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The NHS And The Human Genome (Image via Wikipedia)

Ten years after the human genome was sequenced, the UK National Health Service (NHS) is ill-prepared to deal with the benefits. A report by Sir John Bell states that “There has already been a lot of innovation almost none of which has been adopted by the NHS.”

I suppose this should not be too surprising: this morning an article on BBC’s Radio 4 highlighted the failure to standardise NHS records into an electronic form accessible by any health authority.

Of course, both these measures – digitizing records and accessing more and more patients’ genetic data – has huge implications for personal privacy.

From the illegal perspective – hackers can get in anywhere: and they will get access to our personal records.

And insurance companies will desperately want access to the data legally if they possibly can.

On the positive front, Prime Minister David Cameron has taken a personal interest in getting genetics to the centre of NHS treatment. Let’s hope he makes an impact on the NHS which, while wonderful in some respects, is cumbersome and disorganised in others.

Is The NHS Ready For Genetic Medicine? is a post from: Living To 150

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Genome Sequencing (Image via Wikipedia)

The genetic code of a 4-year old girl has been read to enable doctors to identify the cause of learning difficulties. She is the first person in the UK to have her genetic code read – her “genome sequenced” – to aid a medical diagnosis.

To enable the diagnosis, her parents’ genomes were sequenced as well so the child’s could be compared.

The diagnosis showed that the little girl, Katie, had a mutation called HUWEI which was not present in either parent. This also confirmed that the mutation is unlikely to be in any siblings – present or future. (She has one brother at present.)

The girl’s parents did find the diagnosis helpful, in that they could be prepared to get the best for Katie, knowing exactly what the cause of her learning difficulties were. This would help in education, for example. Up until the diagnosis they knew something was holding back her learning: but they had no idea what it was. The sequencing does not in itself provide a guide to any treatment, but it does give 100% certainty of the diagnosis.

Katie was part of a research project run at Oxford University, which is sequencing the genomes of 500 people with serious diseases and their close relatives.

The Cost of Genome Sequencing

When the genome was first sequenced in 2001 it coast around $100m (£65m). Eight years later, in 2009, this cost had fallen a thousand fold, to $100,000. Today the same sequencing has fallen a further tenfold to $10,000.

It is still pricey: at this rate the $1,000 barrier will be smashed in 3 years – putting it within the reach of many more people, with further falls in cost to come.

(Source: The Times, UK, August 3rd 2011)

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NXT Robot (Wikipedia)

The number of robots used in the electronics factories of Foxconn, China’s biggest employer, is planned to rise from 10,000 to 1,000,000 over the next two years. Foxconn counts Apple iPhone among its manufacturing projects.

At the same time, employees will be pushed up the value chain, wages rising by 20-30% per year – for the ones who stay.

I know – it’s “technology taking our jobs”: but the other side of the coin is a number of high profile suicides by oriental workers carrying out highly repetitive tasks day after day.

The massive increase in robots used is a reflection of the general trend. Robots are tireless, accurate, and will work for 24 hours a day. These are attractive features.

They can also be used to make… other robots!

On the face of it, this is a story about manufacture: but robots are clearly destined to penetrate every part of life, including healthcare.

For example, take doctors. We all know just how much data doctors have to master to do their job; in fact, it is much too much for one person. Hence patients get referred to one or more specialists during the course of diagnosis and treatment. The use of robots, especially when coupled with artificial intelligence, to augment the doctor’s skills will mean faster diagnosis and fewer trips to see other experts. And the diagnosis will be able to take more factors into account, and see relationships which one person working alone can easily miss.

We all know this is coming, it’s true. But what struck me about this story was the speed at which it is coming. That increase in Foxconn’s robot force is by a factor of 100 – in just 2 years. Stunning.

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DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 (Wikipedia)

Significant artificial intelligence – “AI” – is just around the corner. 2011 has been a particularly good year for it: IBM computer Watson beat the two top Jeopardy! quiz show contestants in February. But some of the other milestones of AI have been particularly memorable.

The first major AI event many remember was when IBM’s Deep Blue computer beat chess master Gary Kasparov in a series of games. This was only in 1997. It was preceded by a number of attempts to beat a chess master – which failed.

Then in 2005, Stanford University produced a robot which drove alone along a desert trail for 131 miles. This was the DARPA challenge. Similarly, the previous couple of years saw attempts which failed.

Human ingenuity is such that we keep trying until we get there. And so with AI.

It’s been said that it’s about time that we started to focus the debate on how to deal with the emerging technology before it’s too late to influence it.

The Singularity Institute Is A Leader In Approaching AI

The Singularity Institute – whose leading light is brilliant inventor and thinker Ray Kurzweil – is pushing forward a programme of “Friendly AI”. They quote PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel who says:

“I’m interested in facilitating a forum in which there can be… substantive research on how to bring about a world in which AI will be friendly to humans rather than hostile… [The Singularity Institute represents] a combination of very talented people with the right problem space [they're] going after… [They've] done a phenomenal job… on a shoestring budget. From my perspective, the key question is always: What’s the amount of leverage you get as an investor? Where can a small amount make a big difference? This is a very leveraged kind of philanthropy.”

Donate To “Friendly AI” – And Double Your Effect

Thanks to benefactors, every pound you donate to the Singularity Institute for AI will be used to study and think through the important matters of how to keep AI safe and friendly.

They say: “…the Singularity Institute has been thinking about how to create safe and ethical artificial intelligence since long before the Singularity landed on the front cover of TIME magazine.”

We need to be thinking about this important matter now – and I have donated. I hope you will too – you can do so here:

http://singinst.org/2011summerchallenge

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Methuselah (TheoJunior via Flickr)

What is the maximum human lifespan is a fascinating question. And, more to the point, why is it so short?

There is no moral reason why we should deteriorate as we age and then die by the time we are 90, 100, 110 or – the maximum currently possible for humans – 120 years old. If we try to interfere with this factor – if we try to extend healthy human life – we are doing no more than Fleming did when he discovered penicillin; we just have different tools now. No doubt Fleming was considered a heretic in his day by some sections of the public.

The problem with extending the maximum human lifespan is that mammals are fairly complex beings, and evolution has resulted in our developing some fairly inefficient body processes.

For example, getting oxygen to our cells – via breathing and the red blood cells – is highly inefficient; it takes a lot of energy to get a single molecule of oxygen to a cell.

Science will improve this process massively, with huge benefits for oxygen capacity, physical endurance and general health. It is easy to see the life-saving benefits of this for, for example, premature babies and also those with lung disease such as emphysema.

Whales Live Longer

Some mammals do live a long time already. Some whales live up to 200 years, for example. Why shouldn’t humans? This isn’t a moral issue: it’s purely a physical one.

Some other beings – for example lobsters – live so long: that we have no idea of their life span. It seems to be indefinite. These are simpler beings, however, which reduces the accumulated damage of the type from which humans suffer. But the principle remains: lobsters show no signs of aging. In fact, in terms of fertility, the older they get, the more fertile they are.

Reducing Damage Is The Key

The key to healthy aging is reducing damage ion the body. This ranges from glycation (wrinkling, inside and out, promoted by high sugar levels in the blood), to oxidation – (free radical damage) (which anti-oxidants oppose), to reducing fat and building lean muscle (a high protein diet and interval training are both great for this; preferably both).

Check out this article from http://fightaging.com on a “20 minute argument in favour of Radical Life Extension”.

The maximum human lifespan is entirely brought about by physical restrictions. There is no morality to it: it is just a figure waiting to be extended by human science. Of course, lengthened lifespan will bring questions and issues, such as overcrowding.

But humans have shown they are resourceful and adaptable and they will, of course, use those skills as our lifespan increases, which it inevitably will. And – sooner than you probably think.

What Is The Maximum Human Lifespan? is a post from: Living To 150

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Resveratrol From Red Wine

More evidence shows benefits of taking Resveratrol supplements – the anti-aging antioxidant derived from red wine.

A meta-study at the University of Florida showed that resveratrol appeared to have anti-aging, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

The study aimed to collate all knowledge to date about the effects of resveratrol, and covered thousands of laboratory studies. This important task often serves to point out the general direction of a body of research: and the general direction of this research seems to point in the direction of supplementing with resveratrol.

Up to now, there have been few human studies involving resveratrol: so its benefits are not yet certain. Nearly all the studies have been on animals. But the potential benefits of resveratrol are undeniable.

The authors make the point that the apparent ability of resveratrol to lessen human frailties will become more important as 76 million baby boomers in the USA alone head towards older age.

University of Florida news article

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Blueberries and Osteoporosis

Recent research has shown that antioxidants in blueberries seem to have benefits for treating osteoporosis. Rats who were fed a diet containing 10% blueberries were found to have significantly greater bone mass than those without the blueberry-enriched diet.

This is good news, because it suggests that blueberries may be a powerful supplement in the prevention of osteoporosis – a disease affecting millions, especially women, in the Western world.

The blood of the blueberry-fed rats was found to be high in phenolic acids which are known to derive from polyphenols – the main antioxidant component of blueberries. And this phenolic acid is thought to be the factor which strengthened the bones.

Certainly, whatever your state of health, blueberries provide powerful nutrition for the body. The possible encouragement of good bone health indicated by this study is just one more reason to pack blueberries into your diet.

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PET scan - Alzheimer's disease

A study has shown that dementia and cognitive impairment appears to be made worse by a diet containing higher levels of saturated fat and simple sugars.

Fifty participants were chosen to take part in this study. half were older people who are healthy, and the other half had mild cognitive impairment – a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease.

The study lasted for weeks.

The participants were divided into two groups. One group received a diet containing high saturated fat and high levels of simple carbohydrates. The other group received low saturated fat and low levels of simple carbohydrates.

After the four weeks bio markers for Alzheimer’s disease were measured and memory tests were taken.

Results clearly show that the low saturated fat and low simple carbohydrate diet was beneficial for brain function.

This fits in with the general view on this blog, which is that a diet high in sugar – which includes all starches – encourages generalised inflammation and most degenerative diseases.

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Green Tea - Better With Lemon

A recent study has shown that if you add citrus juice to your green tea, its benefits are multiplied.

The study, published in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research found that lemons, in particular, prolonged the life of the catechins in green tea. Catechins are the naturally occurring antioxidant in green tea, which gives the tea its benefits.

The benefit of the lemon was huge. Normally, after digestion of green tea, only 20% of the catechins remain to be absorbed into the blood. Using lemon in the tea, 80% remained.

So, although these results were preliminary, it seems a good bet that adding some lemon juice to your green tea is likely to magnify its benefits.

Lemon juice is very good for you in other ways to: so adding it your green tea can only help anyway.

I have my green tea two or three times a day – in my insulated cup I was given at Dr Terry Grossman’s anti-aging clinic in Denver, when I visited him in 2009. That reminds me of that trip. So it will be easy for me to add in some lemon juice – in fact, I will start tomorrow!

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Hypodermic Needle (Flickr)

It may seem silly to go all the way to America from the UK to get blood tests done, but is it so silly?

Once you have decided to have blood tests done, you start to look at the cost. And once you look at the cost, it’s a no-brainer.

Let’s say you are going to get several panels of tests done. (A panel is just a ‘related bunch’ of tests.) Maybe you will get a basic male or female panel: then a few others, depending on what you want to measure or check. I might get c-reactive protein, haemoglobin A1c, homocysteine, a thyroid panel and cholesterol VAP test – the type which gives you much more detail about different kinds of cholesterol.

In America, these can be done for, perhaps, £300 ($400) (if you go when Life Extension Foundation has its annual ‘sale’)

In the UK you are getting towards several times that cost. So it makes sense to visit the States – and make a holiday out of it. It works for me!

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Following my report of the dilemma in the EU over stem cells, a typical bureaucratic “fluff” is the outcome.

Countries of the EU (Wikipedia)

Originally, a German court could not decide whether a researcher was permitted to patent a method of turning embryonic stem cells in to nerve cells to treat nerve degeneration diseases. So, they bounced it over to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The way things work there, the Advocate General give a ‘preliminary decision’, which is more often than not followed by the European Court. The Advocate General indicated that the patent should not be allowed, on moral grounds.

The repercussions of that are that expensive research will simply not be done unless the companies involved have a chance of getting their money back – via the patent. They would simply transfer outside the EU.

Within the EU, opinion on this type of embryonic stem cell research is pretty evenly divided: Finland, Greece, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK permit it, while Austria, Denmark, France, Germany and Ireland do not.

In the event, it seems that the ECJ will dither: and say neither yes or no. The effect of this is that the research can continue within the EU, but then be patented and manufactured elsewhere, then re-imported back: protection intact.

In fact, in this rapidly developing field, this situation will be somewhat academic in a few years. Cells other than embryonic stem cells are more and more able to be persuaded to change into any cells required – removing the concerns of cells originally derived from embryonic material.

However, this type of question mark over research only serves to slow down progress in a field – stem cell research – which will save millions of lives over the coming generation or two.

Stem Cell Research In The EU – An Old-School “Fluff” is a post from: Living To 150

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