NEW TECH HELPS SPOT CANCER SPREAD

IT  WILL  ALLOW  SURGEONS  TO  REMOVE  TUMOURS  &  SAVE HEALTHY  CELLS  IN  PATIENTS

            Researchers have developed a new technique that will allow surgeons to identify how far the tumour has spread and help them decide which tissue to remove in order to save healthy cells in cancer patients.

          "With molecular-targeted imaging, surgeons can avoid unnecessary removal of healthy lymph nodes which is better long-term for patients." said Quyen T Nguyen, associate professor at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. "The range of the surgeon's visual field is greatly enhanced by a molecular tool that can help achieve accurate surgical margins and detection of metastases so that no tumour is left behind," Nguyen said.

         Lymph nodes, located throughout the body, serve as filters that contain immune cells to fight infection and clean the blood. When cancer cells break away from a tumour, the cells can travel through the lymph system and hide in these tiny organs. 

        Surgeons remove the nodes to determine if a cancer has spread. However, human nodes, only half a centimeter in size, are difficult to discern among the surrounding issue during surgery.

       Furthermore, even when surgeons are able to map the location of the nodes, there is no current technique that indicates whether or not the lymph nodes contain cancer, requiring removal of more lymph nodes than necessary.

        "This research is significant because it shows real time intra-operative detection of cancer metastases in mice. In the future, surgeons will be better able to detect and stage cancer that has spread to the patient's lymph nodes using molecules that were designed and developed at UC San Diego," he said.

          The fluorescently labelled molecules, know as ratiometric activatable cell-penetrating peptides (RACPP), are injectable. When used in mouse models, surgeons could see where the cancer had spread with high sensitivity and specificity even when the metastatic sites were only a few millimeters in size. 

WHAT IS MICROBIOLOGY...???

Actually this should have been my first post but never the less. I am sharing this so that many would know what is MICROBIOLOGY.

             

         Microbiology is the study of living organism about microscopic size, which includes bacteria, fungi, algae  protozoa and the infectious agents at the borderline of life that are called as viruses. The field is concerned with their form, structure, classification, metabolism, physiology and their distribution in environment.  To relate each of organism with each other, with environment, with other species and of-course with plants, animals and humans. The field  notes the physical, chemical and biological changes in environment.

          Microorganism have a major role to play with human health and its welfare. When various organism are taken into consideration, some organisms have beneficial effect while some have harmful effect. Organisms which are involved in making of cheese, beer, wine, vinegar, antibiotic production, curd etc are beneficial organisms. While microorganism which are responsible for food spoilage, diseases or deteriorating things like iron pipes, lenses, wood etc are harmful organisms.

         Most of microorganisms are unicellular i.e. one single cell. All the metabolism, processes for living are performed by a single cell.When compared to any multicellular organism, they have different organs and tissues which are specific for various functions. Thus one cell is capable of performing all activities necessary for its survival. Thus complexity in cell functioning is too high.

         The word cell was first used more than two centuries ago by an Englishman ROBERT HOOKE ( 1635-1703 ). Later the concept of the cell as the structural unit of life - The Cell Theory_ is credited to two Germans _ MATTHIAS SCHLEIDEN & THEODOR SCHWANN, who in 1838-1839 describe cells as the basic structural and functional unit of all organisms.

          Any kind of organisms may be present, either unicellular or multicellular, all biological system have the following characteristics in common- 1. The ability to reproduce, 2. The ability to ingest or assimilate food substances and metabolize them for energy and growth, 3.The ability to excrete waste products, 4. The ability to react to changes in the environment and 5. Susceptibility to mutation.

         Thus, a microbiologist work is large and on many parameters. As it is said "THE NEXT SMALL THING IS BIG"...!!!

PLANT CELL

HOPE OF TREATING CANCER

SCIENTISTS CREATE TUMOUR-KILLING CELLS WHICH CAN BE DIRECTLY INJECTED INTO PATIENTS

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         In a breakthrough, scientists have for the first time created cancer-killing cells which can be directly injected into patients. Researchers in Japan have created cancer-specific killer T-cell, the cells naturally occur in small numbers, but it is hoped injecting huge quantities back into a patient could turbo-charge the immune system.

         Researchers at the RIKEN Research Centre for Allergy and Immunology revealed they have succeeded for the first time in creating cancer-specific, immune system cells called killer T lymphocytes.

        To create these, the team first had to reprogramme T lymphocytes specialized in killing a certain type of cell called induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS cells). These iPS cells then generated fully active, cancer-specific T lymphocytes. These lymphocytes regenerated from iPS cells could potentially serve as cancer therapy in the future, researchers believe.

        Previous research has shown that killer T lymphocytes produced in the lab using conventional methods are inefficient in killing cancer cells mainly because they have a very short life-span, which limits their use as treatment for cancer.

        To overcome the problems, Japanese researchers, led by Hiroshi Kawamoto reprogrammed mature human killer T lymphocytes into iPS cells and investigated how these cells differentiate. The team induced killer T lymphocytes specific for a certain type of skin cancer to reprogram into iPs cells by exposing the lymphocytes to the “Yamanaka factors” – a group of compounds that induce cells to revert to a non specialized, stage.

        The iPS cells obtained were then grown in the lab and induced to differentiate into killer T lymphocytes again. This new batch of T lymphocytes was shown to be specific for the same type of skin cancer as the original lymphocytes.

        They maintained the genetic reorganization, enabling them to express the cancer-specific receptor on their surface. The new T lymphocytes were also shown to be active and to produce an anti-tumour compound.

“We have succeeded in the expansion of antigen-specific T cells by making iPS cells and differentiating them back into functional T cells.” Kawamoto said.