Posts Tagged ‘medicine’
2009
“Neurons can protect themselves against infection with HIV, new research has demonstrated. They owe their hardiness to a protein called FEZ-1, made uniquely by neurons, and which appears to lock out the virus. The finding raises the possibility of new treatments to thwart HIV by using gene therapy or drugs to activate production of the same protein in cells other than neurons – especially the white blood cells most vulnerable to infection.
Mojgan Naghavi of University College Dublin, Ireland, along with her colleagues Juliane Haedicke and Craig Brown, established the protective effects of FEZ-1 by blocking production of the protein in human neurons. When they did this, the neurons became vulnerable to infection. Likewise, they successfully blocked the usual infections in other types of brain cells, such as microglia, by engineering them to manufacture FEZ-1…”
source: newscientist.com
“Nanoparticles are being developed to perform a wide range of medical uses – imaging tumors, carrying drugs, delivering pulses of heat. Rather than settling for just one of these, researchers at the University of Washington have combined two nanoparticles in one tiny package.
The result is the first structure that creates a multipurpose nanotechnology tool for medical imaging and therapy. The structure is described in a paper published online this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
‘This is the first time that a semiconductor and metal nanoparticles have been combined in a way that preserves the function of each individual component,’ said lead author Xiaohu Gao, a UW assistant professor of bioengineering.
The current focus is on medical applications, but the researchers said multifunctional nanoparticles could also be used in energy research, for example in solar cells…”
source: eurekalert.com
“…If ‘Obamacare’ passes, most working people, the disadvantaged, and those singled out as less important will experience large rollbacks in quality, readily accessible coverage. For them, future health problems will be more hazardous than ever because a callous nation doesn’t care. On July 17 as expected, two of three key House committees passed HR 3200. Largely along party lines, Ways and Means voted 23 – 18. Education and Labor approved 26 – 22 with a Kucinich amendment that may not survive a floor vote or make it to the Senate. It leaves HR 3200 intact but lets states create single-payer plans. Eight are now considering them – California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Missouri, and Washington with perhaps more to follow. On June 11 in Pennsylvania, HealthCare4ALLPA organized over 400 people for a state capital rally, and its Executive Director Chuck Pennachio predicts pending legislation passage later in the year because bipartisan support backs it. So do most Pennsylvanians, and Governor Ed Rendell said he’ll sign what comes to his desk…
Reversing its earlier opposition, the influential American Medical Association (AMA) endorsed the House bill after a new payments provision was added to halt scheduled 2010 cuts to doctors under Medicare.
AMA’s president, Dr. James Rohack, said:
‘We pledge to work with the House committees and leadership to build support for passage of health reform legislation to expand access to high quality affordable health care for all Americans.’ The AMA calls it ‘an important step, but one of many steps in the process,’ including income-increasing measures for their members and ‘individual responsibility for health insurance, including premium assistance for those who need it.’
Opposing Obamacare are advocates for universal single-payer coverage like Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). On July 16, it said the House health reform bill is a “proven failure” and called for an amendment to overturn it and implement a Medicare-for-all system…”
via globalresearch.ca