Category: Medical Research & Technology

Categories : Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

A 3D Printed Hydrogel With Self-healing Capacity

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Much research has focused on hydrogels, polymer-based materials containing large amounts of water, but hydrogels with both self-healing and complex construction have proved elusive until now. 

Hydrogels need to fulfil two key criteria if they are to be effective replacements for organic tissue: the ability to form extremely complex shapes, and to self-heal after sustaining damage. Previously, hydrogels created in the laboratory had either the capability of being 3D printed into complex shapes, or had the ability to self-heal. This research realises the first time these two capabilities had been combined into one material.

The development of these materials may now be easier, and cheaper, thanks to the use of 3D printing: the researchers in the MP4MNT (Materials and Processing for Micro and Nanotechnologies) team of the Department of Applied Science and Technology of the Politecnico di Torino, coordinated by Professor Fabrizio Pirri. The researchers detailed their work in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.

In addition, the hydrogel was created using both commercially available materials and printer, thus making the approach proposed extremely flexible and potentially applicable anywhere, throwing open the door for development in the fields of both biomedicine and soft robotics.

The research was carried out in the context of the HYDROPRINT3D doctoral project, funded by the Compagnia di San Paolo, in the frame of “Joint Research Projects with Top Universities” initiative, by the PhD student Matteo Caprioli, under the supervision of the DISAT researcher Ignazio Roppolo, in collaboration with Professor Magdassi’s research group of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel).
The researchers used the digital pulsed light to create a semi-interpenetrated structure of polymer strands that, when severed, could rejoin in 12 hours at room temperature with no outside intervention. The restored section retains 72% of its initial strength.

“[For] many years, in the MP4MNT group, a research unit coordinated by Dr Annalisa Chiappone and I, specifically devoted to development of new materials that can be processed using 3D printing activated by light,” said Ignazio Roppolo, Researcher, DISAT. “3D printing is able to offer a synergistic effect between the design of the object and the intrinsic properties of materials, making [it] possible to obtain manufactured items with unique features.

“From our perspective, we need to take advantage of this synergy to best develop the capabilities of 3D printing, so that this can truly become an element of our everyday life. And this research falls right in line with this philosophy.”

This research represents a first step towards the development of highly complex devices, which can exploit both the complex geometries and the intrinsic self-healing properties in various application fields. Once biocompatibility studies have been refined, it will be possible to use these structures both for cellular mechanism research and for regenerative medicine applications.

Source: News-Medical.Net

Journal reference: Caprioli, M., et al. (2021) 3D-printed self-healing hydrogels via Digital Light Processing. Nature Communications. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22802-z.

Categories : COVID Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

‘Nanotraps’ Capture COVID Virus and Prevent Infection

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Researchers have developed an entirely new treatment for COVID: ‘Nanotraps’ that capture the viruses inside the body, allowing the immune systems to destroy them

The “Nanotraps” mimick the human cells the virus normally attaches to, and bind it to their surface, keeping the virus from reaching other cells and target it for destruction by the immune system. It is possible that Nanotraps could be used on SARS-CoV-2 variants, and could be administered as a nasal spray.

“Since the pandemic began, our research team has been developing this new way to treat COVID-19,” said Assistant Professor Jun Huang, whose lab led the research. “We have done rigorous testing to prove that these Nanotraps work, and we are excited about their potential.”

Postdoc Min Chen and graduate student Jill Rosenberg targeted the spike mechanism that SARS-CoV-2 uses to lock onto ACE2 proteins on human cells.

To create a trap that would bind to the virus in the same way, they designed nanoparticles with a high density of ACE2 proteins on their surface. Other nanoparticles were designed with neutralising antibodies on their surfaces.

ACE2 proteins and neutralising antibodies have both been used in COVID treatments, but by mounting them onto nanoparticles, a much more effective and robust means for trapping the virus was created.

The nanoparticles are smaller than cells, 500 nanometres in diameter, allowing them to reach deep inside tissue and trap the virus.

No evidence of toxicity was seen in tests with mice, and they then tested the Nanotraps against a non-replicating virus called a pseudovirus in human lung cells in tissue culture plates and saw that they completely prevented viral entry into the cells.

 When the nanoparticle binds to the virus (about 10 minutes after injection), it chemically signalled macrophages to engulf and destroy the nanoparticle and the attached virus. Macrophages normally engulf nanoparticles, so this merely sped up the process.

Testing the Nanotraps on a pair of donated lungs kept alive with a ventilator, they found that they completely prevented infection.

They also collaborated with researchers at Argonne National Laboratory to test the Nanotraps with a live virus (rather than a pseudovirus) in an in vitro system. They found a 10 times better performance than with neutralising antibodies or ACE2 inhibitor.

The researchers plan further tests, including live virus and its variants.

“That’s what is so powerful about this Nanotrap,” Rosenberg said. “It’s easily modulated. We can switch out different antibodies or proteins or target different immune cells, based on what we need with new variants.”

Storage is simple, as the Nanotraps can be kept in a standard freezer, and administration is simple, using a nasal spray. The researchers said it is also possible to serve as a vaccine by optimisation of the Nanotrap formulation.

Source: Phys.Org

Journal information: Min Chen et al, Nanotraps for the containment and clearance of SARS-CoV-2, Matter (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2021.04.005

Categories : Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

Spacesuit Tech Leads to Improved Patient Outcomes

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A tech startup is pioneering wearable health technology derived from spacesuit technology.

Maarten Sierhuis, a NASA alum, commented to Rachna Dhamija, a tech veteran and his future cofounder saying, “If your dad would just wear a space suit, I could monitor him”. Both had ageing parents with health issues.

Having worked for 12 years as a senior research scientist at NASA, Sierhuis used sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor astronauts in space. When astronauts go on spacewalks, their spacesuits contain various sensors that monitor their vitals, with the data being sent to NASA and distributed to the flight surgeon, biomedical engineers, and others. The ground-based crew uses that information to guide its support efforts—perhaps a reminder to drink some water and avert dehydration, or to take a short break to lower heart rate. This technology—called the Brahms Intelligent Agent platform—was licensed to Ejenta from NASA. Now, hospitals and health systems are using it to help better their patient care.

“When we started the company, we just had a very strong conviction that our parents deserve the same level of care NASA provides its astronauts,” Dhamija said.

Ejenta integrates wearable and home sensors that gather data from patients with AI-driven virtual assistants. Using a chat function, patients can use the platform to exchange messages with these assistants, called “intelligent agents” by Ejenta, right from their homes. Clinicians can securely access patient information from the Ejenta platform to better inform their care decisions.

Advances in cloud computing enabled the technology to be adapted from space to the Earth. Ejenta’s founders use a cloud infrastructure to securely collect, store and analyse health data.

Ejenta—whose name is a Bengali slang term for “agents”— is one of them. The company, which was founded in 2012, originally focused on government-related work, including projects for NASA. However, in the last four years, Ejenta evolved into a digital health company. Dhamija said the company’s AI-driven technology is what makes Ejenta unique from other digital health startups.

“There are a lot of healthcare devices available to consumers, but what’s missing is AI and the automation that can turn this data into insights a doctor can use—actionable data to make care more preventative and more proactive,” she said.

Ejenta uses its NASA technology to take data from wearable Internet of Things (IoT) devices and at-home sensors to monitor a patient’s health. Patients can interact with their assistant via text or voice and ask questions like, “What medication do I need to take with breakfast?”and receive an appropriate answer.

A clinical trial with Ejenta by one of the country’s largest healthcare providers, saw heart failure readmissions dropped by 56%. Readmissions come are costly for both patients and the healthcare system, so this application can save considerable amounts of money as well as improving the patient’s quality of life. Ejenta, in separate clinical trials, also contributed to improved outcomes for women who had high-risk pregnancies, reducing risk for gestational diabetes, preterm birth and cesarean sections. These successes were made possible by years of difficult development.

“We had a big challenge adapting our solution, which was originally designed to monitor 12 astronauts in space, to scale up to support thousands of patients across a number of different customer types and a number of different health conditions while still being HIPAA compliant,” Dhamija said.

However, by leveraging Amazon Webs Servers (AWS) as its cloud provider, Ejenta was able to scale up. Dhamija said her team chose AWS because it offers both flexibility and scalability in a secure cloud environment, which is critical when dealing with healthcare data. Ejenta wanted a “cloud provider that had a reputation for providing HIPAA-compliant services our customers would trust,” she said.

Ejenta was part of the Alexa Accelerator, an Amazon programme to help companies incorporate voice technology into their innovations. Before entering the programme, Ejenta had used Alexa to support improved diabetes care management for patients. It continued this work during the accelerator.

“Alexa is one of the only voice-based solutions that gave us the ability to engage customers, whether it’s patients or their family, with voice and do it in a HIPAA-compliant way,” Dhamija said.

Ejenta’s participation in the accelerator led to its involvement in AWS Connections, a program that introduces startups to large organisations that have specific technological or business needs. Through this programme, Ejenta is developing a health and communication management system for astronauts in deep space to relay health informationa and communicate with their families.

“It’s translational, meaning it can be applied for both Earth and space,” Dhamija said. “If you look at some of the problems we face on Earth or space, they do inform each other, so the goal is to have our Earth-based work inform space, and vice versa.”

Source: Forbes

Categories : Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

Harnessing Tailocins, Antibacterial ‘Homing Missiles’

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A Berkeley Lab-led team is investigating how to harness tailocins, antibacterial nanomachine ‘weapons’ akin to phages but produced by certain bacteria in suicide attacks against other strains.

“Tailocins are extremely strong protein nanomachines made by bacteria,” explained Vivek Mutalik, a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) who studies tailocins and phages, the bacteria-infecting viruses that tailocins appear to be remnants of. “They look like phages but they don’t have the capsid, which is the ‘head’ of the phage that contains the viral DNA and replication machinery. So, they’re like a spring-powered needle that goes and sits on the target cell, then appears to poke all the way through the cell membrane making a hole to the cytoplasm, so the cell loses its ions and contents and collapses.”

Many bacteria can produce tailocins, seemingly under stress conditions. However, the tailocins are only lethal to specific strains, and seem to be used by bacteria to compete with rivals. Since they are so similar to phages, scientists believe that tailocins are repurposed from DNA that was injected into bacterial genomes from viral infections.

According to Mutalik, tailocins kill the bacteria that produce them as they erupt through the membrane, much the way replicated viruses do. However, once released, the tailocins selectively target certain strains and not the host lineage cells.

“They benefit kin but the individual is sacrificed, which is a type of altruistic behavior. But we don’t yet understand how this phenomenon happens in nature,” Mutalik commented. Scientists also don’t know precisely how the stabbing needle plunger of the tailocin functions.

These topics, and tailocins as a whole, are an area of hot research due to the many possible applications. Mutalik and his colleagues in Berkeley Lab’s Biosciences Area along with collaborators at UC Berkeley are interested in harnessing tailocins to better study microbiomes. Other groups are keen to use tailocins as an alternative to traditional antibiotics -which indiscriminately wipe out beneficial strains alongside the bad and are increasingly ineffective due to the evolution of drug-resistance traits.
There is also great interest in using tailocins as an alternative to antibiotics, due to increasing antibiotic resistance and the fact that conventional antibiotics wipe out beneficial strains along with the disease-causing ones.

In their most recent paper, the collaborative Berkeley team explored the genetic basis and physical mechanisms governing how tailocins attack specific strains, and looked at genetic similarities and differences between tailocin producers and their target strains.

Upon examination of 12 strains of tailocin-using soil bacteria, the researchers found that differences in the lipopolysaccharides on the outer membranes determined whether they were targeted by a particular tailocin.

“The bacteria we studied live in a challenging, resource-poor environment, so we’re interested to see how they might be using tailocins to fight for survival,” said co-lead author Adam Arkin, a senior faculty scientist in the Biosciences Area and technical co-manager of the Ecosystems and Networks Integrated with Genes and Molecular Assemblies (ENIGMA) Scientific Focus Area. Arkin observed that although bacteria can easily be induced to produce tailocins in the lab, as well as scale up for mass production for medicinal applications, it is not well understood how bacteria deploy tailocins in their natural environment, and how or why particular strains are so precisely targeted.

“Once we understand the targeting mechanisms, we can start using these tailocins ourselves,” Arkin added. “The potential for medicine is obviously huge, but it would also be incredible for the kind of science we do, which is studying how environmental microbes interact and the roles of these interactions in important ecological processes, like carbon sequestration and nitrogen processing.”

At the moment, it is difficult to observe what is happening in a bacterial community, but tailocins could remove individual strains with precision to allow a better understanding of the situation.

Follow-up studies being conducted involve taking atomic-level images of the taolicins in action.

Source: SciTech Daily

Journal information: “Systematic discovery of pseudomonad genetic factors involved in sensitivity to tailocins” by Sean Carim, et al., 1 March 2021, The ISME Journal. DOI: 10.1038/s41396-021-00921-1

Categories : Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

New X-Ray Tool to Spy into Virus’ Cellular Subversion

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A new X-Ray tool called the Compact Cell-Imaging Device (CoCID) will seek to answer the questions of how viruses penetrate cells, and disrupt and subvert cellular processes to produce more virus copies.

In order to advance research into viral diseases, the aim of the project is to develop a particularly suitable cell-imaging method – which has so far been of limited access to researchers – for extensive application in medical research.

A particularly high-performance method of cell-imaging is soft X-ray microscopy (SXM), explained Dr Venera Weinhardt from the Centre for Organismal Studies of Heidelberg University. A physicist specialising in innovative X-ray procedures, she is head of the Molecular Virology division at the Department of Infectious Diseases of Heidelberg University Hospital. “SXM makes use of the special properties of the soft X-ray spectrum in order to look into the interior of a single intact cell and generate three-dimensional images of its whole internal structure. That also reveals the changes induced by viral infections,” explained Dr Weinhardt. 
Thus, soft X-ray microscopy is distinct from methods like electron microscopy, which can visualise individual parts of a cell but not the whole interior.

Professor Ralf Bartenschlager, a Molecular Virologist at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg commented, “As a virologist working on how SARS-CoV-2 interacts with and alters its host cell, we will greatly benefit from the development of a soft X-ray microscope that allows us to gain unprecedented insights into this intimate interaction. We have previously used several imaging technologies to address the question of host cell reprogramming by viruses, but each technique has its limitations.”

Since the illumination required for this type of microscopy comes from huge particle accelerators called synchrotrons, currently SXM can only be performed at five research stations in the entire world. The main feature of CoCID therefore lies in further developing a miniaturised soft X-ray approach which has been patented by SiriusXT, a spin-out company from University College Dublin. The breakthrough technology will reduce the size of the X-ray source from a football-field sized synchrotron, instead using a laser-produced plasma (LPP) device that can fit on a bench.

“The SXM microscope developed by SiriusXT performs just as well but is many times smaller, less expensive, and still very fast.” said Dr Weinhardt.

Heidelberg researchers are particularly interested in the potential of the new technology in researching SARS-CoV-2. Prof Bartenschlager’s working group is mainly concerned with how the virus reprograms its host cells. He said that SXM images created under the leadership of Dr Weinhardt at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California are already promising in this respect.

Three-dimensional images of cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 were generated thanks to a cooperation agreement with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg.

“Through working with these images we have a pretty good idea of what factors play a role with imaging in connection with the virus-infected cells and we can pass these findings on to the CoCID consortium. As soon as the soft X-ray prototype from Dublin is up and running we will also deliver samples of infected cells, enable a direct comparison with available images and provide support in interpreting data,” said Prof Bartenschlager.

According to the Heidelberg researchers, a soft X-ray microscopy available for daily use should have distinct advantages over current techniques, such as being much faster. Prof Bartenschlager said: “We can’t afford long waits or a time-intensive method when it comes to novel viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, which we learn something new about and which changes on a daily basis.”

Source: News-Medical.Net

Categories : Genetics Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

New Bioluminescent System Illuminates Biological Processes

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Scientists at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) have developed a new bioluminescent system that can enable greatly improved imaging of biological and pathological processes in organisms.

Luciferases are enzymes that catalyse the oxidation of luciferins present in organisms such as fireflies, which results in bioluminescence in the visible light spectrum. Images of cell cultures and live animal models are made using the luciferin-luciferase system found in fireflies. For example, this can show the structure and activity of tumours, or follow the viral process in cells, helping physicians develop treatments.

“We obtained a novel luciferin-luciferase system that produces far-red light at the wavelength of 650 nanometres and emits the brightest bioluminescence ever reported in this part of the spectrum,” said principal investigator Professor Vadim Viviani, biochemist at UFSCar. “It’s a highly promising result for bioluminescence imaging of biological and pathological processes in mammalian tissues.”

“Red bioluminescence is preferred when imaging biological or pathological processes in mammalian tissues because haemoglobin, myoglobin and melanin absorb little long-wavelength light. Detection is best of all in the far red and near-infrared bands, but bioluminescent systems that naturally emit far red light don’t exist,” Prof Viviani added.

“Some genetically modified forms of luciferase and synthetic analogs of natural luciferins are produced commercially. In conjunction, they produce light at wavelengths as long as 700 nanometers, but the light produced by these artificial systems is generally much weaker and more short-lived than light from natural bioluminescent systems.”

Prof Viviani and collaborators genetically modified luciferase from the Railroad worm Phrixothrix hirtus, the only luciferase that naturally emits red light, and combined with luciferin analogues synthesised by colleagues at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo. The resulting luciferin-luciferase generates a much more efficient far-red bioluminescence.

“Our best combination produces far-red at 650 nanometres, three times brighter than natural luciferin and luciferase, and roughly 1000 times brighter than the same luciferase with a commercial analog,” Viviani said.

“Besides the long-wavelength and intense brightness, our combination has better thermal stability and cell membrane penetrability. Above all, it produces more lasting continuous bioluminescence, taking at least an hour to decay and significantly facilitating the real-time imaging of biological and pathological processes.”

Source: News-Medical.Net

Journal information: Viviani, R. V, et al. (2021) A Very Bright Far-Red Bioluminescence Emitting Combination Based on Engineered Railroad Worm Luciferase and 6′-Amino-Analogs for Bioimaging Purposes. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. doi.org/10.3390/ijms22010303.

Categories : Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

Telemedicine Is as Satisfactory as In-person Follow-Up for Knee Surgery

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Following arthroscopic knee surgery, patients are as satisfied with telemedicine follow-ups as they are with in-person follow-up, according to a new study published in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.

“Patient satisfaction with overall care is equivalent between telemedicine and office-based follow-up after an arthroscopic meniscal surgical procedure in the immediate postoperative period,” wrote Christina P Herrero, MD, and colleagues of NYU Langone Health.

The study recruited 122 patients who underwent arthroscopic surgery on the meniscus in the knee, which is one of the most common orthopaedic surgical procedures. Of these patients, 88% had a removal of the meniscus (meniscectomy), with the rest undergoing meniscal repair procedures.
Patients were randomly assigned to either office-based or telemedicine follow-up, scheduled for 5 to 14 days postoperatively. During both types of follow-up visits, the surgeon spoke to the patient about the surgical findings, pain the patient might be experiencing, and the postoperative recovery period, as well as performing a physical examination that included range-of-motion testing.

The telemedicine follow-ups were performed using the patient’s home computer or mobile device via a telemedicine program that was compliant with privacy rules. Surgeons of course were unable to physically feel or touch the knee during telemedicine follow-ups. However they could still conduct a visual assessment of wound healing, drainage, and swelling. 

Overall satisfaction ratings were nearly identical between groups. The surveys showed average patient satisfaction scores (on a 0-to-10 scale) were 9.77 in office-based follow-up and 9.79 for telemedicine follow-up. In both groups, only about 20% of patients said they would have preferred the other type of visit. There was also similar improvement observed in pain scores between groups: from about 5 (out of a maximum of 10) on the day of the surgery to 3 at the follow-up visit.

Telemedicine has become all the more crucial in the COVID pandemic to minimise contact, but the levels of satisfaction shown indicate that it may be a promising standard mode of care in the future, especially for cases where access to physical follow-up consultation may be difficult for the patients. 

“Telemedicine may be a reasonable alternative to office-based follow-up after knee arthroscopy,” Dr Herrero and coauthors concluded. “[Our] study only evaluated the first postoperative visit, but future studies may benefit from expanding the use of telemedicine to longer-term follow-ups or to additional surgical procedures.”

Source: News-Medical.Net

Journal information: Herrero, C. P., et al. (2021) Patient Satisfaction Is Equivalent Using Telemedicine Versus Office-Based Follow-up After Arthroscopic Meniscal Surgery. The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. doi.org/10.2106/JBJS.20.01413.

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

New Smart Speakers That Can Remotely Monitor Heartbeat

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Smart speaker services like Amazon’s Alexa have shown that they can be adapted to monitor the breathing of babies, and recent development has enabled them to detect heartbeats without contacting the skin.

“Heart rhythm disorders are actually more common than some other well-known heart conditions. Cardiac arrhythmias can cause major morbidities such as strokes, but can be highly unpredictable in occurrence, and thus difficult to diagnose,” explained co-senior author Dr Arun Sridhar, assistant professor of cardiology at the UW School of Medicine. “Availability of a low-cost test that can be performed frequently and at the convenience of home can be a game-changer for certain patients in terms of early diagnosis and management.”

Instead of listening to the heartbeat, the smart speaker emits a continuous sound which bounces off the patient’s body. Changes in the received sound are associated with motions in the body from a heartbeat.
“The motion from someone’s breathing is orders of magnitude larger on the chest wall than the motion from heartbeats, so that poses a pretty big challenge,” said lead author Anran Wang, a doctoral student in the Allen School. “And the breathing signal is not regular so it’s hard to simply filter it out. Using the fact that smart speakers have multiple microphones, we designed a new beam-forming algorithm to help the speakers find heartbeats.”

Beam-forming is a technology where an array of emitters or receivers can change the direction in which a signal is emitted or received. Applications of such technology include directing sound only in one direction, such as a person watching TV while another wants quiet while they read,
Much in the way AI systems sort out sounds to identify human speech, the algorithm developed by the team can pick up heartbeats. As this does not produce the usual peaks seen in heartbeat monitors, this also requires processing the heartbeat further to extract the inter-beat interval.
“With this method, we are not getting the electric signal of the heart contracting. Instead we’re seeing the vibrations on the skin when the heart beats,” Mr Wang said.

The researchers tested their prototype smart speaker system on 26 healthy participants and 24 patients with hospitalised with a variety of cardiac conditions. The team compared the smart speaker’s inter-beat interval with one from a standard heartbeat monitor. Of the nearly  2,300 heartbeats measured for the healthy participants, the smart speaker’s median inter-beat interval was within 28 milliseconds of the standard monitor. With cardiac patients, the median inter-beat interval measured by the smart speaker was within 30 milliseconds of the standard.

The technology is currently set up for spot checks; a person concerned about their heart rhythm could sit in front of a smart speaker for a reading. In the future, the researchers hope that the system could be set up to monitor heartbeats for long periods, such as when they are sleeping, helping to diagnose conditions like sleep apnoea.

Source: Medical Xpress

Categories : Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

Faster 3-D Bioprinting A Step Closer to Printing Whole Organs

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With the demonstration of a new type of more rapid 3-D bioprinting, University at Buffalo engineers have taken a step closer to the fabrication of whole organs.

In a video of the process, a hand emerges over a matter of seconds from a vat of liquid almost as if out of a science fiction movie. In reality, the video was sped up from its original duration of 19 minutes, but even this is a quantum leap ahead of the six or so hours such a process previously took. 
“The technology we’ve developed is 10-50 times faster than the industry standard, and it works with large sample sizes that have been very difficult to achieve previously,” said co-lead author Ruogang Zhao, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering.

The new method involves a 3-D printing technology called stereolithography and hydrogels. Hydrogels have applications in wound dressings, contact lenses and hygiene products, as well as scaffolds for tissue engineering.

Scaffolds are particularly important in 3-D bioprinting, and the team has spent a great deal of its time and effort on these in order to come up with an optimised solution for its fast, accurate 3-D printing technique.
“Our method allows for the rapid printing of centimeter-sized hydrogel models. It significantly reduces part deformation and cellular injuries caused by the prolonged exposure to the environmental stresses you commonly see in conventional 3-D printing methods,” said the other co-lead author, Chi Zhou, PhD, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering.

This method is readily suited for the printing of cells with embedded networks of blood vessels. It is expected that this emerging technology will be key to producing whole 3-D printed organs and tissue.

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Nanditha Anandakrishnan et al, Fast Stereolithography Printing of Large‐Scale Biocompatible Hydrogel Models, Advanced Healthcare Materials (2021). DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202002103
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-rapid-3d-method-3d-printed.html

Categories : Medical Research & Technology New Compounds and TreatmentsTags :

Combination Nanoparticle Therapy Shows Promise as Antiviral

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Researchers have developed a new nanoparticle combination as a broad-spectrum anti-RNA virus treatment. 

The results of their study have been published on the bioRxiv preprint server. Note that as a preprint, this paper has not yet been peer reviewed.
Non-specific antivirals offer a number of attractive advantages. Their broad spectrum activity suppresses mutations, and would they also readily be at hand for future outbreaks. Nanoparticles are one possibility, with reduced toxicity.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are well-established as antibacterial and antiviral agents, and are the subject of many exotic biomedical applications. The mechanism of AgNPs is thought to be through physiochemical destruction of the microbial surface, with internal disruption from free Ag+ ions and reactive oxide species. Graphene oxide (GO) also has anti microbial properties. With its high surface area, GO also acts as a drug carrier.

The researchers produced seven different material combinations using three different methods: reduction with silver salt, direct addition of Ag nanospheres, and direct addition of Ag nanospheres to thiolised graphene.
To test the materials against seasonal-type infections as well as the kind of virus that could be expected from a future pandemic, the researchers tested the nanoparticles with influenza A virus (IAV) and human coronavirus (HCoV) OC43. IAV is an enveloped virus of the orthomyxovirus family with a segmented single-stranded RNA genome; it causes flu pandemics. HCoV-OC43 is an enveloped betacoronavirus with a single-stranded RNA genome associated with the common cold in humans.

Two of the GO-AgNP materials showed rapid, potent antiviral activity in solution against the viruses. The remaining five materials possessed a range of modest to no antiviral effects against IAV, the researchers reported. They observed a synergistic effect between the AgNPs and GO, with mechanism of action possibly being rapid disruption of the viral envelope. With high levels of antiviral agents, the combination of AgNPs with GO was found to show greater antiviral performance and lower toxicity.

“Our finding that graphene oxide/silver nanoparticle ink can rapidly prevent in vitro infection with two different viruses is exciting, and suggests that the ink has the potential to be used in a variety of applications to help reduce the spread of viruses in the environment,” said co-author Dr Meredith J Crane.

Source: News-Medical.Net

Journal information: Graphene oxide/silver nanoparticle ink formulations rapidly inhibit influenza A virus and OC43 coronavirus infection in vitro, Meredith J. Crane, Stephen Devine, Amanda M. Jamieson, bioRxiv 2021.02.25.43