<h2>Successful Cell Therapy</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.newswise.com/articles/regenerative-medicine-restores-movement-after-paralysis" target="_blank">In a recent study</a>, six people suffering from spinal cord injuries that left them completely paralyzed and without motor function below the site of injury were treated with a new cell therapy. And, according to this new study, of those six people, four have so far recovered two or more motor levels on at least one side of their body. That is an impressive 67% recovery rate, a number that is typically unattainable for patients suffering from severe paralysis, in fact, it is roughly double the typical recovery rate for similar patients.</p>
<p>Within the study, the patients had 10 million of the studied cells injected surgically and, according to Dr. Richard G. Fessler, lead investigator of the study of AST-OPC1 nerve cells and professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, &#8220;Having worked on this research for more than 20 years, and given that we hadn’t seen any significant improvement before, these results are beyond anything I would have hoped for in the study.&#8221;</p>
<figure id="attachment_105387" style="width: 853px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-105387" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/10/spine.jpg" alt="" width="853" height="1280" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">After severe spinal chord injury, patients regained motor function. Image Credit: Derks24 / Pixabay</figcaption></figure>
<p>Fessler continued, <a href="https://futurism.com/videos/this-brain-spine-interface-could-solve-paralysis/" target="_blank">“Normally with a spinal cord injury</a>, a person will improve for a month or two, but that’s it. We are 12 months out and we are continuing to see improvements in patients who receive the treatment. That’s vastly better than anything we’ve ever seen before&#8230;This is a meaningful improvement for a patient who is paralyzed in the neck. The patient goes from not being able to use his or her arms or hands, to being able to perform normal functions such as eating, writing/typing, all of the things we do with our hands every day.”</p>
<h2>A New Hope</h2>
<p>In the United States alone, <a href="https://www.christopherreeve.org/living-with-paralysis/stats-about-paralysis" target="_blank">1 in every 50 people lives with paralysis, which is approximately 5.4 million people</a> and currently, <a href="https://www.spinalcordinjuryzone.com/info/8995/one-degree-of-separation-paralysis-and-spinal-cord-injury-in-the-united-states" target="_blank">roughly 450,000 in the U.S. are affected by a spinal chord injury.</a> This is not as uncommon as many might think, but the symptoms and repercussions of such an injury are extensive and paralysis is often thought of as, at least mostly, irreversible. But this new cell therapy could be a step in the right direction towards rehabilitating those with severe spinal chord injuries.<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/bioprinting-how-3d-printing-is-changing-medicine/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/12/home.jpg" alt="Bioprinting: How 3D Printing is Changing Medicine" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><strong><a href="https://futurism.com/images/bioprinting-how-3d-printing-is-changing-medicine/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></strong></figure></p>
<p>Now, while the results of this study range from promising to life-changing, there are limitations and restrictions to using this therapy. AST-OPC1 was, in this study, administered 21-42 days after initial injury, but patients must be able to receive treatment 25 days after their injury, which is very quick. Additionally, patients can only receive the treatment if their spinal cords are not completely severed. However, despite these difficult restrictions, those that are eligible for this treatment have the potential to restore motor function, <a href="https://futurism.com/theres-a-100-million-plan-to-make-a-synthetic-spinal-cord-to-end-paralysis/" target="_blank">something that many treatments do not and can not hope for.</a></p>
<p>In the words of Christopher Block, a patient in this study in August 2016 who was injured in an accident in July 2016, “Not being able to feel your chest and the temperature of water, regaining that feeling is like being reborn. It’s amazing.”</p>


A miraculous cell therapy reversed paralysis!

A new cell therapy successfully restored movement in paralyzed patients

Human anatomy, unique view of spine, vertebrae on light background.Depth of Field.

Health & Medicine

A new cell therapy study found that of six people paralyzed or without motor function, four recovered two or more motor levels on one side of their body.

A New Cell Therapy Successfully Restored Movement in Paralyzed Patients

Two-thirds of subjects recovered from their spinal cord injuries.

<h2>Nine Years and Counting</h2>
<p>At the on-going <a href="https://www.ias2017.org/" target="_blank">Paris conference of the International AIDS Society</a> (IAS), a team of scientists is presenting details of a remarkable development that could improve HIV treatment. The case is that of a nine-year-old South African child who was infected with HIV at birth. After receiving a burst of treatment soon after being born, the child has since been free of any symptoms or active signs of the menacing virus without any further treatment.</p>
<p>HIV, which is known to affect more than <a href="https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/data-and-trends/global-statistics" target="_blank">36.7 million people worldwide</a>, is one of the deadliest viruses around today — since it was discovered, it&#8217;s taken the lives of more than 35 million victims, <a href="http://www.who.int/gho/hiv/en/" target="_blank">according to the World Health Organization</a>. This South African case, however, is a glimmer of hope.</p>
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<p>&#8220;[T]his new case strengthens our hope that by treating HIV-infected children for a brief period beginning in infancy, we may be able to spare them the burden of lifelong therapy and the health consequences of long-term immune activation typically associated with HIV disease,&#8221; Anthony Fauci, director <a href="https://www.niaid.nih.gov/" target="_blank">National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases</a> (NIAID),<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/24/case-of-healthy-hiv-baby-could-help-others-say-scientists" target="_blank"> told </a><i><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/24/case-of-healthy-hiv-baby-could-help-others-say-scientists" target="_blank">The Guardian</a></i>.</p>
<h2>Understanding and Replicating It</h2>
<p>While the doctors report detecting tiny fraction of immune cells that still have the virus integrated into them, the child&#8217;s immune system remains healthy, and there is no sign of HIV infection.</p>
<p>The South African child was part of a NIAID-funded trial in 2007 for treating infants with HIV. Scientists and doctors, however, have yet to understand why and how the 40-week treatment (which was also given to 142 other children) worked for this child, whose identity remains anonymous.</p>
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/in-the-footsteps-of-zika-the-next-critter-borne-viruses-infographic/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/12/In-the-Footsteps-of-Zika_home_-v1.jpg" alt="In the Footsteps of Zika: The Next Critter-Borne Viruses [INFOGRAPHIC]" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><strong><a href="https://futurism.com/images/in-the-footsteps-of-zika-the-next-critter-borne-viruses-infographic/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></strong></figure>
<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t believe that antiretroviral therapy alone can lead to remission,&#8221; Avy Violari, pediatric research head at the Perinal HIV Research Unit in Johannesburg, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/health-40703306" target="_blank">told the </a><i><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/health-40703306" target="_blank">BBC</a></i>. &#8220;We don&#8217;t really know what&#8217;s the reason why this child has achieved remission — we believe it&#8217;s either genetic or immune system-related.&#8221;</p>
<p>Still, the mere fact that something like this is possible is a cause for hope. Unlike <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/03/us-doctors-cure-child-born-hiv" target="_blank">other cases</a> where supposedly cured infants later on demonstrated latent HIV in the immune system, this South African case is the third reported &#8220;virtually cured&#8221; child. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/24/case-of-healthy-hiv-baby-could-help-others-say-scientists" target="_blank">Speaking to </a><i><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/24/case-of-healthy-hiv-baby-could-help-others-say-scientists" target="_blank">The Guardian</a></i>, Caroline Tiemessen from Johannesburg&#8217;s <a href="http://www.nicd.ac.za/" target="_blank">National Institute of Communicable Diseases</a> said, &#8220;By further studying the child, we may expand our understanding of how the immune system controls HIV replication.&#8221;</p>


We may have a way to defeat this deadly disease.

Light micrograph of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus)-infected macrophages. Macrophages are probably a reservoir of HIV in humans and may pass it on to lymphocytes, resulting in active infection. Magnification = 800x.

Signs and symptoms of the dreaded infection hasn't been seen since the child received treatment shortly after being born in 2007.

Scientists Assert That A Child has Officially Been “Virtually Cured” of HIV

"By further studying the child, we may expand our understanding of how the immune system controls HIV replication."

<h2>Understanding Schizophrenia</h2>
<p>While often misrepresented in the media, schizophrenia is a disease that can have a major impact on the lives of those living with it. Around the world, 21 million people are currently living with the mental illness, the symptoms of which can include paranoia, auditory and visual hallucinations. These symptoms can be severe and debilitating, and can impact every aspect of a person&#8217;s life. According to <a href="http://www.who.int/mental_health/management/schizophrenia/en/" target="_blank">the World Health Organization (WHO)</a>, schizophrenia is defined by &#8220;profound disruptions in thinking, affecting language, perception, and the sense of self.&#8221;</p>
<p>An international<a href="http://www.sciencealert.com/schizophrenia-found-to-be-caused-by-faulty-helper-cells-in-the-brain" target="_blank"> team of researchers has found</a> that these life-altering symptoms could be caused by <a href="https://futurism.com/scientists-have-discovered-a-genetic-cause-for-schizophrenia/">defects in glial cells</a>, the cells that support and insulate nerve cells. By using mice with brains colonized by human-donated glial cells, the team&#8217;s discovery could greatly impact the future diagnosis and <a href="https://futurism.com/this-genetic-discovery-could-change-the-way-we-treat-mental-illness/" target="_blank">treatment of schizophrenia.</a></p>
<p>Lead researcher Steve Goldman, from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Rochester, stated that &#8220;It was through studies of mice with human glial cells that we succeeded in testing how dysfunctional glial cells may cause abnormalities in the formation of the brain&#8217;s neural networks, which may in turn cause severe anxiety, anti-social behaviour and severe sleep problems.&#8221;</p>
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<h2>Future Treatments</h2>
<p>Living with schizophrenia can present many challenges for patients, and to further complicate matters, the antipsychotic medications used to treat the mental illness often lead host of side effects themselves: ranging from severe restlessness to the onset of Parkinson&#8217;s disease.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/articles/schizophrenia-treatment-challenges" target="_blank">The side effects</a> of many conventional, readily available treatments are so severe that patients sometimes discontinue or avoid treatment altogether. As is the case with most neurological diseases, there isn&#8217;t likely to be one single cause for the disease — nor a single cure-all. But this discovery marks hopeful progress towards better treatment.</p>


This discovery could have a major impact on future treatments for the condition.

mri scan

Researchers have found a possible cause of schizophrenia, a mental illness believed to affect 21 million people worldwide.

Researchers Have Discovered a New Possible Cause of Schizophrenia

It’s estimated that around 21 million people live with the mental illness worldwide.

<h2>An Unlikely Connection</h2>
<p>Alzheimer&#8217;s disease affects about 5.5 million Americans — a number that&#8217;s expected to balloon to <a href="http://www.alz.org/facts/">13.8 million by 2050</a>.</p>
<p>As the most common cause of dementia, it&#8217;s the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm">sixth leading cause of death</a> in the US, behind conditions like heart disease and cancer.</p>
<figure style="width: 616px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/09/amyloid-stacks-alzheimers-1.jpg" alt="There’s a striking relationship between cancer and Alzheimer’s, and it could hold the key to new treatments" width="616" height="347" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image Source: Washington University in St. Louis</figcaption></figure>
<p>The growing number of people who have the disease is troubling, because there are only four approved drugs that treat symptoms of the disease, and several hopeful treatments <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-starting-alzheimers-disease-treatment-early-could-be-key-2017-2">have failed key studies in 2017</a>.</p>
<p>Unexpectedly, it&#8217;s something researchers at the <a href="http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/rankings/cancer">top cancer hospital</a> in the US are looking into. While cancer and Alzheimer&#8217;s seemingly don&#8217;t have that much in common, there is one key link that researchers at MD Anderson think could be useful: People <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20032288">with a history of cancer</a> are less likely to get Alzheimer&#8217;s, while people with Alzheimer&#8217;s are less likely to get cancer.</p>
<p>&#8220;Age is the biggest risk factor for both. But then for some reason, some people go one direction, others go another direction,&#8221; Jim Ray, head of research for the Neurodegeneration Consortium at MD Anderson told Business Insider.</p>
<p>In the last decade the researchers have <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15753432?dopt=Abstract">made this observational link</a> between the development of Alzheimer&#8217;s and a decreased cancer risk and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24719490?dopt=Abstract">vice versa</a>. So researchers have been hypothesizing why that happens. At a very simplified level, the cause of the diseases might hold the biggest clue. &#8220;Cancer is a disease of cells that cannot die, will not die. Alzheimer&#8217;s is a disease of cells that are supposed to live your entire lifetime that you can&#8217;t keep alive,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>One of the ways researchers have been getting clues into the link is in cancer patients who have chemotherapy-related cognitive dysfunction. An <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3120018/#R1">estimated 75% of cancer patients</a> have some level of cognitive impairment (memory loss, attention problems, etc.). Chemotherapy <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMHT0024232/">works by killing cancer</a> cells by targeting fast-dividing cells, and in most cases, kills off some healthy cells along the way, including nerve cells in the brain.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s an understudied area,&#8221; Ray said. &#8220;And I think a lot of people didn&#8217;t fully realize it was a problem.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s something drug researchers have started looking into, to see if there could be a therapy that prevents the neurological damage that happens with chemotherapy. If they can figure out what&#8217;s going on and how to prevent the neurological side effects for cancer patients, the same approach could hold some promise in treating Alzheimer&#8217;s as well.</p>
<h2>New Ways to Tackle Alzheimer&#8217;s</h2>
<p>The search for new Alzheimer&#8217;s treatments hasn&#8217;t been going well. The last new drug approved was back in 2003, and a slew of failed trials in the beginning of 2017 has cast a shadow over the field.</p>
<p>Still, more drugs are in late-stage trials that could have an impact on the disease, and researchers are pinning hopes on diagnosing the disease early, before symptoms even show up. If any of those treatments pan out, it could change the way we look at the disease and potentially make the statistics a lot less dire.</p>
<p>Unlike some of the promising treatments that have failed in 2017 that deal with the so-called &#8220;amyloid hypothesis&#8221; (the treatments target amyloid beta deposits in the brain that accumulate in people with Alzheimer&#8217;s disease), approaches that try to prevent nerve cells from dying wouldn&#8217;t have any impact on that buildup. Instead of trying to clear the body of the deposits, it would just try to strengthen the nerve cells that are there.</p>
<p>&#8220;What we&#8217;re trying to do is make your nerve cells more resistant to damage,&#8221; Ray said. &#8220;It won&#8217;t stop the damage, but it&#8217;d just make them more resistant longer, be more resilient.</p>


While cancer and Alzheimer's seemingly don't have that much in common, there is one key link that researchers at MD Anderson think could be useful: People with a history of cancer are less likely to get Alzheimer's, while people with Alzheimer's are less likely to get cancer. 

There’s a Weird Relationship Between Cancer and Alzheimer’s

The cause of each disease could be the key to finding better treatments.

<h2>The Damage of Depression</h2>
<p>Depression is becoming an epidemic that is damaging individuals, society, and the economy. Its has become <a href="https://www.adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics">the leading source of disability</a> and of <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/world-health-day/en/">ill health</a> in the U.S. It affects more than 15 million adults in total, including 1.5 percent of the U.S. population over the age of 18 in a given year. Depression is especially on the rise in young people, with its rates in teenage girls jumping by 37 percent over the last decade.</p>
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<p>Currently, the main form of treatment is medication, but drugs can be ineffective and have undesirable side effects. Some form of consistently effective and less invasive treatment needs to be developed in order to spare millions of people the pain and loneliness the disease causes.</p>
<p>Scientists have recently discovered the <a href="https://futurism.com/not-just-a-state-of-mind-scientists-locate-the-physical-source-of-depression-in-the-brain/">physical seat of depression</a> in the brain, as well as <a href="https://futurism.com/scientists-identify-15-genes-related-to-depression-thanks-to-crowdsourced-genetic-study/">finding particular <span class="wp-glossary wpg-tooltip" data-termid="58866" data-content="full" data-qtipstyle="dark">genes</span> </a>that cause it. This establishes depression as a largely physical disease, which has led to a number of treatments that seek to treat depression not as a chemical issue, but a physiological one.</p>
<h2>Rewiring the Mind</h2>
<p>One of the methods being developed is  <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/transcranial-magnetic-stimulation/home/ovc-20163795">transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)</a>, which targets specific areas of the brain with magnetic pulses. <a href="http://www.bri.ucla.edu/people/ian-cook-md">Ian Cook</a>, director of the UCLA Depression Research and Clinic Program, <a href="http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/tms-depression-ucla">said in a UCLA press release that they</a> &#8220;are actually changing how the brain circuits are arranged, how they talk to each other.&#8221;</p>
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<p>For the treatment, patients sit back in a chair while a technician positions a magnetic stimulator at a specific location on their head which is determined by brain calibrations. Patients undergo the procedure a few days a week over the course of six weeks.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/andrew-leuchter">Andrew Leuchter</a>, director of the Semel Institute&#8217;s TMS clinical and research service, said in the press release &#8220;TMS is a revolutionary kind of treatment&#8221; — this is because it interacts with the brain as an electrical organ instead of as a chemical one. While medication aims to re-balance neurological chemicals, TMS targets the electrical formation of the brain.</p>
<p>TMS has only been clinically applied to depression, but the treatment could potentially be applied to a number of other mental disorders, including schizophrenia, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and chronic pain by changing how the neural network functions.</p>


Teenage girl looking out the window

Researchers have developed a revolutionary treatment that pulses magnetic waves into the brain, treating depression by changing neurological structures.

Doctors Are Now Fighting Depression by Targeting the Brain’s Wiring, Not Its Chemical Balance

This new approach could improve the lives of more than 15 million people.

<h2>New Cancer Drug</h2>
<p>One new drug has doctors and pharmaceutical companies in a tizzy. <a href="https://www.keytruda.com/">Pembrolizumab (branded Keytruda)</a> has recently been approved, in a hurry, by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat multiple tumors that arise from cancer in individuals with the same genetic abnormality.</p>
<figure id="attachment_86155" style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="wp-image-86155 " src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/06/DNA2-1200x1200.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="400" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image Credit: 3dman_eu / Pixabay</figcaption></figure>
<p>During <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/06/07/science.aan6733">a clinical trail</a>, the drug was tested in 86 patients. Of those who took part in the study, 66 patients had their tumors both significantly shrink and stabilize — meaning the tumors did not start to grow again. In 18 of these 66 patients — which is 21 percent of all patients — the tumors actually completely disappeared and not grown back whatsoever.</p>
<p>Now, this drug wouldn&#8217;t work for patients suffering from any type of cancer. For now, it is only approved to treat patients battling select varieties of advanced lung, melanoma, and bladder tumors.</p>
<h2>Pros and Cons</h2>
<p>While this is exciting progress, the treatment doesn&#8217;t come cheap. Just to test whether or not you might be a genetic match for the specific mutations that the drug targets costs between $300 and $600. The treatment itself currently costs $156,000 per year.</p>
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/bioprinting-how-3d-printing-is-changing-medicine/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/12/home.jpg" alt="Bioprinting: How 3D Printing is Changing Medicine" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><strong><a href="https://futurism.com/images/bioprinting-how-3d-printing-is-changing-medicine/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></strong></figure>
<p>However, there is great hope that the drug itself and others that will follow in its footsteps will eventually come down in price, because this drug is truly the first of its kind. So what makes this drug so special? Well, it is the first approved drug in history that targets tumors from a specific, shared genetic profile, regardless of where the tumor is located.</p>
<p>Targeting tumors based off of genetic traits could help researchers and clinicians to more accurately target and treat cancers. Instead of just targeting the physical location of the tumor, treatments could be further tailored to the unique genetic profile of the individual patient. While this specific drug would only be effective for about four percent of cancer patients (though this would still help tens of thousands of patients), it could lead to a future where tumors are better targeted with genetic testing.</p>


The FDA has officially approved the first cancer drug that treats tumors based off of genetic information independent of the tumors' location in the body.

The FDA Has Fast-Tracked A First-Of-Its Kind Cancer Treatment

This unique drug targets tumors based off of genetic information. 

This is the autism treatment of the future.

Virtuality

Britain Embraces Virtual Reality as an Autism Treatment

<h2>Reversing Type 2 Diabetes</h2>
<p>Type 2 diabetes, a disease wherein the body is incapable of producing sufficient levels of insulin or doesn’t respond to insulin correctly, can be a lifelong disease. It leads to the build up of blood sugars and in the cell&#8217;s inability to receive the energy it needs to function correctly. It’s also more likely to afflict people over the age of 40, those who are overweight, or anyone whose family has a history of diabetes.</p>
<p>Prior to this research, there was no definitive cure for type 2 diabetes, although experts have long hypothesized that it could be reversible. A team of Canadian scientists have demonstrated that this theory is indeed correct. In some patients, type 2 diabetes can be reversed through a combination of lifestyle changes, intensive medical treatment using oral medication, and insulin therapy. The researchers published their <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-abstract/doi/10.1210/jc.2016-3373/3070517/Piloting-a-Remission-Strategy-in-Type-2-Diabetes?redirectedFrom=fulltext">study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology &amp; Metabolism</a>.</p>
<figure style="width: 401px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/03/insulin.jpg" alt="A Clinical Trial Just “Reversed” Type 2 Diabetes in 40% of Patients" width="401" height="267" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Credit: Sprogz</figcaption></figure>
<p>They tested their theory in diabetic patients who had been symptomatic for up to three years. The subjects underwent a personalized exercise regimen, and a strict diet that closely watched and limited their calorie intake to just 500 to 700 a day, and pharmacological treatment with glucose-controlling drugs.</p>
<p>Four months after the intervention, the study revealed that 40 percent of the 83 subjects were able to effectively stop taking their medications, staying in partial or even complete remission.</p>
<h2>One in Ten</h2>
<p>The results of this pilot study suggest patients with type 2 diabetes have more options to treat their condition, said the study’s first author, Natalia McInnes, of McMaster University.</p>
<p>&#8220;The findings support the notion that type 2 diabetes can be reversed, at least in the short term — not only with bariatric surgery, but with medical approaches,” McInnes said in an <a href="https://www.endocrine.org/news-room/current-press-releases/intensive-medical-treatment-can-reverse-type-2-diabetes">Endocrine Society press release</a>. &#8220;The research might shift the paradigm of treating diabetes from simply controlling glucose to an approach where we induce remission and then monitor patients for any signs of relapse.”</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://endocrinefacts.org/health-conditions/diabetes-2/">Society’s Endocrine Facts and Figures</a> report, one out of 10 American adults suffer from type 2 diabetes. Raising the possibility of reversing the disease can prove to be strong motivation for patients to actually make lifestyle changes and maintain them, McInnes said. This new treatment could also give the patients&#8217; pancreases a rest and lower fat stores in their bodies, thus improving insulin production in the long run.</p>
<p>Right now, the treatment has proven to be effective only in the short term, but further study and other drug combinations could ultimately lead to better results and higher remission rates.</p>


Four months after the intervention, the study revealed that 40 percent of the 83 subjects were able to effectively stop taking their medications.

A Clinical Trial Just ‘Reversed’ Type 2 Diabetes in 40% of Participants

Four months after starting treatment, they no longer needed their medications.

Thanks to this method, children with scoliosis no longer need to undergo invasive, frequent surgeries.

Robots & Machines

Magnets Are Changing The Way Doctors Treat Scoliosis

<h2>A New Approach</h2>
<p>Approximately 20 percent of all cancers have a mutation that makes them incredibly resistant to chemotherapy – a gene called KRAS. KRAS-mutant cancers also have very low survival rates because they are much harder to treat. Given this, researchers have focused their efforts on ways to inhibit KRAS activity. But scientists from the <a href="https://ucsd.edu/">University of California San Diego School of Medicine</a> alongside <a href="https://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/cancer/Pages/default.aspx">Moores Cancer Center</a> have taken a unique approach that may prove to be more effective.</p>
<p>“Instead of trying to deter KRAS itself, we took the approach of looking for other molecules that, when inhibited, are lethal to cells only when KRAS is also mutated,” said Tariq Rana, PhD, professor of pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center who is the senior author of the study.</p>
<h2>microRNAs as suppressors</h2>
<p>The new study, published October 3 in <i>Cancer Research,</i> focuses on inhibiting other genes to create combinations lethal to cancer cells driven by a KRAS mutation. For the study, researchers used microRNAs – which normal cells use to control what genes are turned on or off, and are less active in cancer cells. They found that one microRNA, miR-1298, could effectively suppress KRAS-dependent cell growth in colorectal and lung cancer cells.</p>
<p>Basically miR-1298 was able to inhibit the growth of two specific proteins in cancer cells—FAK and LAMB3, which in turn, led to KRAS-driven cancer cells to stop growing.</p>
<figure style="width: 562px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img style="width: 757.145px;height: 539.608px" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/10/Screen-Shot-2016-10-02-at-1.04.41-PM.png" width="562" height="375" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image Credit: UC San Diego Health</figcaption></figure>
<p>Using a <a href="https://ki.mit.edu/sbc/escell/models">mouse model</a>, Tariq Rana, PhD, and colleagues discovered microRNA miR-1298 specifically kills cancer cells with a common mutation in the KRAS gene.</p>
<p>Their findings revealed microRNAs as relevant tools for possibly identifying therapeutic methods of treating cancer in the future. To date, traditional methods of killing cancer cells are toxic and harmful to healthy cells. This study points us to a specific target instead, higlighting how LAMB3 can be used as a prognostic biomarker, where efforts to eliminate KRAS-driven cancers can be centralized, thus minimizing dangerous effects to the rest of the body.</p>


Hard Science

Approximately 20 percent of all cancers have a KRAS gene mutation that makes them incredibly resistant to chemotherapy.
A new study focuses on inhibiting other genes to create combinations lethal to cancer cells driven by a KRAS mutation.
Findings reveal micorRNAs as relevant tools for possibly identifying therapeutic methods of treating cancer in the future.

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