Researchers at Loma Linda University Health found that kidney transplantationcan be safely performed using organs testing positive for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody but negative for active viral infection.
Their findings, published July 24 in the American Journal of Transplantation, could expand the number of kidneys available for those in need.
“One way of increasing the kidney donor pool is to utilize more organs from HCV positive donors,” said the study’s lead author, Michael E. de Vera, MD, director of Loma Linda University (LLU) Transplant Institute. “Currently, HCV positive donors are defined by donors that have previously had HCV even if they were cured. Now there has been a call to redefine the definition of an HCV positive donor in hopes that more organs can be used from these donors.”
Co-author of the study, Michael Volk, MD, director of transplant hepatology at LLU Tansplant Institute, participated in a 2017 American Society of Transplantation consensus conference, which encouraged the use of organs testing positive for HCV — those with only a positive antibody, as well as those testing positive for the virus. This recommendation stems in part from the availability of newer and better medications to cure people of the virus.
 
“These organs testing positive for HCV are frequently discarded and often come from younger donors,” Volk said. “This approach has the potential to save lives by increasing the numbers of transplants.”
Although there is a record number of deceased organ donors, de Vera said the gap between the number of kidney transplants performed and the number of patients on the waiting list remains substantial.
There are now nearly 95,000 kidney patients on the waiting list, but less than 20,000 kidney transplants occurred in 2017, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
 
The problem is even wider in California, where nearly 2,300 people received a kidney in 2017, while nearly 19,000 remained on the waitlist.
 
HCV is tested in organ donors by checking for the presence of HCV antibodies (Ab) and HCV RNA, de Vera said. The presence of HCV antibodies shows that the virus at some point affected the host, but does not reveal if the host was cured. The presence of HCV RNA, on the other hand, indicates active infection. Many organ donors are HCV Ab positive but HCV RNA negative, and doctors have been reluctant to transplant kidneys from these donors for fear of transmitting HCV to the recipient. As a result, many of these kidneys have not been used in the past.
 
“Our hope is that this study will convince transplant doctors that the use of these donor kidneys is safe and does not lead to HCV transmission,” said de Vera. “And hopefully, more patients will receive these life-saving organs.”
The study was titled, “Transplantation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody positive, nucleic acid test negative donor kidneys to HCV negative patients frequently results in seroconversion but not HCV viremia.”
The study looked at 32 patients who were transplanted with HCV Ab+/NAT- kidneys at Loma Linda University Medical Center from January 2017 to February 2018. All patients consented to the surgeries.
Recipient ages ranged from early 40s to late 60s, and donor ages ranged from late 20s to mid 50s. All 32 patients are doing well without evidence of hepatitis C virus infection.

Research from King’s College London has found that a single dose of the cannabis extract cannabidiol can help reduce brain function abnormalities seen in people with psychosis. Results from a new MRC-funded trial provide the first evidence of how cannabidiol acts in the brain to reduce psychotic symptoms.
Cannabidiol, also referred to as CBD, is a non-intoxicating compound found in cannabis. A purified form of cannabidiol has recently been licensed in the USA as a treatment for rare childhood epilepsies, and a 2017 King’s College London trial has demonstrated cannabidiol has anti-psychotic properties.
However, exactly how cannabidiol may work in the brain to alleviate psychosis has remained a mystery.
“The mainstay of current treatment for people with psychosis are drugs that were first discovered in the 1950s and unfortunately do not work for everyone,” says Dr Sagnik Bhattacharyya, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN). “Our results have started unravelling the brain mechanisms of a new drug that works in a completely different way to traditional anti-psychotics.”
The researchers studied a group of 33 young people who had not yet been diagnosed with psychosis but who were experiencing distressing psychotic symptoms, along with 19 healthy controls. A single dose of cannabidiol was given to 16 participants while the other 17 received a placebo.
All participants were studied in an MRI scanner while performing a memory task which engages three regions of the brain known to be involved in psychosis.
As expected, the brain activity in the participants at risk of psychosis was abnormal compared to the healthy participants. However, among those who had cannabidiol, the abnormal brain activity was less severe than for those who received a placebo, suggesting cannabidiol can help re-adjust brain activity to normal levels.
The influence of cannabidiol on these three brain regions could underlie its therapeutic effects on psychotic symptoms.
Intriguingly, previous research from King’s College London shows cannabidiol appears to work in opposition to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the ingredient in cannabis responsible for getting users high which has been strongly linked to the development of psychosis. THC can be thought of as mimicking some of the effects of psychosis, while cannabidiol has broadly opposite neurological and behavioural effects.
Dr Bhattacharyya and colleagues at IoPPN are now launching the first large scale, multi-centre trial to investigate whether cannabidiol can be used to treat young people at high risk of developing psychosis..
Some estimates suggest that in England alone, over 15,000 people present with early symptoms of psychosis every year. Despite symptoms that can be extremely severe, there are currently no treatments that can be offered to patients at high risk of psychosis because current anti-psychotic drugs can have serious side-effects.
“There is an urgent need for a safe treatment for young people at risk of psychosis,” says Dr Bhattacharyya. “One of the main advantages of cannabidiol is that it is safe and seems to be very well tolerated, making it in some ways an ideal treatment. If successful, this trial will provide definitive proof of cannabidiol’s role as an antipsychotic treatment and pave the way for use in the clinic.”

Kings College Londonhttps://tinyurl.com/y8n36su9

In 1960, scientists described the “Philadelphia chromosome” that causes chronic myeloid leukemia, and in 2001 the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug imatinib to disable the action of this cancer-causing genetic change. It was the dawn of genetically-targeted treatments against cancer and it seemed as if many cancers would fall to a similar strategy: Find a genetic difference between cancer cells and healthy cells, and then develop a drug to target this difference. Of course, rarely has it proved that easy. It’s difficult to find a genetic difference common to all cells within a single cancer, and many of these differences are impossible to target with existing drug strategies. Often this seemingly simple gene/drug pairing doesn’t work.
Then again, sometimes it does.
A University of Colorado Cancer Center study describes a genetic change common to 80 percent of human melanomas, the most deadly form of skin cancer, and also describes a molecule that seeks out cells marked by this genetic change. The current study attaches a radioactive label to the targeting molecule and uses positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to show that the radiolabeled molecule does, in fact, seek out and bind to melanoma cells. Using a similar approach, it may be possible to not only image these cells, but to attach therapy to this targeting molecule to kill these melanoma cells.
The work starts with a protein called melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R), which is involved in determining skin and hair colour, but which is also found at a higher level on the surface of more than 80 percent of human melanomas. The current study describes a “peptide” that specifically binds to MC1R. If MC1R is a lock, then the peptide 68Ga-DOTA-GGNle-CycMSHhex is the key that fits it. In this case, researchers attached an imaging radionuclide to this peptide – the combination of peptide and radionuclide found, bound, and “lit up” melanoma metastases, allowing researchers to image these melanoma cells.
The success of this molecular targeting approach suggests the possibility of using the peptide as a delivery vehicle to transport a therapeutic radionuclide directly to melanoma cells marked with MC1Rs for therapy.
“Basically, we attach the imaging radionuclide to the peptide, then the radiolabeled peptide finds MC1Rs on the melanoma through blood circulation, allowing us to use a PET machine to gather the signals from the radiolabeled peptide for melanoma imaging. It’s a very sensitive way to see melanoma,” says Yubin Miao, PhD, investigator at CU Cancer Center and Director of Radiopharmaceutical Science at the Radiology of CU School of Medicine.
In addition, researchers were able to replace the radiolabel with a fluorescent one to generate a new MC1R-targeting fluorescence imaging probe (called Cy5.5-GGNle-CycMSHhex). The current study shows that the fluorescent probe binds and stains MC1Rs on melanoma cells and lesions. Miao sees that the combination of these two approaches – one radiolabeled and one fluorescent – may potentially improve surgical outcomes for melanoma via imaging-guided surgery.
He also sees the potential to use a similar strategy as a personalized therapeutic approach for patients with melanoma metastases high in MC1Rs, especially for brain metastases.
University of Colorado Cancer Center https://tinyurl.com/ycjf52dv

Leaders of hospital and healthcare organizations around the globe will come together on 10-12 October at the 42nd IHF World Hospital Congress to share best practices and innovations and discuss how healthcare needs to evolve.

More than 150 industry leaders and practitioners from over 30 countries will be discussing value-based care, integrated care and digital transformation in a variety of sessions in a span of 3 days.  

Some of the concurrent sessions taking place are:

• Platforms for value: data and analytics
• Patients, process and tools: looking for the right combination to move from volume to value
• Disruptive forces: turning traditional services models on their head
• Building integrated service delivery to meet 21st century health needs – lessons learnt from World Bank operations
• Coordinating coordination: what funding, structural, technological and clinical models do we need to support integrated care
• Making numbers count: getting the most out of big data and artificial intelligence
• Visions of the Hospital of the Future

The World Hospital Congress, the International Hospital Federation’s cornerstone event, is a unique global forum that brings together leaders of national and international hospital and healthcare organizations and key industry drivers for multidisciplinary exchange of knowledge, expertise and experiences on best practices in leadership in healthcare management and service delivery.

Hear from experts around the world about the latest innovations and the transformation of healthcare. You can still join the discussions – share your insights on current issues and contribute your ideas for the improvement of service delivery. View the latest program here.

The World Hospital Congress is a great opportunity to learn from some of the best in the industry, broaden your network, plus explore the sights, culture and food in Brisbane, Australia! You can still register online.

For more information visit www.hospitalcongress2018.com or contact 2018congress@ihf-fih.org.

The platelet rich plasma market in Europe is driven by the rising incidence of sports injuries; diseases including orthopedic diseases, neurological diseases, cardiovascular diseases; and obesity. In addition, the growing geriatric population being more prone to surgeries and injuries has also boosted the market. Furthermore, factors such as the launch of numerous devices for the preparation of platelet rich plasmas and the increasing awareness about the platelet rich plasma therapy and its benefits have also impacted the market positively. On the other hand, the factors such as the soaring costs of therapies and devices and the chances of treatment failures are amongst the key factors that may impede the growth of the market.
On the basis of type, the platelet rich plasma market in Europe is segmented into pure-platelet rich plasma (P-PRP), leukocyte-platelet rich fibrin (L-PRF), and leukocyte-platelet rich plasma (L-PRP). Amongst these, the segment of P-PRP led the market in 2013 and constituted a share of 70.8% in the market in Europe. This is owing to the rich platelet content of P-PRP. On the other hand, the segment of L-PRF is anticipated to experience the fastest growth rate in the forecast horizon owing to its benefits such as ease of preparation, reduced healing time of wounds, and cost-effectiveness, etc.
On the basis of origin, the market is segmented into homologous, autologous, and allogenic. Amongst these, in 2013, the segment of autologous led the platelet rich plasma market in Europe. On the other hand, the segment of allogenic platelet rich plasma will also grow owing to its requirement in patients diagnosed with blood disorders such as hemocytopenia and leukemia with a low count of platelets in the blood.
A new Transparency Market Research report states that the Europe platelet rich plasma market stood at US$42.1 mn in 2013 and is predicted to reach US$ 87.2 mn in 2022. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.30% from 2014 to 2022. The title of the report is, “Platelet Rich Plasma Market – Europe Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends & Forecast 2014 – 2022”.
On the basis of application, the market is segmented into cosmetic surgery, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, neurosurgery, and other surgeries such as cardiothoracic, urological, and periodontal. Amongst these, in 2013, the orthopedic surgery application segment led the market and represented 38.3% in the market. This is due to the increasing geriatric population and the rising count of sports and orthopedic injuries in Europe. In addition, platelet rich plasmas are also widely used in cosmetic surgeries in facelift treatments and facial aesthetics within the European region.
Geographically, the platelet rich plasma market in Europe is segmented into Italy, the UK, France, Spain, Germany, and Rest of Europe. Amongst these, the UK held the largest share in the market in 2013 owing to the increasing prevalence of reconstructive and orthopedic procedures in the country. In addition, the rising inclination towards platelet rich plasma therapies for sports injuries will also augment the development of the market in the UK.
The prime players dominant in the market are Arthrex, Inc., EmCyte Corporation, Biomet, Inc., AdiStem Ltd, and Medira Ltd., among others.https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/europe-platelet-rich-plasma-market.html