According to the WHO, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are one of the top three threats to human health; patients in hospitals are especially at risk. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University

A team of 18 researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa have found that treating high-risk, soft tissue sarcoma patients with a combination of implanted dendritic cells (immune system cells) and fractionated external beam radiation (EBRT) provided more than 50 percent of their trial patients with tumour-specific immune responses lasting from 11 to 42 weeks.
‘Sarcomas are relatively rare forms of cancer with about 10,000 new cases in the U.S. annually,’ said study co-author Dmitry Gabrilovich, M.D., Ph.D., senior member of the Moffitt Department of Immunology.
The authors note that because 50 percent of patients with large, high-grade soft tissue sarcomas develop distant metastasis, new, effective treatments are needed.
‘Unfortunately, conventional therapy for large, high-grade tumours is frequently systematically ineffective, making this a very deadly problem,’ Gabrilovich said.
According to the researchers, administration of dendritic cells has been found to be a promising method for producing an immune response because dendritic cells process antigen material and present it to other immune cells. Dendritic cells act as immune system messengers.
‘Many studies have shown that preoperative radiotherapy and surgery is effective in treating many soft tissue sarcomas with high-risk features,’ said Gabrilovich. ‘We designed our study to investigate the effect of combining the administration of dendritic cells and EBRT for patients with soft tissue, high-risk sarcomas.’
The researchers hypothesised that if dendritic cell implants were combined with EBRT (the most common kind of radiotherapy treatment that not only can kill tumour cells but release tumour antigens) the combination therapy might be complimentary when the dendritic cells helped process tumour antigens released by the EBRT treatment.
‘The combination treatment resulted in dramatic increases in immune T cells in the tumours,’ explained Gabrilovich. ‘The presence of T cells in the tumours positively correlated with the development of tumour-specific immune responses.’
An important finding in this study was that no patient had significant tumour specific immune responses before the combined therapy. After the combination treatment, tumour specific responses were observed in 52.9 percent of trial patients.
The researchers reported that the combination treatment was ‘well tolerated’ and that 12 of the 17 patients in the clinical trial were ‘progression free’ after one year.
The authors concluded that given that the combination therapy proved effective in creating a potent anti-tumor response and was safe, producing no adverse side effects, larger trials with greater numbers of patients were warranted. Moffitt Cancer Center

Forced body cooling known as therapeutic hypothermia has reduced in-hospital deaths among sudden cardiac arrest patients nearly 12 percent between 2001 and 2009, according to a Mayo Clinic study being presented at the upcoming American Academy of Neurology 2012 Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The research is among several Mayo abstracts that will be discussed at the conference.

The goal of therapeutic cooling is slowing the body’s metabolism and preventing brain damage or death. It is believed that mild therapeutic hypothermia suppresses harmful chemical reactions in the brain and preserves cells. Two key studies published in 2002 found therapeutic hypothermia more effective for sudden cardiac arrest patients than traditional therapies. Mayo researchers analysed a database covering more than 1 million patients and found mortality rates among in-hospital sudden cardiac arrest patients dropped from 69.6 percent in 2001 — the year before the studies appeared — to 57.8 percent in 2009, the most recent data available.

‘Because we reviewed such a large number of cases, we are confident that the reduction in mortality among in-hospital sudden cardiac arrest patients is significant and sustained,’ says co-author Alejandro Rabinstein, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neurologist. ‘We continue to seek answers to the questions: Why did this trend develop, and how can we accelerate it,’ says co-author Jennifer Fugate, D.O.

These measures are important because disease accumulates in the cortex over time, and inflammation in the cortex is a sign the disease has progressed.

Getting an autism diagnosis could be more difficult in 2013 when a revised diagnostic definition goes into effect. The proposed changes may affect the proportion of individuals who qualify for a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, according to preliminary data presented by Yale School of Medicine researchers at a meeting of the Icelandic Medical Association.
The proposed changes to the diagnostic definition would be published in the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association

Nanoparticles containing chitosan have been shown to have effective anti-microbial activity against Staphylococcus saprophyticus and Escherichia coli. The materials could be used as a protective wound-healing material to avoid opportunistic infection as well as working to facilitate wound healing.

Chitosan is a natural, non-toxic and biodegradable, polysaccharide readily obtained from chitin, the main component of the shells of shrimp, lobster and the beak of the octopus and squid. Its anti-microbial activity is well known and has been exploited in dentistry to prevent caries and as preservative applications in food packaging. It has even been tested as an additive for anti-microbial textiles used in clothing for healthcare and other workers.

Now, Mihaela Leonida of Fairleigh Dickinson University, in Teaneck, New Jersey and colleagues describe how they have prepared nanoparticles of chitosan that could have potential in preventing infection in wounds as well as enhancing the wound-healing process itself by stimulating skin cell growth.

The team made their chitosan nanoparticles (CNP) using an ionic gelation process with sodium tripolyphosphate. This process involves the formation of bonds between polymers strands, a so-called cross-linking process. Conducted in these conditions it precludes the need for complex preparative chemistry or toxic solvents. CNP can also be made in the presence of copper and silver ions, known antimicrobial agents. The researchers’ preliminary tests show the composite materials to have enhanced activity against two representative types of bacteria.

Understanding the mechanism of inhibition of bacteria by these particles may lead to the preparation of more effective antibacterial agents. The team has also demonstrated that the CNP have skin regenerative properties in tests on skin cell fibroblasts and keratinocytes, in the laboratory, which might even have implications for anti-ageing skin care products.