Clostridium difficile... An 'Interesting' Treatment

The final system we are covering is the digestive system. I want to point out that we do not digest what we eat on our own, we have many microorganisms within our digestive system, mainly bacteria, helping us out. These bacteria are called "flora" within the intestines and help to maintain healthy digestive tracts. However, recent outbreaks of Clostridium difficile have caused problems for patients over the years. The first link I have provided gives some details about what C. difficile is, so I won't say much here. Basically C. difficile is an antibiotic resistant "super bug" that invades the digestive system in recent hospital patients, or in patients that have taken antibiotics to the extent that their normal flora are reduced enough to allow C. difficile to invade. To counter this problem, a very unique treatment has been discovered to work... fecal transplants. Yes it is as disgusting as it sounds, but it works in restoring normal flora in the body while patients are treated for the removal of C. difficile. Details are discussed in the second link that I provide. Fecal transplants are typically prepared from family or close friends who live with the patient, because they would share the same environment and foods, therefore their flora would be very similar. Not many doctors perform this procedure, but as C. difficile becomes a bigger threat, the procedure is being used more and more.
http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/what-is-c-difficile
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15113440

Music Brings Patients Back To Life

So I found this touching article based on a documentary (Alive Inside) discussing how a patient with Alzheimer's, Henry, remains unresponsive and looks depressed due to his dementia... until he listens to his music. It is suggested that personal playlists "bring patients to life" because areas of the brain that are associated with music are still active despite dementia. So it is hoped that soon every patient experiencing dementia in a nursing home can have their own iPod that loved ones can load a personal playlist onto in order to make the patients more active. Even though the patients still may not recognize loved ones or speak, they become more aware and responsive when listening to music. As the article describes, Henry begins dancing and singing in his wheelchair to his favorite tunes. This is a rather heartwarming article whether you know someone suffering from dementia or not. I hope to live as my grandfather did, independent to the very end, but I know for certain that I will always have my music with me. 

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AlzheimersCommunity/alzheimers-disease-music-brings-patients-back-life/story?id=16117602#.T4i-JqyF9iE

Neuroaxonal Spheroids

Hey guys,
        So this week in class Dr. Hens mentioned that as we age the axons of our neurons can swell. I did a bit of research on this because I was very curious and never heard of such a thing. What I found is that axon swellings are referred to as spheroids. These spheroids can occur due to the buildup of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and glycogens. I found a few papers detailing mechanisms of how this happens by searching "neruoaxonal spheroids," but I don't want to post anything too difficult. Basically swelling occurs naturally as we age, but can also be linked to neurodegenertive diseases or simple head injuries (one little bump to us is one helluva whallop to a neuron). Along with my research I found this interesting article (1st Link Below) describing a case study in a male patient who was observed to have these axon spheroids (much more applicable and interesting than the papers I found of mice/dogs/rats with them). I don't want to give away anything so I'll let you read the article yourselves, its short but very interesting (at least I believe it is).
http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/75/7/1070.full.pdf+html (Case Study)
http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v6/n11/fig_tab/nrn1788_F2.html (Image from here)

Alive, but NO PULSE?!

Hey guys,
       So this week we have discussed the heart and circulatory system. The article I have chosen to share with you guys is one I read in my Popular Science magazine that blew me away. I am not going to say much because this is a great read, but what I will say is that very soon the "heart shortage crisis" in the medical field may be permanently solved. How will this happen?... well nobody will have a pulse anymore!!! I hope you guys find this article to be as fascinating as I have, though it is a bit lengthy.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/no-pulse-how-doctors-reinvented-human-heart?page=all

Meibomian Gland Dysfunction

This week my post is about Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD). The meibomian glands are the glands within the eyelid that produce oils found in tears, in MGD the glands do not produce these oils as effectively. Without oil, tears mainly consist of water and evaporate quickly, causing dry eyes. MGD is also referred to as 'evaporative dry eye' for this very reason. While shadowing an optometrist over the summer I read in an optomology magazine (fun stuff I know) about a new treatment being proposed called Lipiflow, and now the treatment has obtained FDA approval and has been used for patient care. Basically the instrument (as shown in the above image) heats up the eyelid and massages at the same time, this allows any obstructions within the meibomian glands to break loose and allow the glands to produce oil once more. The procedure takes about 12 minutes per eye and the effects last for about a year (much cheaper than eye drops) according to the video (found on webpage below). However there is one caveat, this procedure cannot help those whose meibomian glands have atrophied, only those whose glands are not producing oils due to blockages.
http://medgadget.com/2011/07/lipiflow-for-meibomian-gland-dysfunction-and-evaporative-dry-eye-gets-cleared-in-u-s.html

Molecular Tweezers STOP Parkinson's in Animal Model

Scientists at UCLA have found a molecule called CRL01 that was found to stop Parkinson's disease both in cell cultures and in Zebrafish. CLR01 is known as a "molecular tweezer." Basically, a molecular tweezer is a "C" shaped molecular compound that is capable of binding proteins. In this research, it was found that CLR01 specifically binds to a-synuclein, a protein culprit of Parkinson's disease, and both prevent it from aggregating as well as breaking down already formed aggregates in cells and organisms. The most promising discovery is that CLR01 has not been found to be toxic or cause any side effects because it is so specifically efficient at binding only a-synuclein. They do not mention how far they are from human trials, but this is pretty "hot off the press"; hopefully we may see a cure for Parkinson's in the next few years. This link (below) simply gives an overview of the research discoveries, it does not discuss the experiment in great detail.
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/parkinson-s-disease-stopped-in-229436.aspx
The research, "A Novel 'Molecular Tweezer' Inhibitor of a-Synuclein Neurotoxicity in Vitro and in Vivo" appears in the current online edition (2012 February 29) of the journal Neurotherapeutics. (I could not find this article myself online, so this is more for Dr. Hens to see).

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy... Cure?

The article I chose this week discusses the posibility of improving the condition of people with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, or even one day curing the disease. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (MD) is a inherited disease involving rapid muscle weakness. Tragically, this disease appears in children before age 6, and by age 12 they lose the ability to walk (confined to braces if they are lucky, or a wheelchair). As the article states, it is rare that children with Duchenne live past their mid-twenties. It is a horrible disease and as of yet there is no cure and little that can be done. I lost a friend to the disease in my childhood, and only now do I really understand what had happened (which is why I couldn't look for a picture of MD... but I would guess that the Google images would be saddening for anyone). This article discusses using a technique called "exon skipping" to repair the muscular RNA throughout the patient's body. It has been proven to be effective in dystrophic dogs, and test have shown an increase in some missing proteins within human muscle. Hopefully we will see a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy very soon.

http://www.fox23news.com/content/healthalert/story/Duchennes-Muscular-Dystrophy-A-dogs-solution/Pfx1BmJx8ESqrthd5OOGAQ.cspx