It’s been a while since the last time we had to blog…and there have been so many incredible things I could’ve blogged about! So to avoid having to pick my “favorite” one, and to include as much information as possible, I’m going to try to give shorter summaries of multiple discoveries.

1. Legalize: Weed Shrinks Tumors

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/how-cannabis-was-used-shrink-one-most-aggressive-brain-cancers

Cannabinoids are the active components of the cannabis plant, and two of them, THC and CBD (tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol), have already been in use for treating things like multiple sclerosis and cancer side-effects. THC is the chemical that gets drug users high, and the psychoactivity it causes in neuro-receptors has been linked to the same receptors in brain tumors.

Brain cancer is one of the most aggressive and has one of the highest mortality rates among cancers. Invasive surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation all together are still no guarantee for a cure. But when combining radtiotherapy with cannabinoid treatment, a big difference could be seen.

The problem of finding the right dosage still exists, however. And with this treatment, it’s is also very possible that the patient could end up being high all the time. Scientists are trying to use amounts of THC below the psychoactive levels, and for now the results are promising.

2. Clear(ly) Mice

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/scientists-make-transparent-mice-study-cellular-connections

Japanese scientists have engineered mice that are completely transparent. This way, internal body structure and functions can be studied. Also, this will enable them to study very fine and delicate cellular connections in vivo. The clear color of the mouse was achieved by removing the heme, which is a part of hemoglobin, from the brain, heart, kidneys, liver, and lungs. Using a direct transcardial perfusion and a two-week cleaning process, the mice became transparent and enabled scientists to see cellular networks within tissues.

This process is done on mice that are already dead. Certain traits from the mice (ie. diabetic or non diabetic) are taken into account and can be observed once the specimen is made transparent. This is a revolutionary feat in the world of pathology and will help to deepen our understandings of the body’s inner workings.

3. Real-Time Metastasis

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/device-gives-real-time-look-cancer-metastasis

In a previous blog I discussed metastasis, or the growth and proliferation of cancer cells from their original site. Metastasis is very deadly and very hard to prevent. This is why two doctors at Johns Hopkins University created an artificial vessel in the lab that allows an ex vivo visualization of the process. There is still so much that is unknown about the process of metastasis and having this device will allow researchers to come to a deeper understanding of it.

By using fluorescent-tagged breast cancer cells into the artificial atmosphere of the device, they were able to observe the growth and spread of the cancer cells. By observing metastasis, we can come to understand it, and by understanding it, we can find a way to stop and cure it and save lives. And that’s really what it’s all about

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/how-notorious-hiv-being-hijacked-tackle-cancer

If you watch Grey’s Anatomy, you probably remember the episode from last season where Bailey used HIV to cure a sick patient. The patient was a young and immunocompromised boy who was stuck in a plastic “bubble” because his immune system was so weak, it was practically nonexistent. The way Dr. Bailey restored this boy’s immune system was by removing the viral DNA from the vector and replacing it with the treatment. Of course, this is a dramatic TV show, so the patient’s parents were enraged that Bailey had gone behind their backs and treated their son without their consent, etc. etc. But at the time, it seemed like such a farfetched treatment that was only happening in a fictional TV show (I mean, they were even trying to 3D print full and functional hearts on there!), but it turns out that this type of treatment isn’t so farfetched after all.

Researchers (in real life!) have started to use and manipulate HIV in the fight against cancer. Cancer is an extremely complicated and diverse disease; there are over 200 types of it and even more within those categories. Seemingly infinite combinations of mutations cause cancer, making the prospect of finding one, universal cure slim to none. However, it has been said that the future of medicine is in personalized treatments. This means things like gene therapy and nanoparticles, which are specially tailored for each individual patient and case. This treatment with HIV is still in very early stages and has only been tentatively used a few times. The media is also very quick to announce things like, “Doctors cure leukemia by injecting girl with HIV,” which is not the whole truth and is extremely misleading. This causes grand misunderstandings among the general population and subsequent outrage in some cases. However, it’s all still a work in progress.

Not only can the HIV vector be used in treating hyper-proliferative diseases like cancer, but it is also being used in research labs. By inserting cancerous DNA into the HIV vector, scientists are able to grow many cancer cells for culture. This is a very good thing because it is difficult to grow and maintain such cells outside of the body. This makes research slighter easier and also more efficient because it gives scientists more time to work instead of having to culture and maintain and small amount of cells.

Although it’s new and still not applicable to all types of cancer, this new method of treatment and research is revolutionary. The world of science is constantly changing and evolving. Who would’ve ever thought that one deadly disease could be used to treat and even cure another even deadlier one? Of course, HIV is still an epidemic and a massive global problem, but if we as humans can exploit it just a to just a fraction of the amount that it exploits us, it’s a pretty cool thing.

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/new-path-babys-heart-valve

Open heart surgery is kind of a big deal. So imagine a one-year old baby who’s already had open heart surgery before to get a valve replacement, having that valve deteriorate, and the baby consequently needing yet another valve replacement surgery. This is what happened to a child at the University Hospital in Leuven, Belgium. A second open heart surgery would be extremely risky with the patient’s fragile state, forcing doctors to find an alternate procedure.

Surgery via catheter came up as the best option. The way this usually works is a thin tube is threaded through the a vein/artery, usually from the leg or underarm, to the desired location within the body. This is generally how stents are placed and blockages are cleared in people with cardiovascular problems. In the past few years, valve replacements using catherization has become standard practice. However, the patients age and size presented many obstacles for surgeons. Because the patient was only one-year-old, their veins were too small for standard catheters, and prosthetic valves are not usually available in such small sizes. So before the surgery, the valve implant had to be shrunk and doctors made the decision to enter through the liver instead of an artery.

Going through the liver was a logical and radical decision; because, while the liver is a spongy and resilient organ, such a procedure had never been done before. To meet all precautions, surgeons practiced the necessary techniques in simulation before the surgery, and had a liver and heart surgeon on-call during the procedure. The final safety measure was to properly close the opening to prevent any internal bleeding. The surgery was successfully completed and the young patient is said to be at home and doing well.

I love reading about stories like this, where a traditional procedure isn’t applicable to a certain case, forcing doctors to find a new and innovative way to approach the problem. The future of medicine is likely to be nothing like the world we currently know, and it’s little things like this that push us closer and closer to entirely new procedures and innovations.

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/frozen-poop-pills-make-fecal-transplants-easier-swallow

C. diff (Clostridium difficile) is a deadly bacteria that releases toxins that attack the lining of the intestines and can even cause holes in them. Getting it is relatively rare, but it is very bad for people who do. C. diff kills 14,000 people and hospitalizes around 250,000 annually. It is usually resistant to treatment, and the antibiotics that do work tend to kill good GI bacteria that keep a person healthy. The way that doctors have found to cure this is called a fecal microbiotia transplantation or FMT. Now, if you’re thinking, you probably realized that I just said poop transplant. That’s right. Using a colonoscopy or nasogastic (nose to stomach) tube, “healthy” bacteria are restored to the patient’s system through someone else’s feces. As disgusting as this sounds, it is 90% effective and the patient is able to leave the hospital within 24 hours after the procedure. However, there are risks for complications. For example, if a person gags or vomits while undergoing the nasogastric procedure, would they inhale the transplant material? That certainly would not be healthy or pleasant.

Doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital have created an alternative to the traditional transplant procedure: frozen poop pills. Studies proved that frozen feces work just as well as “fresh” matter, and enables hospitals to take donations and screenings at any time instead of at the last minute before a transplant is needed. As unsanitary as this sounds, the stool samples are filtered, diluted, and screened before being encapsulated and frozen. 20 patients between the ages of 11 and 89 were given 15 vitamin-sized capsules a day for 2 days. The success rate was 90%, making this method just as effective as the direct transplant. Taking these pills is much safer and simpler than FMT for both the doctors and the patient. The mental factor of having to take a “poop pill” isn’t great, especially considering these pills have to made with a clear capsule, but it’s definitely better than a colonoscopy or a nasogastric tube.

I showed this article to a few of my friends earlier in the week after I found it, and their first reaction was obviously one of disgust. This is very understandable; who would want to take a poop pill? However, C. diff is a very lethal bacteria, and people who have it are in dire need of an effective treatment. I’m sure people are resistant to taking it at first, but when presented with all of the options, the poop pill is definitely the way to go!

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/first-baby-born-womb-transplant

Many men and women dream of having children, but many find that they are unable to do so. There are many great options such as adoption, IVF, and surrogacy, but this isn’t always a good solution. Some people choose not to adopt because they’ve always wanted a child who is biologically “theirs,” and others opt against IVF and surrogacy due to anatomical and physiological defects. Organs are donated all the time: hearts, lungs, kidneys, and livers. Things like blood, nerves, and veins can even be transplanted as well.

So why not transplant a donated uterus? A 36-year-old woman with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuester-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome (which causes some women to be born without part or all of their reproductive organs) has recently given birth via c-section to a baby from a donated womb. The baby was born eight weeks prematurely due to preeclampsia, but both the mother and baby are said to be doing well in the month after the birth.

With MRKH syndrome, artificial structures have been made to replace certain organs, but wombs are much more difficult to recreate. A team at the University of Gothenburg has transplanted nine uteri into women who have MRKH syndrome or have had hysterectomies. Seven of the nine transplants were successful; the two that were not needed removal (via hysterectomy), and even the successful surgeries still need monitoring and steroid therapy. In one case, about a year after the transplant, an embryo was implanted into the womb of one of the women (who has chosen to remain nameless). She was able to use her own eggs for the IVF treatment because her ovaries were unaffected by her MRKH syndrome.

This first success has only been reached after over ten years of research on animals and even more time of surgical training for the team. However, there are still many challenges to be faced. For example, once the recipient of the donated uterus is done having children, the organ will need to be removed so that the corticosteroid treatment can be stopped. In addition to this, there are also health concerns for the donors who have elected to have hysterectomies. Due to this fact, donors are typically post-menopausal women. Time and continued research and training are the only things that will tell whether this can be an effective tool in aiding reproduction, but this is definitely a great start.

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/spinal-cord-stimulation-allows-completely-paralyzed-rats-walk-again

Everyone knows that the brain is responsible for bodily function, but the brain wouldn’t be able to carry out all of its signals without the spinal cord. The spinal cord is a dense rope-like bundle of nerves that are protected by the vertebrae and are responsible for transmitting signals between the brain and the rest of the body. Starting from the occipital bone of the skull and extending to the first two lumbar vertebrae, the spinal cord allows the entire body to be enervated. This is why back injuries, specifically vertebral injuries, are so bad. If the spinal cord is severed, corresponding parts of the body will no longer be enervated, resulting in paralysis. At this point in scientific history, paralysis is permanent and has never been truly reversible. Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (EPFL) are hoping to change that.

Scientists at the EPFL have found a way to make completely paralyzed mice walk again, and are actually close to starting human trials. The way they’ve accomplished this is through electrical stimulation. Electrodes were implanted into the spines of mice with completely severed spinal cords, and, with the support of a harness, they were then put on a treadmill to test the electrodes. Researchers found that electrical stimulation does work, but requires constant adjustments, so they created an algorithm relating electrode pulse frequency to limb movement. Using the algorithm, the mice’s limbs were able to move normally and in a way that reflects the natural firing of neurons. This technique is known as epidural electrical stimulation (EES), and may start becoming available for human trials as soon as next summer.

While EES enabled assisted walking in the otherwise paralyzed mice, it did not grant voluntary control of their limbs. This means that the only reason the movement was achieved was due to the outside electrical stimulus, and not the mouse’s own brain. This means that when implanted into a human, pre-programmed movement algorithms will be the only physical actions that people will be able to make (but it’s still a whole lot better than nothing!). I wish that the article went into further detail about the actual electrical mechanism so that we could understand the practicality of human use; however, the scientists are probably still working on that before it comes to trials anyways.

Everyday use aside, EES will be very helpful for rehabilitating people who have “less severe” spinal injuries after surgery and well into their recovery. With a technique like this, patients can learn to walk again by having the electrical input stimulate their muscle memory and push them towards self-sufficiency. Check out the video at the bottom of the article if you want to see what the device (on mice) actually looks like and to get a clearer view on the medical aspect of it!

Metastasis is the spreading and proliferation of cancer cells throughout the body. These cells then go on to form new tumors, causing greater health problems and higher mortality. This is why it is actually metastasis that is responsible for the vast majority of cancer-related deaths. Chemotherapy and radiation attempt to shut down the mechanisms that aid in metastasis, but are not always successful. Because of this, scientists wanted to find a way to biochemically halt the process of metastasis so that once the initial primary tumors have been dealt with, chances of surviving and living a happy healthy life can be much higher.

In recent years, the receptor Axl and protein Gas6 were discovered. These partners in crime are highly responsible for the process of metastasis. When the Gas6 protein binds to the Axl receptor there is a cascade of signals that allow cancer cells to escape from the initial tumor and into the bloodstream where they can spread to other areas of the body. Scientists at Stanford University have been able to manufacture a “decoy” version of Axl that is more than 100 times more effective at bonding with Gas6 than the actual Axl receptor. Because of this, the tumor cells are not able to spread, as has been proven in mice with aggressive breast and ovarian cancers.

This was accomplished through a new process known as directed evolution. Directed evolution is a genetic manipulation process that imitates the century-long process of evolution in a test tube. Through this, scientists are able to engineer proteins with specified properties and functions. As amazing as this sounds, it was a trial and error process where the scientists made over ten million different versions of the Axl protein, each with the slightest of alterations, and had to test them all. After finding which one worked most efficiently, it was re-formatted again and refined to improve its effectiveness and permanence in the bloodstream. The final product was an Axl decoy so strong that its bond to Gas6 is “virtually impossible”.

The results were extremely promising and also showed that the engineered protein had no toxic interactions within the treated mice. Before human trials can start, however, more animal trials (probably in more advanced animals such as primates) are needed to ensure the safety and effectiveness of this revolutionary process. One huge drawback though is that the directed evolution proteins can only be made on a small scale — suitable for mice — which would most likely not be enough to treat a human or even a primate. But this is still a developing area of science, and with the rate at which advances are going now, I’m sure they will find a way to mass-produce proteins like this by the time further trials are approved. The world of cancer research is so incredible and ever-evolving (no pun intended). I’m so excited to continue any kind of research in this field and also to be a part of the largest student-run philanthropy effort in the world, THON, which benefits this kind of work!!

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/scientists-develop-blood-cleansing-artificial-spleen

Do you know what your spleen is for? Don’t feel bad if you don’t, turns out Harvard medical students don’t know either: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEi_4Cyx4Uw. (FYI What the spleen actually does is filter out old red blood cells and store platelets for clotting and blood coagulation) Anyways, silly videos aside, the Wyss Institute at Harvard has created a spleen-like device that can filter blood for pathogens and toxins.

This is an amazing advance because of conditions such as sepsis. Sepsis is basically what happens when your bloodstream is inundated by an infection and your organ systems start faltering. Multi-system organ failure and death often occur in cases of sepsis. According to the article, more than half of sepsis cases are from an unknown antigen. Because of this, doctors give patients broad-spectrum antibiotics to cover as many bases as possible, but in reality all this does is contribute to antibiotic resistance.

The way the “biospleen” device works is by using magnetic nanobeads covered in mannose-binding lectin (MBL), which is a protein that finds and distinguishes infectious particles. As blood goes through the biospleen device, a magnet attracts the beads that have found anything and the rest of the newly filtered blood flows back into the patient. The article states that the biospleen removes over ninety percent of blood pathogens after five rounds of treatment. In a trial involving rats with E. coli and S. aureus, two bacteria very common in human sepsis cases, the treatment was still very successful and almost all of the rats survived.

Like 3D printing, I think this is another way we are becoming innovative enough to “replace” organs. Obviously a device like this is no substitution for a real spleen, but then again the spleen itself is not a vital organ for survival (unless you have sepsis…).This is a new process, but is very reminiscent of dialysis. However, the mechanism is inherently different because of the differing types of treatments as well as the mechanism involved in the filtering process. The next step for an innovation like this would be biochemically tailoring it to aid with other, harder to treat diseases. HIV and the Ebola virus are cited as examples, but the science is not quite there yet. At this point, trials are moving from rats to larger animals, and will hopefully soon be able to advance to humans. Then after we’ve mastered the biospleen, we can start towards non-invasive, internal organ alternatives. Just imagine where all of this can go.

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/doctors-use-3d-printed-replica-brains-guide-life-changing-pediatric-surgery

Everyone’s heard of the whole right brain/left brain debate, but we all really use both sides of our brains. Now imagine if you couldn’t “choose” to be right or left brained because all you have is one half. This is what would happen in the case of a hemispherectomy.

A hemispherectomy is a radical, last-ditch-attempt surgery that involves removing or disconnecting an entire hemisphere of the brain. Not only is it neurosurgery, but because of its extreme nature, this surgery is extremely risky and can have unforeseeable consequences. And a hemispherectomy is the surgery that doctors needed to perform on 18-month-old Gabriel Mandeville, whose case of epilepsy was so severe that his violent seizures were damaging his brain.

3D printers are being used for a myriad of different things right now with all of the advances in modern technology. So Gabriel’s doctors made an elaborate soft plastic model of his brain and blood vessels. They were then able to use this model to practice on before actually performing the surgery. Needless to say, the hemispherectomy was a success, and Gabriel Mandeville is now seizure free.

This was an incredible feat preformed by the doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital. I think that 3D printing has amazing capabilities and this is a huge advancement in modern medicine. Currently, scientists are finding ways to print full organs and vessels. This is a revolutionary way to approach organ shortages and to help people who cannot or are unable to find a match for a donor organ.

This is where the future of medicine is heading, and I really could not be more excited to (hopefully) be a part of it one day! This is why I’m writing my passion blog about medical advances. I’ve always thought I wanted to be a doctor. It’s the only thing that’s ever captivated my interest, but I was always scared of the commitment of going to med school and doing a residency. But after attending a med-school camp at Drexel’s Hahnemman Hospital and working on Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, I know that this is what I want to do.

For my passion blog I’ve considered a list of topics ranging from music to medicine, and social experiments to traveling. Thinking about a blog topic was kind of stressful for me because it’d have to be a topic that’d be substantial enough to write about for a whole semester and also something that wouldn’t make me look stupid… But I think I’ve figured it out.

The current front runner is a travel blog detailing any cool/significant stories from the countries I’ve visited. If you count Puerto Rico I’ve been to a grand total of 10 countries including the USA, Canada, Mexico, France, Portugal, The Netherlands, Israel, India, and I’ve traveled through Spain (more on that later). If I need more to complete the right amount of blogs for the semester I can talk about things like living in Texas, vacationing in Hawaii, and adventuring in Pennsylvania and New York 🙂

Another good option I’ve been thinking about is writing about any new scientific advances, specifically medically related ones. It would be an informative and opinion blog because the posts would have to involve a summary of the news, but it would also include my two-cents on the topic as well.

Both options are looking like they’ll be substantial enough for the semester, now it’s just a matter of picking one and actually writing about it!