Lifeboat Foundation

New spray can protect public transport facilitates from deadly germs.

For a nation that spends more on healthcare per citizen than almost any other, America isn’t exactly reaping the rewards. Life expectancy has been steadily climbing for decades now, but in the last few years it’s taken a troubling turn in the other direction.

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control shows that a small decrease in life expectancy, from 78.7 to 78.6 years, is part of a continuing trend. Even as we make progress treating cancer, heart disease, and stroke—three of the biggest killers—we’re losing ground on other fronts and have been since 2014. That makes this continuous decline unlike anything we’ve seen since World War I and the Spanish influenza, which both happened between 1915 and 1918.

In its report, the CDC highlighted three things that have contributed to American’s shrinking life expectancy in recent years: drug overdoses, chronic liver disease, and suicide. “Increased death rates for unintentional drug overdoses in particular—a subset of unintentional injuries—contributed to the negative change in life expectancy observed in recent years,” the report reads.

This is incredible!

Researchers have been able to coax human breast cancer cells to turn into fat cells in a new proof-of-concept study in mice.

To achieve this feat, the team exploited a weird pathway that metastasising cancer cells have; their results are just a first step, but it’s a truly promising approach.

Continue reading “Researchers Successfully Turn Breast Cancer Cells Into Fat to Stop Them From Spreading” »

Contraceptives are rarely convenient – implanted devices are invasive, and you have to remember to take the pill every day. Now a team led by researchers at Georgia Tech are developing a painless, contraceptive microneedle patch that women can apply themselves in five seconds, and only needs to be done once a month.

Using a few wires and sponges, in ordinary homes around the world, people are trying to hack their own minds. Thanks to a 2002 study that found a link between brain transcranial direct current stimulation and better motor task performance, “do-it-yourself” brain stimulation has become a growing movement among those who want to improve a whole host of cognitive and psychological functions, including language skills, mood and memory.

Scientists are split about the practice: Some say that while brain stimulators might not work as advertised (the ones available to purchase can cost hundreds of dollars), these devices are more-or-less safe. Others think the technique could cause damage, even if done in a controlled, clinical setting. Though “brain hackers” may be disappointed with their own results, their hope about the technology’s potential is rooted in an increasing amount of evidence.

The earliest clinical uses of brain stimulation date back to nearly 2000 years ago, when physician Scribonius Largus recommended the use of electric rayfish to treat headaches and neuralgia. By the 1980s, researchers began designing non-invasive stimulators and brain implants for treating specific diseases. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) — a non-invasive treatment that uses direct electrical currents to stimulate specific parts of the brain — has been shown, in a few small studies, to purportedly improve language skills, boost memory and strengthen reflexes. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), another non-invasive procedure, is sometimes used to treat depression. And clinical trials are underway to see if stimulating the brain can treat other medical conditions, such as Parkinson’s.

Continue reading “Would You Zap Your Brain to Improve Your Memory?” »

The brain-eating monsters are real enough — they lurk in freshwater ponds in much of the United States. Now scientists may have discovered a new way to kill them.

Minuscule silver particles coated with anti-seizure drugs one day may be adapted to halt Naegleria fowleri, an exceptionally lethal microbe that invades through the sinuses and feeds on human brain tissue.

The research, published in the journal Chemical Neuroscience, showed that repurposing seizure medicines and binding them to silver might kill the amoebae while sparing human cells. Scientists hope the findings will lay an early foundation for a quick cure.

Continue reading “A Silver Bullet Against the Brain-Eating Amoeba?” »

Fresh Air: Transplant Surgeon Joshua Mezrich On ‘When Death Becomes Life’ : Shots — Health News Joshua Mezrich has performed hundreds of kidney, liver and pancreas transplants. He shares stories from the operating room in his book, When Death Becomes Life.

Psychiatrists diagnose people with schizophrenia, ADHD, bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses by spending time with them, looking for the particular behavior symptoms of each. What follows can be a hit-or-miss series of medications and dosages until disruptive behaviors go away.

By deciphering the circuitry of the medial frontal cortex — an area beneath the top of the head — those diagnoses could become much more efficient and precise by allowing physicians to diagnose based on how neurons respond to a simple series of behavior tests.

A Vanderbilt University team recently described how error and reward signals are organized within the cerebral cortex, which is only as thick as a nickel. They say this information could also be significant in drug development by guiding medications to target receptors in particular layers of the cerebral cortex where they will be most effective.

Another senolytic drug candidate has entered development at Unity Biotechnologies. The purpose of senolytics is to clear the body of harmful senescent cells, which accumulate with age and encourage age-related diseases to develop.

A new treatment for age-related diseases of the eye

Recently, UNITY Biotechnologies announced the selection of a new lead drug, UBX1967, with the goal of treating a range of age-related diseases of the eye. This is the second drug in the pipeline of this $677 million company. This drug is unique in the world of eye treatment; it targets and destroys senescent cells, making it a senolytic that targets one of the root causes of aging to treat disease.

Continue reading “UNITY Biotechnologies Selects a New Senolytic Candidate” »