Rotator cuff injury changes from green to purple: Upon joining the Minnesota Vikings this week, Brett Favre related that he's had a rotator cuff injury in his arm for several seasons.
Courtesy PSUMark2006Since Science Buzz is about the only Minnesota information source that has not had an item in recent days about new Viking quarterback Brett Favre, I'm going to change that and post this video of Favre speaking about the mysteries of rotator cuff injuries, evidently something he's been dealing with a lot longer than anyone knew.
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A medical miracle in the making?
Courtesy nbonzeyIf you're one of those people who is easily grossed out, you might want to stop reading this post. Because what I'm about to tell you might make your stomach turn.
In an effort to help heal human wounds, medical researchers have been studying creepy, crawly, flesh-eating maggots. THE SAME wiggly critters that appear in your garbage can, on road kill, and any place where they can find dead meat or rotten food. In case you don't know the maggot life story, eventually these larvae grow-up to become flies, at which point they continue to hang out with garbage. It's not a pretty life, but they don't complain much.
So...what do maggots have to do with medicine?
Well, people have known for a long time that deep or difficult wounds (ulcers, burns, deep lacerations) heal much faster if you enlist maggots for a little help. In fact, hospitals even breed fly larvae (maggots!) so they can apply "maggot therapy" to wounds that would otherwise heal poorly. As gross as it sounds, this technique actually works well. The maggots eat the decaying tissue, preventing bacterial growth and helping to keep the wound "clean" so it can heal better.
Until recently, researchers were not exactly sure how these maggots did their miracle work on wounds, or how they could make maggot therapy more accessible. What they've discovered is that an enzyme produced by the maggots can itself help to remove decaying tissue. You can read more about it here.
This means that new bandages infused with maggot juice, or maggot ointment, might not be far from drugstore shelves. The enzyme appears to help heal wounds large and small, and with very few side effects. I wonder if upset stomach is one of them?
What do you think - would you buy a maggot-based product to help heal cuts and scrapes?
Popular Science offers a brief overview of flu pandemics, past and present.
In 1991, President Bush signed an executive order that forbade the National Institutes for Health from funding research on embryonic stem cells beyond the 60 or so stem cell lines that already existed at the time. President Obama's order will allow scientists to use federal money to to do research on any stem cell lines, although government money still can't be used to generate new stem cell lines. (The creation of a stem cell line requires the destruction of a human embryo.)
More Buzz stories on stem cell research...
CNN's "explainer" feature on the promise of stem cell research
U of M scientists announce breakthrough against AIDS virus
Human Immunodefieciency Virus (HIV): Photo Credit: C. Goldsmith
Courtesy Public DomainResearchers at the University of Minnesota announced the discovery of a simple guard against the transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Microbiologists Dr. Ashley Haase and Patrick Schlievert announced their findings in the journal Nature. Haase has been studying the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) for more than 25 years. Schlievert is an expert in infectious diseases.
The prevention is relatively simple: an over-the-counter lubricating jelly is mixed with a common and inexpensive food additive known as glycerol monlaurate (GML) and applied to the sex organs of female laboratory monkeys. The test subjects were then exposed to the simian version of the virus (SIV). In all five cases the treated monkeys showed no signs of infection while untreated monkeys all became infected. (One treated subject later became infected although researchers aren’t sure exactly why. It may be she became infected after the study ended).
The new treatment shows promise in fighting the sexual transmission of the AIDS virus in women and could lead to prevention of the disease spreading in both sexes. Every day HIV infects more than 5000 people somewhere in the world, and in Africa women make up more than half the new cases.
HIV spreads through a person’s bloodstream by hijacking the host-body’s own immune cells activated to fight the infection. HIV transmission can take place through unprotected sexual contact with an infected person, or by the sharing of needles with someone who is HIV positive. A pregnant woman with HIV can sometimes infect her baby in utero, or during birth, or via breast-feeding. Infection via blood transfusion is less common now that most blood banks screen for the AIDS virus.
Schlievert warns that this is only a treatment to guard against further transmission of the virus responsible for AIDS (as well as other sexually transmitted diseases), not a cure for those already stricken with the disease.
Isn’t it remarkable that a compound of a common water-based personal lubricant and inexpensive (1 cent per dose) food additive found in ice cream and chewing gum could lead to a simple way of guarding against infection from this devastating disease?
An advisory panel to the FDA is recommending approval of the first US drug made with help from genetically engineered animals. GTC Biotherapeutics makes Atryn, an anti-clotting therapy, using a herd of 200 goats bred to express a human protein in their milk. The drug is meant to help people with hereditary antithrombin deficiency, a genetic disorder that causes blood clotting. Patients and their families want the drug approved and say studies show it's safe and effective. But other folks argue that there hasn't been enough safety testing around the use of transgenic animals. The final FDA decision is expected February 7.
OK, not "on this day." A few days ago. Well, two weeks ago, but the BRIEFING was today. Anyway, in a marathon operation lasting 22 hours, surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio performed the first face transplant surgery in the United States--replacing 80% of a female patient's face. (This surgery has been done only a few times, and was big news when the world's first face transplant, on Isabelle Dinoire, took place in France in 2006.) More details to come in the next few days.
Music for the heart
Courtesy Public domainThat's right - the Bee Gees, the Brothers Gibb, those high-pitched Kings of the Disco Era! Well, to tell the truth it's not really the Bee Gees, per se, but rather one of their songs - the classic (and in this case appropriate) "Stayin' Alive". Researchers at Illinois College of Medicine have determined that the number of beats in that particular song (103 per minute) is almost exactly the number you want to count out while performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on someone. Bottom line: if you have that song looping through your head while you're doing heart compressions on a heart attack sufferer, you'll keep the recommended per minute rhythm and triple the victim's chances of survival. Read more here.
Thinking about donating your body?: This picture was found on flickr's "Creative Commons" page.
Courtesy kevin813Want to be useful? A once in a lifetime oppurtunity presents itself
long after you die. Many people nowadays have given their body to
science. This awkward suggestion benefits medical research and gives
u a chance to help out.
what do u think? Comment!!
Here's musician Eddie Adcock playing the banjo while having brain surgery to eliminate a hand tremor. Eddie wasn't just passing the time picking out tunes. Doctors needed Adcock's help pinpointing the region of his brain that was causing the tremor. A pacemaker in his chest now sends electric currents to the brain that eliminate the tremor. The operation took place in Nashville where Adcock works as a highly regarded musician.
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