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A telescopic implant that fits directly into the eye to treat certain kinds of blindness has finally received FDA approval for use in the US after more than five years of waiting. The Implantable Miniature Telescope (IMT) is used to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition that affects millions around the world…

“… For many, the center part of their vision becomes blurred or completely dark. The IMT is surgically implanted into the cornea and acts to expand an incoming image onto the peripheral parts of the retina that are undamaged by AMD. There are likely hundreds of thousands of potential patients in the US alone who may be able to have their vision partially restored now that CentraSight has garnered FDA approval.”

[Source]. Fantastic for people who have the types of blindness that it applies to! It’ll give a fish-eye/doughnut-vision-like effect though, it won’t be like normal human vision. Still! Better than nothing, perhaps, right?

Hopefully, someday, we can improve this technology even further and make it available to more people, xx. I love advancements. I love people. I love it all.

Scientists have discovered two potent human antibodies that can stop more than 90 percent of known global HIV strains from infecting human cells in the laboratory, and have demonstrated how one of these disease-fighting proteins accomplishes this feat.

… Research efforts to find individual antibodies that can neutralize HIV strains have been difficult because the virus continuously changes its surface proteins to evade recognition by the immune system. As a consequence of these changes, an enormous number of HIV variants exist worldwide.

However, there are a few surface areas that remain nearly constant across all variants of HIV and scientists have now discovered two potent human antibodies that attach to one of these sites and can stop more than 90 percent of known global HIV strains from infecting human cells in the laboratory.

The researchers also confirmed that VRC01 does not bind to human cells — a characteristic that might otherwise lead to its elimination during immune development, a natural mechanism the body employs to prevent autoimmune disease. [Source].

— Good news, hope they can make a vaccine in the near-future.

Vaccine patch to improve needle pain

“Researchers led by Mark Prausnitz of Georgia Institute of Technology reported their research on microneedles in Sunday’s edition of Nature Medicine. A microneedle contains needles so small you don’t even feel them. Attached to a patch like a Band-Aid, the little needles barely penetrate the skin before they dissolve and release their vaccine.” [Source].

Good news for those who don’t like needles, I suppose!

I don’t ever really feel pain from needles, myself. It’s the substances they inject that sometimes hurt me, especially this numbing substance - which apparently is the best/most effective one yet the worst in regards to the pain it gives before it kicks in.

Dopamine is classified as a catecholamine (a class of molecules that serve as neurotransmitters and hormones). It is a monoamine (a compound containing nitrogen formed from ammonia by replacement of one or more of the hydrogen atoms by hydrocarbon radicals). Dopamine is a precursor (forerunner) of adrenaline and a closely related molecule, noradrenaline. Dopamine is formed by the decarboxylation (removal of a carboxyl group) from dopa.

Dopa is used in the treatment of Parkinson disease. Parkinson disease is believed to be related to low levels of dopamine in certain parts of the brain. When dopa is taken by mouth, it crosses through the blood-brain barrier. Once it has crossed from the bloodstream into the brain, it is converted to dopamine.

The resulting increase in dopamine concentrations in the brain is thought to improve nerve conduction and to assist in lessening the movement disorders in Parkinson disease. In 1970 the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved dopa in the form of L-Dopa, or levodopa, for use in the US. The drug revolutionized the treatment of Parkinson disease. [Source].

Gary Phebus wants to donate his heart, lungs, and liver. The problem is he wants to donate them before he dies. Gary was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in 2008. Phebus says he’d like to be able to donate his organs before they deteriorate, and doesn’t consider his request suicide because he’s ‘dead anyway’.

I thought this was kind of lovely, wanting to help others at the cost of his own life. It provoked a discussion of suicide, DNR, ownership of your body and such on Slashdot.org. ‘Twas kind of interesting to see it spark up that kind of talk! He has the same illness as Stephen Hawking - although Hawking’s been quite lucky with it, it seems [Source]. I’d probably want to do the same as Phebus.

It’s not a terminal disease so far as I am aware and, with appropriate care, you can most probably live contently with it. However, it is not a fate I would like. So if I could, instead, give up my life to give away my insides that could help someone who potentially would have a longer life-span than I probably would have, that sounds fine by me! But who knows what I’d really do, eh?

But speaking of, I need to get on the donor list and research how they take your bone marrow or stem cells if you donate yourself for that! My grandmother said it is very painful. =O Requires you to stay in the hospital for quite some time. Evenso, it would surely be worth it, right? =) So it’d be fine. Just want to know!

The world’s first human testing of a mind-controlled artificial limb is ready to begin. A joint project between the Pentagon and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, the Modular Prosthetic Limb will be fully controlled by sensors implanted in the brain, and will even restore the sense of touch by sending electrical impulses from the limb back to the sensory cortex.

Last week APL announced it had been awarded a $34.5M contract with DARPA, which will allow researchers to test the neural prosthetic in five individuals over the next two years. [Source].

Technology is so great. So glad there are people working on such things!

The New York Times reports that researchers have found a spinal-fluid test can be 100 percent accurate in identifying patients with significant memory loss who are on their way to developing Alzheimer’s disease. The new study included more than 300 patients in their seventies, 114 with normal memories, 200 with memory problems, and 102 with Alzheimer’s disease. Their spinal fluid was analyzed for amyloid beta, which forms plaques in the brain, and for tau, another protein that accumulates in dead and dying nerve cells in the brain. Nearly every person with Alzheimer’s had the characteristic spinal fluid protein levels.
[Source]. Whilst it is quite interesting, I really wonder, would I want to know if I’d develop such things later on in life? I dunno… probably not, in a way.

Nerdstock, x.

In all seriousness, I am convinced that most pills are placebos. Ha ha

Only what the GP gives me seems to work. ‘Cept, eventually, they stop working or start to aggravate the situation. I don’t know why, it’s like.. medication hates me.

But Ibuprofen works really well for me most of the time these days.

Paracetamol and codeine tablets are good too, but you can’t use that for longer than a week (I think codeine - and maybe Ibu., actually - can mess with your stomach). You can mix Ibuprofen and paracetamol too (para. should be taken first!), so that’s good as well.

Other than that… all drugs I have purchased do nothing or aggrevate. People think there must be something wrong with me. I’ll tell you what’s wrong with me, I don’t buy into placebo products! =P (That or I mentally stop them from working? Ha ha).

Still, maybe I should pretend stuff works. Before I even had prescription pills (for pain and sickness, which I don’t use anymore ‘cause they don’t work for me), I used to just outright ignore the pain and it helped quite a lot.

If I am in considerable discomfort or pain, nothing works for me. I mean, nothing I’ve tried so far. ‘Cept sleeping it off can reduce it most of the time! It sucks. Only because my mental state starts to go off the rails when that happens. Bad times.

Thanks to a new art/science exhibition called “Blood Wars,” you can find out whose dad has the toughest immune system once and for all.

The brainchild of artist Kathy High, “Blood Wars” pits white blood cells from two different people against each other. From the article: “In order to create the blood duel, High gets a phlebotomist to take blood samples from two different people. She then separates the white blood cells from the rest of the blood and stains them using different colors. They are then placed in a Petri dish and their interactions are filmed under a microscope using time-lapse microscopy. The cellular ‘winner’ of each round will go onto fight another participant.”

[Source].

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