Pharma pulse by Linu Mohan

Pharma pulse by Linu Mohan

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE, AN EARLY DETECTION TECHNIQUE

Alzheimer's disease is a neurological disorder in which the death of brain cells causes memory loss and cognitive decline. It is neurodegenerative type of dementia, where the disease starts mild and gets progressively worse. More than 25 million people in the world today are affected by dementia, most suffering from Alzheimer's disease. In developed countries; it is one of the most financially costly diseases. No methods currently exist for the early detection of the disease and results in poor management of the disease progression.

Recently a team of scientists has been developed a non-invasive, MRI approach that can detect the Alzheimer's disease in a living animal, well before typical symptoms appear. The research team created an MRI probe that pairs a magnetic nanostructure with an antibody that seeks out the amyloid beta brain toxins, responsible for onset of the disease and subsequent memory loss. The accumulated toxins, because of the associated magnetic nanostructures, appear as dark areas in MRI scans of the brain, used for early diagnosis.

This technique can be used to detect the disease early, and to help identify drugs that can effectively eliminate the toxin there by improve health of Alzheimer’s patients.

ISLET CELL TRANSPLANTATION TO RESTORE BLOOD SUGAR DEFENSE MECHANISMS

Type I diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone needed to metabolise glucose and produce energy. Type I diabetes occurs when the body's own immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas (beta cells). Normally, the hormone insulin is secreted by the pancreas in low amounts. After a meal, glucose from food stimulates the pancreas to release insulin. The amount that is released is proportional to the amount that is required by the size of that particular meal.

Normal condition, the beta cells in the pancreas produce signals to lower the amount of insulin secreted so that people don't develop low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia). But the destruction of the beta cells that occurs with type 1 diabetes severely affects this regulation and results in hypoglycaemia.

Usually patients with type I diabetes mellitus, require lifelong insulin therapy, with doses adjusted on the basis of self-monitoring of blood glucose levels. Severe hypoglycaemia, a life-threatening complication of insulin treatment for type I diabetes can occur when the body's defense mechanisms against low blood sugar are broken down in disease progression, causing shakiness, irritability, confusion, light-headedness, shortness of breath, seizures etc.

A new study reveals that, type I diabetes patients who have developed low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) as a complication of insulin treatments over time are able to regain normal internal recognition of the condition after pancreatic islet cell transplantation.After undergoing islet cell transplantation,a patient with low blood sugar, but feels no symptoms, were able to internally recognize the condition and automatically increase their own blood sugar to normal levels.This findings show that islet cell transplantation may be an effective treatment for patients with type I diabetes.

NON-INVASIVE DEVICE TO EVALUATE HEART BLOOD FLOW

Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) is a condition in which there is a progressive reduction of blood supply to the heart muscle due to narrowing or blocking of a coronary artery.Although CHD mortality rates worldwide have declined over the past four decades, it remains responsible for about one-third or more of all deaths in individuals over age 35.

Health care professionals used to determine the extent of a blockage in the heart or a coronary artery with a value called fractional flow reserve (FFR). Obtaining this value requires an invasive procedure called cardiac catheterization.

Recently FDA had given approval for a method used to evaluate blood flow in the coronary arteries of patients showing signs and symptoms of coronary artery disease, non-invasively which is software that can provide an estimate of FFR, using data from a computed tomography (CT) scan of the patient’s heart.

This method provides a functional assessment of blood flow in the coronary arteries from detailed anatomical data, which helps the clinician to determine that the actual FFR is below the accepted limits. In this method a health care professional electronically sends the patient’s CT scan data to Heart Flow device, and creates 3D computer models of different sections of the patient’s heart and runs a blood flow simulator program on the models. After analyzing the data and the models, estimated FFR values can be calculated to plan further treatment or management method.