StemCell Therapy

Mary Jo has diabetes type 2. Every morning she gets up and pricks her finger to check her blood sugar. Then she takes her medicine which consists of some pills and a new medication that she injects. Breakfast consists of a limited amount of carbohydrate, as does lunch and dinner. She is encouraged by her doctor to get daily exercise and she realizes that her days of eating whatever she wants whenever she wants are over.

Diabetes is a big pain in the neck. But Mary Jo knows that if she doesnt follow her daily routine, she is putting herself at risk for early heart disease, or blindness, or amputations. Her fear of the complications of diabetes fuels her motivation to care for herself.

What if Mary Jo could turn back the clock and prevent this disease before it started? Is it possible? The answer is yes in many cases. The key is to find out before it becomes full-blown diabetes.

There are some characteristics that predict diabetes type 2 before it happens. They call this stage prediabetes. The scary statistic is that 1 in 3 Americans have prediabetes yet only 10 percent know it. That means in Lincoln County if 3,000 people have prediabetes, only 300 are aware of it.

Prediabetes is characterized by a blood sugar reading that is higher than normal but not high enough to be called diabetes. People at this stage are on their way to develop diabetes type 2 within five years, and are at a higher risk for stroke and heart disease than the general population.

The good news is that people with prediabetes can avoid or delay developing diabetes type 2. The sooner prediabetes is identified and changes are made, the better chance to prevent diabetes. These changes mean losing 5 percent to 7 perecent of body weight and getting regular physical activity.

The Centers for Disease Control developed guidelines for a national program to prevent diabetes type 2. That program is called PREVENT. The nationwide Diabetes Prevention Program is here at Cabinet Peaks Medical Center in Libby. For seven years, our team of diabetes educators and dietitians has been helping people lose weight and reduce their risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The 2017 fall program will start on Tuesday, Sept. 19 at 5 p.m. The class meets for 26 sessions over 12 months. The cost is $100 for the year, and scholarships are available.

There are no symptoms for prediabetes, so how do you know if you are at risk? Take this quick test and add up the points:

1. Gender: Men 1 point, Women 0 points

2. Age: over 60 3 points, over 50 2 points, over 40 1 point

3. Activity: active 0 points, not very active 1 point

4. Family history: diabetes in family 1 point, no diabetes 0 points

5. High Blood Pressure: Yes 1 point, No 0 points

6. Weight: Normal weight 0 points, slightly overweight 1 point, somewhat overweight 2 points, very overweight 3 points

If you scored 5 or more, you may have prediabetes; check in with your doctor for a simple blood test to make sure. Then ask your doctor to refer you to the Prevent Program.

For more information about the program call 406-283-7318.

Anne Alexander is one of the PREVENT leaders at Cabinet Peaks Medical Center.

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Program helps reduce risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease - The Western News

In an evolutionary arms race with its host rabbits, the virus has evolved the deadly ability to suppress the rabbit's immune system. Credit: Kansas State University

In a classic example of the evolutionary arms race between a host and a pathogen, the myxoma virusintroduced to control the rabbit population in Australia in 1950has developed a novel and deadly ability to suppress the immune response of its host rabbits. New research shows that viruses collected in the 1990s are much more effective at shutting down the immune systems of rabbits that have never been exposed to the virus than are viruses from the 1950s.

"When a host develops resistance to a virus, the virus will often evolve ways to evade the host's immune response," said Andrew Read, Evan Pugh Professor of Biology and Entomology and Eberly Professor of Biotechnology at Penn State and an author of the study. "Instead of hiding from the rabbit's immune response, the myxoma virus has evolved ways to directly suppress it, leading to the development of a virus that is even more deadly to non-resistant rabbits."

A paper describing the new study appears the week of August 14, 2017, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research suggests that efforts to artificially increase resistance to a virus through selective breeding, genetic engineering, or immunizationunless they completely prevent transmission of the viruscould accelerate the arms race, producing even more virulent viruses.

Wild European rabbits were introduced to Australia in the 19th century and quickly spread, wreaking havoc on the land and devastating crops. The myxoma virus was initially extremely effective in reducing the population of these invaders. The strain of virus that was introduced developed in a different species of rabbit in South America. Scientists at the time were interested in understanding how the virus would evolve in this new, European, host.

"This system has been studied since the 1950s as a classic example of an evolutionary arms race," said Peter Kerr of the University of Sydney, Australia and lead author of the paper. "The rabbits evolved resistance, the virus evolved ways to combat that resistance, and this continued in a back-and-forth, ever escalating way. We wanted to know how that arms race has continued since it was last studied in the early 1980s."

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The research team compared viruses collected in the 1990s to the original strain introduced to Australia in 1950. "We can compare how nasty a virus is in what we call a 'common garden'," said Read. "In this case, laboratory rabbits that have not been exposed to myxoma virus provide that common gardenthey have not developed resistance to mxyomatosis so we can compare how they respond to viruses from different eras."

Many of the viruses from the 1990s were extremely virulent, but the laboratory rabbits infected with them did not develop the usual symptoms associated with myxoma infection, including skin lesions and high fever. Instead, these rabbits developed a profound immune system depression, leading to massive bacterial infection and acute collapse syndrome, similar to sepsis.

"The rabbits infected with virus from the 1990s did not have a typical inflammatory response to the infection or develop fevers," said Isabella Cattadori, associate professor of biology at Penn State and an author of the paper. "This is further evidence that the virus is severely suppressing the immune response in these rabbits. The evolutionary arms race has produced a virus that instead of trying to evade the host's immune response, directly attacks it."

Although the original strain of myxoma virus introduced to Australia in the 1950s had some ability to suppress its host's immune system, this ability has increased over time and the acute collapse syndrome that it causes developed sometime after the studies in the 1980s.

"Our study shows that the evolutionary arms race between an infectious agent and its host's immune system can continue to escalate to produce new more dangerous viruses," said Read. "We need to be aware of this in areas like agriculture, and even human vaccinations, where we are artificially enhancing resistance. If our methods do not completely prevent transmission of the viruses we could be accelerating the evolution of more deadly viruses."

Explore further: A real Peter Rabbit tale: Biologists find key to myxoma virus / rabbit coevolution

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Viruses up their game in arms race with immune system - Phys.Org

Nobody wants to get sick. And there isnt a single person on this planet who has ever been pain-free or disease-free.

Lets try to understand how our built-in defense system works. By studying it, we can be guided to support it through our lifestyle choices.

The immune system is actually a network of white blood cell antibodies, tissues and organs that work together to execute the job. Their only goal is to target all foreign invaders that attack the body. Their enemies are microbes like bacteria, parasites and fungi which cause infection.

In the event of an infection, this is what happens. The first major attack, once the line of defense is breached, is called innate immunity, a collection of white blood cells and chemical messengers. This is only activated by the recognition of molecules found in the invaders. Thus, there is a seek, identify and destroy duty assigned to white blood cells.

When bacteria is present, there is an expected inflammatory response. Once the pathogen has been spotted, chemical messengers release histamines, leukotrienes and prostaglandins. The symptoms: swelling, redness, and heat at the infected site.

For example, the presence of sticky mucus means that dust and microbes have been trapped and carried away by cilia, tiny hairs on the cells lining the immune system.

In this 21st century, the landscape of medical science is rapidly changing. In short, we know so much more about how our own bodies function.

In 1954, transfer factors were discovered. They are small immune messenger molecules produced by higher organisms. Henry Sherwood Lawrence discovered this ancient part of the immune system which represents what is considered an archaic dialect in cell talk. Yes, the cells have a language. And today, with the help of a breakthrough, one can contribute to the conversation.

More importantly, with the introduction of an all-natural food supplement called 4-Life from cow colostrum and chicken egg yolk, the recovery of a person from various health challenges is a positive expectation based on actual testimonials.

Truth is, the human body has transfer factors called cells-mediated immunity. This actual cell language was found to be existing in cows and chickens.

A patented technology by a US-based company called 4-Life successfully created a nutrition-based food supplement with the use of transfer factors.

Since the late 90s, transfer-factors based nutritional supplementation has become extremely popular. And it is now in the Philippines.

According to studies, transfer-factors improve the communication between cells. They include helper and regulator-factors which have been shown to induce an immune response within 24 hours.

There is a growing number of positive testimonials from people worldwide. There have been reports of encouraging health turnaround, such as the case of Ellen Escofal, 52, with stage 2B breast cancer, who underwent mastectomy but refused chemo.

After three years, her cancer spread to her lungs. Upon learning about transfer factor on my DZMM teleradyo show on Sundays, she decided to take the oral supplementation for a year. Today, she is in remission.

Cenon Hermojas, 61, a diabetic who was due for dialysis, went on the TF regimen. His sugar and creatinine levels are now normal. This, plus a lifestyle change helped him get better.

Rosa Estrella, 45, and daughter Cecil, 18, suffered from severe allergic rhinitis. After four weeks on TF, they have found relief from severe allergies.

For 4-Life Phils Lifestyle coaching, call Frank Uy, Tesy Emeline at 09178948728 or 09228552079.

This weeks affirmation: Hope abides in me.

Love and light!

Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.

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Making your immune system smarter - Inquirer.net

Todays oil and gas industry is no stranger to cyber attacks. The 2012 hack of Saudi Aramco during which the oil giants computer network was almost completely compromised, forcing staff to resort to typewriters and faxes for months and sending company executives on buying sprees for hard drives could have easily bankrupted a smaller organisation. And all it took was one click on a bad link in a scam e-mail.

Given the risks involved in an increasingly IT-driven industry that operates in a safety-critical environment and which is high on the target list for malicious or geopolitically inspired attackers, the industry has woken up to the importance of cyber security, and its suppliers are responding. In May, industrial giant Siemens announced a new partnership with innovative cyber security firm Darktrace to help bring the latters AI-driven Industrial Immune System technology to customers in the utilities and oil and gas industries.

By combining Darktraces digital tech with Siemenss operational technology (OT) security expertise and strong industry presence, the partners are hoping to offer a comprehensive solution for oil and gas companies. We caught up with Darktrace director of technology Dave Palmer to discuss cyber risks to offshore oil firms, and how sophisticated cyber security systems can help secure their most sensitive infrastructure.

Dave Palmer: I guess you can think of the majority of the cyber security industry as being preventative. So most things on the market have an awareness of previously seen attacker techniques, and they work in different ways to try and block them, which is a perfectly reasonable idea. And on top of that, theres a much smaller number of products out there that try to detect the things that have gotten past your defences. But often its based on the same idea, so its really doing the same thing again, just having another look for what previously known attacks have looked like. Unsurprisingly thats not super-successful, because if something was different enough or novel enough to get past the defences in the first place, then its probably not going to get picked up by using the same idea again.

So in order to do better at picking up an in-progress attack, we just flipped the idea around, so instead of having an awareness of what attacks are like, lets learn what the normal business is like, lets learn about all the different people and devices, whether its something as common as a laptop or an iPhone, or a completely bespoke piece of machinery that doesnt exist in any other pipeline or manufacturing system in the world. What that means for the attackers, then, is if they want a successful attack, they have to be clever enough to get past all the existing defensive systems that are in place, but they cant look different at all from the way the normal business operates, otherwise well pick them up. Those two ideas side-by-side are incredibly powerful.

CL: How did the partnership with Siemens come about? Is it useful to have a very established partner like Siemens when introducing your services to a famously cautious industry?

DP: Of course, Siemens is such a massive part of this sector. I think, really, we caught their attention. Rather than ringing them up every week and saying, Hey, this is a great idea, you should try it, we worked really hard on proving the idea again and again with Siemens customers. So because weve got that self-learning aspect, we never needed to do a partnership in advance of being able to work with Siemens customers because the system would just learn and operate successfully.

CL: What work have you been doing to integrate Darktrace and Siemens services and technologies to create a single, comprehensive solution?

DP: I guess there are two strands. Theres basically a go-to-market piece, where Siemens are basically helping us describe and advertise to their customers how they can get some of the benefits from Darktrace and what that would really mean in a Siemens-type environment. And thats pretty classic for us; its what weve been doing for a few years now, but its great to have their support and great to have them continuing to inform us of what would be useful for their customers.

But Im also really excited about their push into offering cyber security as a service, and Darktrace is going to be a cornerstone of that managed service that theyre going to provide. Repeating the mistakes of the IT industry, where weve tried to get every small law firm and mid-size business in the world to become cyber security experts, isnt particularly helpful.

CL: As well as onshore data centres and the like, is there an increasing cyber risk to upstream facilities such as offshore production platforms?

DP: Whats interesting from my perspective is the vast geo-survey data, sensing data information collection that goes on in all sorts of formats, whether its [a] satellite or stuff being towed through the ocean or distributed sensors being put over land to generate views, of course, of where there might be resources under the surface that are worth going after. If you make decisions worth potentially tens or hundreds of millions of pounds based on relatively small pieces of information that have ended up in your data centre, its worth thinking about the whole information supply chain, where that data has come from and how it might have been manipulated along the way.

If I was a bad person and I really wanted to try and increase harm against your organisation, I would attack your view of the world I would make your view of the world incorrect, and essentially try to influence you into buying drilling rights in the wrong places, and I would do far more monetary harm to your organisation than I would by powering off an oil rig for three days.

CL: What are the main challenges involved in securing oil and gas infrastructure that is complex and geographically widespread?

DP: I think the primary challenge is that in a lot of businesses, its okay to interrupt things on the basis that its better to stop it and then assess whether that was okay or not, than it is to let it continue. Of course, in safety-critical environments, you dont want to be just randomly stopping strange stuff happening in the environment, because the reason why that anomaly has occurred might be because someones just pressed the emergency stop button, and the last thing you want is your cyber defences preventing a safety-critical system from operating.

That said, I think what were seeing in the industry is a faster breakout from data and information and controls being in the OT to coming back into just being corporate. So rather than extending OT networks deeper into the onshore world, what were seeing is that OT networks are more quickly offloading whatever they need to say or do, or the information they need to pass on, into conventional IT and then were back on to nice, non-safety-critical ground.

CL: How important is it to secure buy-in and educate offshore/onshore staff on the fundamentals of cyber security?

DP: Most of the things that go wrong and become cyber security incidents start off with someone either making a mistake that results in a weakness, or because someones been tricked into trusting something that they shouldnt. Because while there is of course technical cleverness in what goes on from the bad guys, frankly a lot of it is whats now nicknamed social engineering, or just taking advantage of the psychology of us all as people who trust our colleagues around us, and people that would get used to seeing things on our own screen and naturally trusting it and having a bias towards it. Its definitely not like the movies where its just people punching through firewalls anymore. That kind of era is over.

CL: What kind of early feedback or interest have you received from the oil and gas industry since you announced the partnership with Siemens?

DP: Its been pretty good so far; were lucky to have a few oil and gas customers that speak well of us to their colleagues in the sector. To be honest, whats really bringing people to us is two things. One, they know theyre really struggling with their own complexity. So we try not to pitch ourselves by saying, Its you versus the hackers. We try very much to explain that for most businesses, its the security team just trying to get their heads around everything that theyve got and what might happen. You can almost stop thinking about the hackers in that regard.

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How an AI-driven industrial immune system could protect oil & gas from cyber attacks - Offshore Technology

By Mark Knauer, North Carolina State University Assistant Professor and Extension Swine Specialist; and Garrett See, North Carolina State University Graduate StudentIn recent years industry geneticists have chosen to focus on increasing sow output through increases in litter size. At some point we may reach an optimal litter size at the commercial level. Some may debate we are there now. Yet geneticists are working to enhance piglet quality which should make it easier for farmers to wean large, quality litters in the coming years.

So what future opportunities do we have to enhance female reproduction through genetics? Genetically reducing age at puberty offers producers multiple avenues to reduce sow herd costs. Recent research by Garrett See (2017) suggests genetically reducing age at puberty would allow gilts to be mated at younger ages and lighter weights. The author reported that after four generations of selection for young puberty, average age and weight at puberty were 163 days and 224 pounds, respectively.

Hence, in theory, you could farrow your gilts at an average age of 10 or 11 months versus a year of age. Not only would this allow you to substantially reduce gilt feed cost, but also potentially market late puberty gilts as full-value market animals. See (2017) further suggests selection for reduced age at puberty would increase gilt retention, enhance sow longevity and improve piglet quality. Hence the benefits of a genetically young puberty gilt are multiple. Yet more research around early puberty is warranted. Can we consistently breed genetically young puberty gilts to farrow at 10 months of age? What is the true economic value of age at puberty?

Genetic suppliers will tell you age at puberty is a challenging trait to capture at the nucleus level. They are currently correct. Yet I think there are some strategies to reduce the cost of capturing puberty data in the nucleus. At the commercial level Im not sure many changes would be needed to incorporate early puberty females, just start breeding at a younger age.

I would like to acknowledge the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and North Carolina Pork Council for their support of this project. Contact Mark Knauerwith questions.

ReferencesSee, Garrett. 2017. Correlated Responses to Selection for Age at Puberty in Swine. M.S. Thesis. North Carolina State University, Raleigh.

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Genetic strategies to reduce gilt feed and development costs - National Hog Farmer

The field is called regenerative medicine, technology that shows promise of repairing or replacing human organs with new ones, healing injuries without surgery and, someday, replacing cartilage lost to osteoarthritis.

New Hampshire could become one of the centers of the new industry and become the next Silicon Valley, says Manchester inventor Dean Kamen. The governor and Legislature, however, arent doing what they need to make the potential economic and intellectual boom more likely.

Sever the spinal chord of a zebra fish, an aquarium standby, and it will regrow in a couple of weeks. Remove a limb from a salamander, and it will grow another one indistinguishable from the first. And even some humans, especially when young, can regrow a new fingertip and fingernail on a digit severed above its last joint. Medical science is moving ever closer to performing such wonders.

3-D bioprinters that use biologic materials instead of printer ink are already printing replacement human skin. A University of Connecticut scientist and surgeon believes it will be possible to regenerate human knees sometime in the next decade and regrow human limbs by 2030.

At Ohio State University, a team has succeeded in using genetic material contained in a tiny microchip attached to skin and, with a tiny, Frankenstein-like zap of electricity, reprogram skin cells to produce other types of human cells. Turn a skin cell into say, a vascular system cell, and it will migrate to the site of a wound, spur healing and restore blood flow. Convert skin cells to brain cells and, with a few more steps, it could help stroke victims recover. The technologys potential is enormous.

Kamen created the portable insulin pump, and he and his team at DEKA Research in Manchesters millyard produced the Segway human transporter, a device that provides clean water in places that lack it, an external combustion engine that will soon heat and power part of the states mental hospital, and other inventions. Their track record helped Kamen and DEKA beat out plenty of other applicants to win $80 million in federal funds to found ARMI, the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute in Manchester. Total funding is now just shy of $300 million.

The governments aim is to spur technologies that could be used to treat injured soldiers but whats learned could aid everyone and make New Hampshire a mecca for scientists, production facilities, pharmaceutical companies and more. DEKA will not create the new technologies but use its inventing and engineering expertise to help companies scale up and speed up regenerative medicine technologies so they can be brought to the market more quickly at an affordable cost.

The states university system has partnered with DEKA to train students who will one day work in the biotech field. The educational infrastructure is in place, but its handicapped by the states sorry funding of higher education. New Hampshire regularly ranks last or next to last in state support and its students carry the most debt of any in the nation.

To make New Hampshire the biotech mecca Kamen envisions will require lawmakers to better fund higher education, support the regenerative manufacturing institute and make housing available. A high-tech company that wants to come to New Hampshire cant do so if its workers cant afford a home.

Regenerative medicine is expected to become a massive economic engine, one that will create jobs and improve lives while lowering health care costs. The Legislature should be doing all it can to make sure that at least some of that engine is designed and made in New Hampshire.

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Editorial: The growth of regenerative medicine - Concord Monitor

By The Canton Repository Editorial Board

There's a lot of excitement aboutOhio State University.

That's not unusual at this time of year. After all, the Buckeyes are getting closer to kicking off the 2017 football season.

But, as exciting as their games are each week, what they've got going on pales in comparison to what some researchers are doing at Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center.

In a historic breakthrough, they're helping to save lives, cell by cell. They've successfully turned skin cells into the types of cells the body might need.

What does that mean? The Columbus Dispatch broke it downin a story published last week: "... a technology that has limitless potential, from regenerating a wounded limb to repairing a brain after stroke to healing a damaged heart."

The ramifications are boundless, as is our joy at this breakthrough.

The work started small, building blood vessels to help regenerate limbs in mouse legs within seven to 14 days. Once officials at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., expressed interest, the work took on a grander scale, the Dispatch reported. The leg-healing process was duplicated in pigs. It's clear the technology can help troops in the field, but researchers reported that it must begin within 72 hours of injury to be successful.

The process seems so simple. Twenty-six researchers in the fields of engineering, science and medicine worked together to develop the technology that involved placing a square chip about the size of a fingernail on the skin, adding a drop containing a genetic code. It then was zapped with an energy source. Researchers told the Dispatchthe genetic material changes depending on the type of regeneration that is needed.

"It's like a syringe that's the chip but then what you load in the syringe is your cargo," Chandan Sen, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Cell-Based Therapies at Wexner Medical Center, told the Dispatch. "Based on what you intend the cells to be, the cargo will change. So, if you want a vasculogenic (blood vessel) cell, the code would be different than if you wanted a neuro cell, and so on and so forth."

The mind reels when you think of the ways in which such technology could be used. Ohio State carefully worked on this project, with funding from private sources because of the high risk of failure, and is preparing to seek approvalfrom the Food and Drug Administration to try it out on humans.

The good news on this project extends to Ohio's economy, because a Columbus company is manufacturing the chips, and it already has drawn interest from a Taiwan-based company. L. James Lee, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at OSU and another of the leading researchers on the project, said the team is looking toprove feasibility within a year.

It's wonderful to see such thoughtful and valuable projects accomplished in Ohio, and for the state to benefit furtherfrom the idea. Ohio is home to a wealth of premier medical institutions, and this is another way the state is shining brightly in a field with tremendous growth potential.

Congratulations to the team at Ohio State. You're champions to us!

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Editorial: Cell regeneration work a boon to Ohio, health care - Canton Repository

More and more people in the United States suffer from knee arthritis.

jxfzsy/iSotckphoto

By Mitch LeslieAug. 14, 2017 , 3:10 PM

Knees hurting? You wouldnt be alone. The prevalence of knee arthritis among people in the United States has doubled since the start of World War II, according to an unusual study of more than 2500 skeletons, including some dating as far back as 6000 years. Even after researchers corrected for the recent growth in U.S. waistlines and life spans, the increase still held, meaningsay scientiststhat other, still unknown, factors are causing more people to suffer from aching knees.

This is really important work, says biomechanist Louis DeFrate of the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, who wasnt connected to the study. Knee arthritis is one of the leading causes of disability, he says, and the findings may help researchers better understand why more and more people are developing it.

Today, almost 20% of people in the United States over 45 years old suffer from knee osteoarthritis, in which joint cartilage breaks down; the odds of developing it climb as we get older. Scientists have long suspected that number has risen in recent generations. Because most Americans are living significantly longer than their grandparents, researchers have speculated that the graying population could be one culprit. Another joint-straining suspect is obesity, which now affects more than one-third of adults in the United States, up from 13% in the early 1960s.

To tease out the influences of weight and age, paleoanthropologists Ian Wallace and Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University and their colleagues examined nearly 2600 skeletons that had been saved for research or teaching. The team sorted the skeletons, which came from middle-aged and elderly people, into three groups. Nearly 1600 belonged to people who died between 1905 and 1940. Another 819 were from individuals who died between 1976 and 2015. And 176 were from Native Americans who lived between 300 and 6000 years ago.

The smooth, lighter patch on the left side of the upper bone is a sign of osteoarthritis.

Heli Maijanen

To diagnose arthritis, the scientists checked for the smooth patches that form when cartilage in the knee joint erodes and allows the upper and lower leg bones to grind against one another. When you see this polish on a bone, you know there was no cartilage there, Wallace says. Using that criterion, the researchers compared the two modern groups and determined thatthe rate of knee osteoarthritis has more than doubled since 1940, from 6% to 16%, they report today in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Even among the Native Americansfor whom the scientists didnt have weight datathe arthritis rate was about 8%. There was never a time when knee osteoarthritis didnt exist, Wallace says.

When the team factored out the effects of weight and age in the two modern groups, knee arthritis was still more than twice as common in the group of people who died after 1976, suggesting other factors are involved. What changed to touch off the explosion in knee arthritis cases is still a mystery, Lieberman says.

One modern bad habit that may be partly to blame is inactivity. Because we spend more time sitting and looking at screens, from smartphones to TVs, our leg muscles and cartilage might be weaker, causing our joints to break down faster. Wallace says that the team is testing this hypothesis by studying guinea pigs, which are the only lab animals that naturally develop knee arthritis, and the famous long-distance Tarahumara runners of Mexico.

The study is important because it emphasizes that the causes of knee arthritis are complex, says bioarchaeologist Elizabeth Weiss of San Jose State University in California. Paleopathologist Anne Grauer of Loyola University Chicago in Illinois agrees and says that our remedies will also have to be. People losing weight isnt going to solve the problem.

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Knee arthritis in Americans has doubled since 1940 - Science Magazine

Osteoarthritis afflicts some 27 million Americans, and that number will certainly grow with the increase in obesity, the current emphasis on lifelong physical activity and the aging of the population. It is a degenerative joint disease that occurs when the protective cartilage on the ends of bones and often the surface of the bones themselves wear down, causing pain, stiffness, instability and disability that can interfere with work and mobility and diminish quality of life.

The Iowa team noted that arthritis will eventually develop in more than 40 percent of people who seriously injure the ligaments (the stabilizing bands that connect bones to one another); the meniscus (the crescent-shaped cartilage that cushions the knee and certain other joints), or the articular surface of a joint. People with a history of trauma to the knee, for example, are three to six times more likely to develop arthritis in that knee. Even without an acute injury, highly repetitive impact on a joint can damage the articular cartilage.

This may help to explain why I ended up with bone-on-bone arthritis and had to replace both knees at age 63. Id sustained three ligament injuries (while skiing) and after years of running and singles tennis, the meniscus in both knees had shredded. Although I did the recommended physical therapy after each injury, I now know that I was not sufficiently diligent about maintaining the strength and flexibility of the supporting muscles and other tissues that might have better protected my knees for years longer.

Recognizing how common a scenario this is, a prestigious group of athletic trainers has issued a call for a more aggressive approach to both preventing and managing post-traumatic arthritis among physically active people. Although athletic trainers most often treat team players and elite athletes, they also work at physical therapy and rehab clinics where they often see joint damage among recreational athletes like me.

They pointed out in a consensus statement in the Journal of Athletic Training that arthritis should no longer be considered a disease that affects only the elderly.

Increasing evidence demonstrates that young and middle-aged adults are suffering from osteoarthritis as well, the statement said. More than half of adults with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis are younger than 65.

In fact, as Joseph M. Hart, an athletic trainer who conducts clinical research at the University of Virginia, and his colleagues wrote in the journal, A 17-year-old athlete who tears her anterior cruciate ligament could develop osteoarthritis before she turns 30, potentially leading to chronic pain and disability. Damage to this ligament, in the center of the knee, is the most common injury among young athletes, especially girls, they wrote.

Jeffrey B. Driban, an athletic trainer at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, said that one person in three who injures the anterior cruciate ligament will have X-ray evidence of osteoarthritis within 10 years whether or not the injury is repaired surgically.

Dr. Driban and co-authors pointed out that some sports soccer, elite-level long-distance running, competitive weight lifting and wrestling are associated with a higher risk of knee injuries.

A persons risk of injury can be reduced by having deficits in muscle strength, balance and stability evaluated and treated, Dr. Hart said in an interview. However, he added, not all injuries can be prevented, and unless the initial injury is properly treated, it can lead to additional injuries to the same joint or other joints, increasing the chance that arthritis will develop early in life.

Dr. Driban said in an interview that sports participants who sustain a knee injury can minimize the risk of reinjury and arthritis by not rushing back into activity or trying to play through pain. They must strengthen the muscles that support the joint the quads, hamstrings and hip muscles. Its important to think about the entire lower extremity, not just the knee.

Following an injury, an athletic trainer, rehabilitation specialist or physical therapist who specializes in orthopedics can evaluate a persons muscle strength, endurance, balance and movement quality, then guide recovery with a structured rehab program that is maintained for six to nine months, Dr. Hart said.

It is also important to continue to pursue an active lifestyle, said Abby C. Thomas of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. You may have to modify the activities you do, but you have to stay active to maintain strength and cardiovascular fitness without putting repetitive stress on a joint thats already injured. If your knee hurts and you cant run, maybe get on a bike or swim, activities that place less stress on the knees.

Dont sit around on the couch because running hurts, Dr. Thomas said. Try walking, or something different, but dont give up on physical activity.

Lifelong activity is also important to prevent weight gain, since every extra pound places disproportionate stress on the knees. All the authors emphasized that pursuing a healthy lifestyle is crucial for everyone, not just elite athletes and those who play on school teams.

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When Sports Injuries Lead to Arthritis in Joints - New York Times

Laura Morgan, WUSA 3:47 PM. EDT August 14, 2017

Exercise can help alleviate the pain of Psoriatic Arthritis (Photo: Custom)

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA9) - Youve seen ads on TV to treat the skin condition Psoriasis. But many people are not aware of Psoriatic Arthritis. About thirty percent of people suffering from Psoriasis develop Psoriatic Arthritis. This is an especially painful form of arthritis that causes inflammation of the joints. Forty to fifty percent of affected people can end up having a disability if theyre not treated in time.

A proper diagnosis is instrumental in getting treated. Theres no blood test to detect it, but specialists check if the patient has any of six different ailments. These include Psoriasis, swollen joints, tendonitis, swollen digits, and back pain. Lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking and losing weight can help treat the arthritis, but those with more severe conditions may need extra care.

Luckily a revolutionary treatment called biologic therapies is now available, according to Dr. Evan L. Siegel at Arthritis and Rheumatism Associates, P.C. These therapies intervene with a specific part of the immune system, slow down the inflammation, and also stop the progression of the disease, says Siegel. The biologic therapies can be administered by intravenous infusion in a comfortable setting. Early treatment with those types of medications can really be effective in slowing down disabilities. To schedule an appointment with a rheumatologist, visit http://www.ariseinfusion.com/WUSA9.

This article is sponsored by Arise Infusion Therapy Services

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2017 WUSA-TV

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How to treat Psoriatic Arthritis - W*USA 9

by LINDSAY IADELUCA, NBC 10 NEWS

When you think of arthritis you might not think children of children. But one father in particular has spent over a decade dedicating his time to raising money for just that, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis or JRA, after his daughter Kelsey was diagnosed at 3 years old.

"First thought is arthritis is for senior citizens. I never realized there is over 300,000 children that have it. I never knew that. So, it was kind of eye-opening, Edd Pedro, organizer for the Fight for a Cure Wiffle Ball Tournament told NBC 10 News.

"I never thought it would become this big. It was just a couple friends and we put a few teams together to raise some money, Pedro said.

Garrett Gibson is 22 years old now. He was diagnosed with JRA at 3 years old.

"The biggest thing I remember is going into the first grade I had to wear wrist casts because of my growing and stuff, Gibson said.

"Especially in the winter. Sports for me were just very, very, hard. I'd have to wear double, triple gloves. Catching a ball or anything like that, picking things up off the ground, were very hard for me. Even to this day, in the winter, I have to have someone do it for me because my hands clamp up, Gibson continued.

As a child, Garrett remembers doing special exercises like picking up coins and beads to improve the dexterity in this fingers. But he says things have improved.

"It definitely gets better. I used to take a bunch of medicines, six pills a day and then I got to wind down off it and I don't even take any medicine at all anymore, Garrett said.

The tournament has gone 14 years. They have raised $327,000 for the arthritis foundation.

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Local group raises money for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in Pawtucket - Turn to 10

There are more than 10 million people in the UK living with arthritis. For many, symptoms start to develop in their 40s, which can have a huge impact on family life, especially if theyre a parent. The toughest thing about being a parent with arthritis, says mother-of-two Charlotte Woodward, is being forced to let someone else do your job. When my children want to do something high energy and I cant do it, I have to sit back and let somebody else take over, she explains. Thats hard, watching someone else do what I should be doing with them.

Charlotte, 29, was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis at the age of just 18 months. Ive lived with it ever since, she says, and its just getting worse. I have arthritis in every joint in my body. The pain is constant, really I dont get much relief from it.

That pain, together with problems she has with movement and the fatigue she suffers due to the illness and her medication, has a huge impact on family life with her six-year-old daughter, Lexie, and two-year-old son, Theo.

Theo wants to be picked up all the time and I cant do it, Charlotte explains. Things like making dinner, sometimes it has to be something easy like a bowl of cereal because I cant make them [anything else]. I have to put on a brave face for them. You know you have to keep going because youre their mother and they need you, but at the same time you just want to rest.

The effect of arthritis on family life is often overlooked, but it takes a significant physical and emotional toll on relationships. Be that from pain or mobility problems that stop parents and grandparents being as active as they want to with toddlers and children, to the side effects of certain medication affecting family planning.

According to research from Arthritis Research UK, more than half of respondents (53%) say that they felt like they were a nuisance to their family. While a study conducted by Revealing Reality for Arthritis Research UK found more than a quarter (28%) of people living with arthritis say the condition had a negative impact on physical intimacy with their partner.

Father-of-three Jamie Wakeman, 32, says his wife has been amazing in the face of his diagnoses of osteoarthritis three years ago and then rheumatoid arthritis 18 months later. If we didnt have such a good marriage its hard to see how we would get through, he says. For six to nine months she was having to get me up out of bed in the morning: she was dressing me, getting me something to eat, and sorting out my drugs so I could go to work that day. Weve been together years and shes seen me change massively.

Jamie was once a fanatical sportsman, enjoying football, running, cycling and swimming. Now all of that activity has stopped, he says. It completely changes your relationship with [your children] when theyre so young. Especially the boys, playing football and those types of activities I cant really walk more than a couple of hundred yards without being in a lot of pain.

It takes over every element of your kids and your wifes lives, because everything is determined by how I feel.

Jamies wife, Hayley Wakeman, 32, agrees his condition has changed their familys lives massively. Day to day, going out is a no go a lot of the time because he cant walk, she says. Or I have to leave him at home while I do stuff with the kids, so theyre not missing out. So it has been quite tough.

She adds: Ive had quite a lot of trouble mentally we both have struggled a bit. Theres been a lot of tears, but I think were getting there with it now.

Jamie can be up during the night with the pain, she says, and sometimes works early shifts, which means hes up at 3am and may need help to get dressed. Then shell go back to sleep for a couple of hours before getting up to get the three children to school and herself to work. It has made us stronger in one sense, but some days are hard, especially when youre tired, she says.

Its a bit of grief. Youve lost your husband in one sense. Hes gone from being a fitness fanatic doing triathlons and football and running most nights to basically being sat on the sofa and struggling to move.

For Julie Hutchins, 56, whos had osteoarthritis for around 10 years, the impact is wide-ranging. She has grandchildren aged seven, three and one, and had to give up looking after the eldest one because of arthritis.

It was OK when he was really tiny, but as soon as he got a bit older and I had to bend down to pick him up, or get on the floor, it just became impossible, she says. I was just really upset because I enjoyed doing it.

She feels bad too that shes not able to share as much as she once could with her husband. Were both the same age, but hes obviously a lot fitter than me, Julie says. I feel like Im holding him back all the time. I try to do things but then I suffer the next day.

Olivia Belle, director of external affairs at Arthritis Research UK, says: The impact arthritis has on family life can be enormous. It takes away from those day-to-day moments in family life that so many of us take for granted, not just from those with arthritis but their families as well. We want society to recognise the real impact that arthritis has on every one of us so that no family loses out to the condition.

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'I feel like I'm holding my husband back': the hidden impact of arthritis on families - The Guardian

The first rule while bowling the last over of a cricket match is not to concede extras. But one would hardly be under pressure when they have 35 runs to defend, right?

Wrong!

Dorchester-on-Thames CC's scorebook entry for the final over. Image courtesy: Twitter @DorchesterCC

A 54-year old arthritis patient smashed 40 runs in the final over of a village match in England to take his side Dorchester-on-Thames home against Swinbrook in a Division Four Oxfordshire Cricket Association club match on 12 August.

Mihai Cucos, despite having the cushion of 35 runs, overstepped on the first ball and 54-year-old Steve McComb smoked it for a maximum. The first legitimate delivery also went for a six and reduced the equation to: 22 runs from five balls.

Cucos then bowled a dot. However, McComb responded with a boundary to put the bowler on the back foot, and he eventually bowled a second no ball in the final over.

Needing 13 runs off three balls, McComb slammed two successive sixes. Just like a normal captain would do, Swinbrook's skipper brought all his fielders inside the circle to save the single.

But McComb, who must have been high on confidence by then, smashedhis third consecutive six to complete an unbelievable victory.

How the action of the final over unfolded:

35 from six

Ball one: 6nb (7)

Need 28 from six

Ball one: 6 (13)

Need 22 off five

Ball two: Dot (13)

Need 22 off four

Ball three: 4 (17)

Need 18 off three

Ball four: 4nb (22)

Need 13 off three

Ball four: 6 (28)

Need 7 off two

Ball five: 6 (34)

Need 1 off one

Ball six: 6 (40)

Published Date: Aug 14, 2017 10:44 pm | Updated Date: Aug 14, 2017 10:44 pm

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54-year old arthritis patient slams 40 runs in final over to take his side home in English village cricket game - Firstpost

August 14, 2017

Nursing assistants and attendants may have a slightly higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis than women in other professions, a new study shows.

Swedish researchers studied more than 3,500 people with the disease, in which the body's immune system attacks the joints, and compared them to 5,600 people without it. The results, published Thursday in Arthritis Care & Research, found that people in some professions may have a higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis than others.

Among women, those who worked as assistant nurses and attendants were found to have a moderately increased risk of developing the disease, compared to women workers in other fields.

The study found that men who worked manufacturing jobs, such as bricklayers or electrical workers, had much higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis than men in administrative or professional fields.

The reason for the increased risk among some professions could be chalked up to work-related environmental factors, including noxious airborne agents such as solvents and asbestos, researchers said.

It is important that findings on preventable risk factors are spread to employees, employers, and decision-makers in order to prevent disease by reducing or eliminating known risk factors, said lead researcher Anna Ilar, MSc.

The study adds to previous research that has linked direct care worker positions with a higher risk of illness and injury. While injury rates for long-term care workers have been declining in recent years, the sector remains one of the top industries in terms of high amounts of occupational injuries.

Read more here:
Study finds nursing assistants have higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis than women in other jobs - McKnight's Long Term Care News

On Aug 11, we issued an updated research report on Salt Lake City, UT-based molecular diagnostics provider,Myriad Genetics, Inc.(MYGN - Free Report). The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

For the past three months, Myriad has been trading above the broader industry. The company has rallied 24.7%, compared with the industrys 3.7% gain.

Myriad ended fiscal 2017 on a solid note, with its fourth-quarter numbers exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The company particularly observed strong growth in EndoPredict and GeneSight testing revenues. Also, Myriad witnessed a third consecutive quarter of rise in hereditary cancer volumes. Also, it received provincial reimbursement in Quebec for EndoPredict.

Notably, at the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) meeting held in June in Spain, Crescendo Bioscience, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Myriad, released new data from a meta-analysis of clinical studies. The data has demonstrated the Vectra DA tests ability to predict a joint damage.

The same month, the company announced that its BRACAnalysis CDxcompanion diagnostic test has successfully identified BRCA-mutated patients with HER2- metastatic breast cancer in the OlympiAD trial, who have responded to treatment with olaparib better than standard chemotherapy.

Myriads collaborations with AstraZeneca and BeiGene for development of companion diagnostics also raise optimism. Moreover, Myriad continues to make progress with its kit-based versions of Prolaris and myPath Melanoma in the international market and expects to file for CE Mark for Prolaris by 2018.

Moreover, the company has introduced its Elevate 2020 program that targets to achieve $50 million of incremental operating income by fiscal 2020. Per management, the company has selected the projects that are anticipated to deliver $17 million of operating income in fiscal 2018 and another $24 million in fiscal 2019.

On the flip side, unfavorable currency translation continues to be a major dampener for the stock. Management fears that further strengthening of the dollar against foreign currencies will lead to deteriorating operating results.

Intensifying competition as well as the possibility that Myriads new test might not generate meaningful profits to outweigh the costs associated with its development continues to raise concern.

Zacks Rank and Key Picks

Some better-ranked medical stocks are Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (EW - Free Report), Steris Plc (STE - Free Report) and Align Technology, Inc. (ALGN - Free Report). Edwards Lifesciences and Align Technology sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while Steris carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can seethe complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Edwards Lifesciences has a positive earnings surprise of 10.75% over the trailing four quarters. The stock has gained around 0.9% over the last three months.

Align Technology has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 26.6%. The stock has rallied roughly 25.4% over the last three months.

Steris has a positive earnings surprise of 0.78% over two of the trailing four quarters. The stock has gained 13.1% over the last three months.

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Myriad Genetics (MYGN) Grows on Higher Cancer Test Volumes - Zacks.com

Encapsulated human embryonic stem-cell differentiated beta cell clusters (hES-C) show promise for treating diabetics without having to chronically suppress their immune system. A team of researchers at the University of California at San Francisco has now made the first nanoporous polymer thin-film encapsulation device containing human stem-cell derived -like cells that does not activate or sensitize immune cells, but which allows oxygen, nutrients, glucose and insulin to be exchanged. The device appears to work for up to six months after being transplanted in mice.

Diabetes mellitus is an auto-immune disease that leads to -cells being destroyed in type-1 diabetes and progressive -cell dysfunction in type-2 diabetes. The result is insulin insufficiency in the patient. Current treatments rely on closely monitoring blood glucose levels and then injecting insulin to simulate natural insulin secretion by pancreatic -cells. This approach is far from ideal, however, and often fails to keep glucose levels within the tight physiological range required. Complications such as potentially fatal hypoglycaemia can ensue, as well as various pathologies (such as cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, retinopathy and neuropathy) linked to repeated hyperglycaemic episodes.

Although pancreas and pancreatic islet transplants are an effective alternative to T1D patients, it is difficult to find donors. What is more, the patients own immune system needs to be chronically suppressed so that it does not reject the transplant.

Human embryonic stem cells (hES) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)-derived insulin-producing cells could be an alternative to whole organ and islet transplants, but again there are challenges to overcome. For one, researchers need to find a way to deal with teratoma formation and immune rejection. Cell encapsulation is showing promise here since it provides a physical barrier between transplanted hES-derived cell clusters (hES-C) and the patient, something that provides protection from his or her immune response.

The ideal cell encapsulation device should allow sufficient oxygen and nutrients to pass through it while allowing glucose and insulin to be transported so that blood glucose can be properly controlled. At the same time, however, it needs to stop immune cells, antibodies and pro-inflammatory cytokines from entering it. And of course, it needs to be biocompatible.

Researchers led by Tejal Desai have now made such a device. They began by growing zinc oxide nanorods on a silicon wafer that they then coated with a thin polymer solution. Next, they etched away the zinc oxide rods and lifted the nanoporous film that had been produced off the surface of the wafer. They then heat-sealed two of these nanoporous thin films in a bilaminar configuration and customized the size and shape of the device to fit the site in which it was to be transplanted.

The thin films are just 10 microns thick, making this the thinnest cell macro-encapsulation device to date, says lead author of the study Ryan Chang. By minimizing the thickness, we reduce the distance that nutrients, insulin and glucose have to cross. What is more, the polymer material itself, which has micro-architectures on its surface, promotes vascularization and provokes only a minimal foreign body response as observed in an in vivo study that we carried out lasting four months.

Of course, as with any stem cell therapy, safety comes first, he tells nanotechweb.org. We showed that the device effectively confines undifferentiated stem cells within it and prevents teratomas from escaping and spreading.

It could make for an essential core technology in allowing diabetics to become completely insulin independent, he adds.

The team, reporting its work in ACS Nano DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b01239, says that it is now busy scaling up the device in larger animal models and engineering transplant sites for further testing.

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Nanoporous thin-film device could help treat diabetes - nanotechweb.org

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Omeros Corporation(NASDAQ: OMER) today announced additional follow-up data from patients with immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy treated with OMS721 in the Phase 2 clinical trial of glomerulonephropathy. OMS721 is Omeros lead human monoclonal antibody targeting mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease-2 (MASP-2), the effector enzyme of the lectin pathway of the complement system.

As presented in June 2017 at the 54th Congress of the European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association, patients with IgA nephropathy demonstrated clinically and statistically significant improvement in proteinuria during the course of the clinical trial. After these patients completed the trial, the clinical investigator continued to follow them per standard of care. Follow-up data up to approximately one year after completion of treatment are available.

As previously reported, all four IgA nephropathy patients in the clinical trial demonstrated a substantial reduction in proteinuria measured by both 24-hour urine protein excretion levels and urinary albumin/creatinine ratios (uACRs). In post-trial follow-up, urine protein/creatinine ratios (uPCR) were measured by the investigator according to his practice standard. For purposes of post-hoc comparisons of proteinuria during and after the clinical trial, each post-trial uPCR value was converted to uACR (Zhao, Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 2016;11:947-55).

In follow-up, three of the four patients have maintained reductions in proteinuria. In these three patients uACRs remained reduced at 14 percent, 23 percent, and 24 percent of the patients baseline values prior to OMS721 treatment. In addition, a suggestion of improvement in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), a measure of renal function, was observed in 3 of the 4 patients after the trial. The patient with the most severe reduction in kidney function demonstrated eGFR improvement from 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 to 47 mL/min/1.73 m2, an improvement of 57 percent. OMS721 was well-tolerated in the clinical trial with fatigue and anemia the most commonly reported adverse events.

The persistent reduction of proteinuria following completion of OMS721 treatment in these patients is impressive and provides additional evidence of the important role of the lectin pathway in IgA nephropathy, stated Geoffrey Block, M.D., director of clinical research at Denver Nephrology. The improvements observed in eGFRs also suggest that OMS721 could provide further benefit to patients by potentially precluding or substantially extending the time to the need for dialysis and reducing the risk of complications associated with progression of chronic kidney disease.

Omeros has initiated a Phase 3 clinical program for OMS721 in IgA nephropathy and expects to begin a Phase 3 clinical trial in this disease later this year. FDA has granted OMS721 both breakthrough and orphan designations in IgA nephropathy.

The durable reduction in proteinuria that were seeing with OMS721 for one year after cessation of treatment is unprecedented in my experience, said Jonathan Barratt, Ph.D., F.R.C.P., professor of renal medicine in theDepartment of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation atUniversity of Leicester and honorary consultant nephrologist atLeicester General Hospital. With this one-year follow-up, we are also seeing improvement in eGFR, which usually takes significantly longer to be evident. Two of the four patients demonstrated a slight increase, with one of the patients showing an exciting response of 50 percent improvement.

There is no approved treatment for IgA nephropathy, the most common primary glomerulopathy globally. The disease is responsible for up to 10 percent of all dialysis patients. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 120,000 to 180,000 patients have this disease. Up to 40 percent of IgA nephropathy patients develop end-stage renal disease, a life-threatening condition, within 20 years following diagnosis.

The sustained duration of effect of OMS721 post-treatment underscores the drugs potential for episodic dosing in IgA nephropathy, said Gregory A. Demopulos, M.D., chairman and chief executive officer of Omeros. We look forward to working with FDA to finalize the protocol for our Phase 3 clinical trial and open enrollment to IgA nephropathy patients later this year.

In addition to its Phase 3 program in IgA nephropathy, OMS721 is also being evaluated in a Phase 3 clinical program for atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome and in a Phase 2 clinical program for hematopoietic stem cell transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy.

About Omeros MASP Programs

Omeros controls the worldwide rights to MASP-2 and all therapeutics targeting MASP-2, a novel pro-inflammatory protein target involved in activation of the complement system, which is an important component of the immune system. The complement system plays a role in the inflammatory response and becomes activated as a result of tissue damage or microbial infection. MASP-2 is the effector enzyme of the lectin pathway, one of the principal complement activation pathways. Importantly, inhibition of MASP-2 does not appear to interfere with the antibody-dependent classical complement activation pathway, which is a critical component of the acquired immune response to infection, and its abnormal function is associated with a wide range of autoimmune disorders. MASP-2 is generated by the liver and is then released into circulation. Adult humans who are genetically deficient in one of the proteins that activate MASP-2 do not appear to be detrimentally affected by the deficiency. OMS721 is Omeros lead human MASP-2 antibody.

Following discussions with both the FDA and the European Medicines Agency, a Phase 3 clinical program for OMS721 in atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) is in progress. A second Phase 3 clinical program for OMS721 has been initiated in immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy. Also, two Phase 2 trials are ongoing. One is continuing to enroll OMS721 in IgA nephropathy following an earlier Phase 2 trial that generated positive data in patients with IgA nephropathy and with lupus nephritis; the other is enrolling and has reported positive data both in patients with hematopoietic stem cell transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA). A third Phase 3 program could begin later this year in stem cell transplant-associated TMA. OMS721 can be administered both intravenously and subcutaneously, and Omeros expects to commercialize each formulation of OMS721 for different therapeutic indications. In parallel, Omeros is developing small-molecule inhibitors of MASP-2. Based on requests from treating physicians, Omeros has established a compassionate-use program for OMS721, which is active in both the U.S. and Europe. The FDA has granted OMS721 breakthrough therapy designation for IgA nephropathy, orphan drug status for the prevention (inhibition) of complement-mediated TMAs and for the treatment of IgA nephropathy, and fast track designation for the treatment of patients with aHUS.

Omeros also has identified MASP-3 as responsible for the conversion of pro-factor D to factor D and as a critical activator of the human complement systems alternative pathway. The alternative pathway is linked to a wide range of immune-related disorders. In addition to its lectin pathway inhibitors, the company is advancing its development of antibodies and small-molecule inhibitors against MASP-3 to block activation of the alternative pathway. Omeros is preparing to initiate manufacturing scale-up of its MASP-3 antibodies in advance of clinical trials.

About Omeros Corporation

Omeros is a biopharmaceutical company committed to discovering, developing and commercializing small-molecule and protein therapeutics for large-market as well as orphan indications targeting inflammation, complement-mediated diseases and disorders of the central nervous system. Part of its proprietary PharmacoSurgery platform, the companys first drug product, OMIDRIA (phenylephrine and ketorolac injection) 1% / 0.3%, was broadly launched in the U.S. in April 2015. OMIDRIA is the first and only FDA-approved drug (1) for use during cataract surgery or intraocular lens (IOL) replacement to maintain pupil size by preventing intraoperative miosis (pupil constriction) and to reduce postoperative ocular pain and (2) that contains an NSAID for intraocular use. In the European Union, the European Commission has approved OMIDRIA for use in cataract surgery and lens replacement procedures to maintain mydriasis (pupil dilation), prevent miosis (pupil constriction), and to reduce postoperative eye pain. Omeros has multiple Phase 3 and Phase 2 clinical-stage development programs focused on: complement-associated thrombotic microangiopathies; complement-mediated glomerulonephropathies; Huntingtons disease and cognitive impairment; and addictive and compulsive disorders. In addition, Omeros has a proprietary G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) platform and controls 54 new GPCR drug targets and corresponding compounds, a number of which are in preclinical development. The company also exclusively possesses a novel antibody-generating platform.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which are subject to the safe harbor created by those sections for such statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, which are often indicated by terms such as anticipate, believe, could, estimate, expect, goal, intend, look forward to, may, plan, potential, predict, project, should, will, would and similar expressions and variations thereof. Forward-looking statements are based on managements beliefs and assumptions and on information available to management only as of the date of this press release. Omeros actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements for many reasons, including, without limitation, risks associated with product commercialization and commercial operations, unproven preclinical and clinical development activities, regulatory oversight, intellectual property claims, competitive developments, litigation, and the risks, uncertainties and other factors described under the heading Risk Factors in the companys Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 8, 2017. Given these risks, uncertainties and other factors, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, and the company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

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Omeros Data Show Continued Improvement in Patients with IgA Nephropathy Treated with OMS721 - Business Wire (press release)

Written by Ritika Chopra | New Delhi | Published:August 11, 2017 1:11 am Currently, there are a total of 123 deemed universities across the country. (File photo)

The government has asked University Grants Commission (UGC) to set up a committee to regulate the tuition fee for medical courses offered by self-financed deemed universities.

The HRD Ministry, in a letter dated July 26, has nominated Sanjay Shrivastav, a retired professor of opthalmology, and B Srinivas, assistant director general at the Directorate of Health Services under the Health Ministry, to the committee. The Indian Express could not reach UGCs acting chairman V S Chauhan for comment.

The proposed committee is being set up in compliance with the order of the Madras High Court, which is currently hearing a PIL seeking to fix tuition fee charged by deemed universities offering medical courses.

Currently, there are a total of 123 deemed universities across the country. Of these, about 30 offer medical courses. Among them are Manipal University, SRM University in Tamil Nadu, NIMHANS in Bengaluru and Jamia Hamdard University.

The PIL filed in Madras High Court said deemed universities offering medical courses were profiteering and operating with the sole intention of amassing wealth through unfair means. The plea has been admitted by the bench and all medical deemed universities in the state have been made respondents to the PIL.

The court also asked the government to set up a panel to regulate the fee charged by deemed universities offering medical courses, but the decision of the fee panel will abide by the final ruling on the PIL. Under the UGC [Institutions Deemed to be Universities] Regulation, 2016, the commission is empowered to fix the fee charged by deemed varsities.

For all the latest Education News, download Indian Express App

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Medical courses: UGC to set up panel to fix deemed varsities' fee - The Indian Express

Human protein-coding genes number from 20,000 up to 25,000.

If just one of these genes gets altered or a code gets missing, it can be fatal to an individual.

In fact, approximately 30 per cent of infant mortality at birth in developed countries are caused by genetic disease. Almost 50 per cent of all miscarriages worldwide are due to chromosomally defective fetus.

Furthermore, according to the World Health Organization, over 10,000 human diseases are linked to single gene mutation alone. Among these monogenic diseases are thalassaemia, sickle cell anemia, haemophilia, Fragile-X syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and Huntingtons disease.

The other two major types of genetic disorders are chromosomal and complex disorder, where theres mutation in two or more genes.

Genetic disease is not also simply inherited, our environment is another factor that can trigger mutation. Cancer, diabetes, and heart disease are classified as multifactorial inheritance genetic disorders.

Considering all these, one would expect that the world will be welcoming the revolutionary gene therapy with wide-open arms.

Yet, UniQures Glybera has been recently withdrawn from the European market in spite of its promising one-time cure for lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD).

LPLD is a rare genetic disorder characterized by the bodys lack of lipase, which is an enzyme that breaks down triglycerides from the blood. The deficiency results to recurrent abdominal pain, fat deposits in the skin (xanthomata), and repeated attacks of acute pancreatitis. LPLD is known to affect one person in a million. However, UniQures Glybera costs as much as $1 million per patient. Since the drugs introduction in 2012, only one patient has been subscribed to the treatment.

Another genetic drug that offers one-time cure for Adenosine Deaminase Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (ADA-SCID) is GlaxoSmithKlines Strimvelis. ADA-SCID is an inherited genetic condition characterized by a damaged immune system. People with SCID are prone to persistent and recurring infections since they absolutely have no immune protection from microbes. Symptoms begin to appear in a babys first 6 months of life, and afflicted infants hardly reach two years of age without treatment.

GlaxoSmithKlines Strimvelis can cure the genetic disease and save precious lifes. But the $700,000 drug had only a couple of sales in 2016 and another two expected this year. With this disappointing development, GSK might simply sell its rare diseases unit.

Data shows that the prices of the current gene therapy in the market are too hard if not impossible for most families to reach, especially since it has to be a one-time payment. And health care systems which only pay on monthly basis are not of much help to pharmaceuticals, which have made such enormous investments to formulate genetic cures.

Is there real hope?

Many drug companies still think so.

Pfizer, Sanofi, and Shire are now also making the revolutionary pursuits. And GSK has not completely given up as it strives to use its gene therapy platform in the development of cure for more common genetic illnesses.

Yes, at the moment, the whole picture may appear dim. But, by creating new business models, the leading companies in the biopharmaceutical industry if they are really serious about doing something in relation to rampant increases in drug prices, can start by creating a business model which is first based on humanism and then their respective bottom lines.

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Gene Therapy is Finally Here, But Who Will Foot the Bill - Wall Street Pit

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is expanding its facilities in Sanford to accommodate the companys push into gene therapy.

The state Department of Commerce announced earlier this week that Pfizer would invest $100 million in the site and create 40 jobs there within three years. The average annual salary for the new positions will be $97,500, much higher than Lee Countys average annual wage of $38,250.

If it meets those goals, Wyeth Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizers, will receive a $250,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund and a local incentive of up to $1,412,715 over five years.

The announcement comes a week after Gov. Roy Cooper visited Pfizers facilities in Sanford and a year after Pfizer bought Bamboo Therapeutics, a Chapel Hill startup. Pfizer also bought Bamboos gene therapy manufacturing facility, which Bamboo had acquired from UNC-Chapel Hill in January, 2016.

Gene therapy is an emerging technology that attacks the disorder by repairing mutated genes. Pfizer will use technology to introduce genetic material into a patients body so as to compensate for defective or missing genes.

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Pfizer's push into gene therapy adds more jobs in Sanford - News & Observer