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A new test that ‘fishes’ for multiple respiratory viruses at once using single strands of DNA as ‘bait’, and gives highly accurate results in under an hour, has been developed by Cambridge researchers.

The test uses DNA ‘nanobait’ to detect the most common respiratory viruses – including influenza, rhinovirus, RSV and COVID-19 – at the same time. In comparison, PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, while highly specific and highly accurate, can only test for a single virus at a time and take several hours to return a result.

While many common respiratory viruses have similar symptoms, they require different treatments. By testing for multiple viruses at once, the researchers say their test will ensure patients get the right treatment quickly and could also reduce the unwarranted use of antibiotics.

HAL [Hybrid Assistive Limb] is the world’s first technology that improves, supports, enhances and regenerates the wearer’s physical functions. Made by Cyberdyne 2018.

In this video a woman in a wheelchair since childhood because of polio walks again.

Continue reading “Cyberdyne build robots and exoskeletons — BBC Click” »

It’s a hidden, lifelong process that’s tied to cancer, heart disease and dementia, but there’s plenty you can do to fix the damage In the past few years, a new buzzword has entered conversations about illness and disease. Doctors are increasingly talking about “inflammation” – a term which describes the automatic response – or flaring up – of the body when it tries to fight infections, toxins and trauma.

A lethal bird flu outbreak that has been circling the globe since 2021 peaked in Japan this week, as an agriculture ministry official said on Tuesday the country plans to cull more than 10 million chickens at risk of exposure to the virus.

Flu is a common annual illness among wild birds yet the H5N1 strain now sweeping Japan is uniquely contagious and deadly. It poses such high risk to farmed birds, such as chickens and turkeys, that a single infection on a farm condemns the entire flock to be killed. As outbreaks in Japan have reached a record high, the cull is the largest ever planned for the yearly flu season that runs from October to May.

Around the globe, record-breaking death tolls due to the virus are becoming the norm. In the US, more states than ever before have reported instances of bird flu with an all-time high of nearly 58 million poultry affected as of January 2023.

Cambridge researchers have developed a new test that “fishes” for multiple respiratory viruses at once using single strands of DNA as bait and gives highly accurate results in under an hour.

The test uses DNA “nanobait” to detect the most common respiratory viruses —including influenza, rhinovirus, RSV and COVID-19—at the same time. In comparison, PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, while highly specific and highly accurate, can only test for a single virus at a time and take several hours to return a result.

While many common respiratory viruses have similar symptoms, they require different treatments. By testing for multiple viruses at once, the researchers say their test will ensure patients get the right treatment quickly and could also reduce the unwarranted use of antibiotics.

This video was recorded at the Foresight Vision Weekend 2022 at Château du Feÿ in France.

Michael Greve | Longevity Investing.

Continue reading “Michael Greve | Longevity Investing @ Vision Weekend France 2022” »

Findings solve a 60-year-old problem, researchers say A new 10-minute scan could make way for the most common cause of high blood pressure to be detected and cured, new research has suggested. Using a new type of CT scan, doctors were able to cure high blood pressure by lighting up nodules (tiny growths) in a hormone gland cure and removing them.

Scientists at Harvard Medical School have investigated why we age, and identified a possible way to reverse it. In tests in mice, the team showed that epigenetic “software glitches” drive the symptoms of aging – and a system reboot can reverse them, potentially extending lifespan.

Our genome contains our complete DNA blueprint, which is found in every single cell of our bodies. But it’s not the whole picture – an extra layer of information, known as the epigenome, sits above that and controls which genes are switched on and off in different types of cells. It’s as though every cell in our body is working from the same operating manual (the genome), but the epigenome is like a table of contents that directs different cells to different chapters (genes). After all, lung cells need very different instructions to heart cells.

Environmental and lifestyle factors like diet, exercise and even childhood experiences could change epigenetic expression over our lifetimes. Epigenetic changes have been linked to the rate of biological aging, but whether they drove the symptoms of aging or were a symptom themselves remained unclear.

Chromatin structures and transcriptional networks are known to specify cell identity during development which directs cells into metaphorical valleys in the Waddington landscape. Cells must retain their identity through the preservation of epigenetic information and a state of low Shannon entropy for the maintenance of optimal function. Yeast studies in the 1990s have reported that a loss of epigenetic information compared to genetics can cause aging. Few other studies also confirmed that epigenetic changes are not just a biomarker but a cause of aging in yeasts.

Epigenetic changes associated with aging include changes in DNA methylation (DNAme) patterns, H3K27me3, H3K9me3, and H3K9me3. Many epigenetic changes have been observed to follow a specific pattern. However, the reason for changes in the mammalian epigenome is not yet known. A few clues can be obtained from yeast, where DSB is a significant factor whose repair requires epigenetic regulators Esa1, Gcn5, Rpd3, Hst1, and Sir2. As per the ‘‘RCM’’ hypothesis and ‘Information Theory of Aging’’, aging in eukaryotes occurs due to the loss of epigenetic information and transcriptional networks in response to cellular damage such as a crash injury or a DSB.

A new study in the journal Cell aimed to determine whether epigenetic changes are a cause of mammalian aging.