A fire broke out yesterday, Thursday 5th December, at Netcare Pretoria East Hospital in Moreleta Park, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of patients. City of Tshwane firefighters promptly arrived on the scene, quickly getting the blaze under control. No injuries were reported.
Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, Netcare spokesperson Lynne O’Connor said that the fire was under control and with the Fire Marshal declaring that parts of the hospital to be safe, patients were being returned to their wards. As to the extent of damage and the cause, she said that “We know that the fire broke out somewhere near the theatre complex.”
As per the disaster management protocols, Netcare evacuated every single one of the approximately 200 patients in the hospital as soon as the alarm went off. The procedure was precautionary and none of the patients were harmed. O’Connor praised the swift response of the Tshwane emergency services. She said the cause of the fire was being investigated, and the extent of the damage would still need to be evaluated, News24 reports.
“We are grateful that everyone was brought to safety and sincerely apologise to the affected patients and their families for the inconvenience.”
(Left) An image of a 3D-printed material implanted in vivo for 4 weeks. The photo was taken using a scanning electron microscope. Credit: Dr Zhidao Xia. (Right) A photo of coral. Credit: Jesus Cobaleda.
Researchers at Swansea University have developed a revolutionary bone graft substitute inspired by coral which not only promotes faster healing but dissolves naturally in the body after the repair is complete.
Bone defects caused by conditions like fractures, tumours, and non-healing injuries are one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Traditionally, doctors use either a patient’s own bone (autograft) or donor bone (allograft) to fill these gaps. However, these methods come with challenges, including a limited supply, the risk of infection and ethical concerns.
By using advanced 3D-printing technology, the team have developed a biomimetic material that mimics the porous structure and chemical composition of coral-converted bone graft substitute, blending perfectly with human bone and offering several incredible benefits:
Rapid Healing – It helps new bone grow within just 2–4 weeks.
Complete Integration – The material naturally degrades within 6–12 months after enhanced regeneration, leaving behind only healthy bone.
Cost-Effective – Unlike natural coral or donor bone, this material is easy to produce in large quantities.
In preclinical in vivo studies, the material showed remarkable results: it fully repaired bone defects within 3–6 months and even triggered the formation of a new layer of strong, healthy cortical bone in 4 weeks.
Most synthetic bone graft substitutes currently on the market can’t match the performance of natural bone. They either take too long to dissolve, don’t integrate well, or cause side effects like inflammation. This new material overcomes these problems by closely mimicking natural bone in both structure and biological behaviour.
Dr Xia explained: “Our invention bridges the gap between synthetic substitutes and donor bone. We’ve shown that it’s possible to create a material that is safe, effective, and scalable to meet global demand. This could end the reliance on donor bone and tackle the ethical and supply issues in bone grafting.”
Innovations like this not only promise to improve patient quality of life but also reduce healthcare costs and provide new opportunities for the biomedical industry.
The Swansea University team is now looking to partner with companies and healthcare organisations to bring this life-changing technology to patients around the world.
New research from Karolinska Institutet and Columbia University shows that the heart has a mini-brain – its own nervous system that controls the heartbeat. A better understanding of this system, which is much more diverse and complex than previously thought, could lead to new treatments for heart diseases. The study, conducted on zebrafish, is published in Nature Communications.
The heart has long been thought to be controlled solely by the autonomic nervous system, which transmits signals from the brain. The heart’s neural network, which is embedded in the superficial layers of the heart wall, has been considered a simple structure that relays the signals from the brain. However, recent research suggests that it has a more advanced function than that.
Controlling the heartbeat
Scientists have now discovered that the heart has its own complex nervous system that is crucial to controlling its rhythm.
“This ‘little brain’ has a key role in maintaining and controlling the heartbeat, similar to how the brain regulates rhythmic functions such as locomotion and breathing,” explains Konstantinos Ampatzis, principal researcher and docent at the Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, who led the study.
The researchers identified several types of neurons in the heart that have different functions, including a small group of neurons with pacemaker properties. The finding challenges the current view on how the heartbeat is controlled, which may have clinical implications.
Surprising complexity revealed
“We were surprised to see how complex the nervous system within the heart is,” says Konstantinos Ampatzis. “Understanding this system better could lead to new insights into heart diseases and help develop new treatments for diseases such as arrhythmias.”
The study was conducted on zebrafish, an animal model that exhibits strong similarities to human heart rate and overall cardiac function. The researchers were able to map out the composition, organisation and function of neurons within the heart using a combination of methods such as single-cell RNA sequencing, anatomical studies and electrophysiological techniques.
New therapeutic targets
“We will now continue to investigate how the heart’s brain interacts with the actual brain to regulate heart functions under different conditions such as exercise, stress, or disease,” says Konstantinos Ampatzis. “We aim to identify new therapeutic targets by examining how disruptions in the heart’s neuronal network contribute to different heart disorders.”
The World Health Organization recommends no more than two to three hours per day of sedentary time for youth. However, adolescents worldwide are spending an average of 8 to 10 hours per day engaging in sedentary activities such as watching television, using electronic devices, playing video games and riding in motorised vehicles, according to a 15-country study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
The most notable finding of the study, led by principal investigator James F. Sallis, PhD, distinguished professor at University of California San Diego, and colleagues from 14 countries, found that simply having a personal social media account was linked with higher total sedentary time in both males and females. Social media was also related to more self-reported screen time.
“Although there is great concern about negative effects of social media on youth mental health, this study documents a pathway for social media to harm physical health as well,” said Sallis, who is also a professorial fellow at the Australian Catholic University.
“These findings are concerning, as excessive sedentary behavior has been linked to a range of health problems, including obesity, diabetes and mental health issues.”
Researchers analysed accelerometer data from 3,982 adolescents aged 11 to 19 and survey measures of sedentary behaviour from 6,02 participants in the International Physical Activity and the Environment Network (IPEN) Adolescent Study, which covered 15 geographically and culturally diverse countries across six continents.
The number of electronic devices within a home, how many adolescents had their own social media accounts and neighbourhood walkability were significantly different across countries.
For example, adolescents from India had an average of 1.2 electronic devices in the bedroom and 0.5 personal electronic devices, while the average number of such devices in Denmark was 4.2 and 2.3, respectively. In India and Bangladesh, fewer than 30% of adolescents reported having their own social media account, compared to higher socio-economic status countries where it was over 90%.
Parents reporting on walkability identified Australia as having high access to parks, while Nigerian parents reported no access, and parents in Bangladesh and India reported poor access. Traffic was a concern among parents in Brazil, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, and Israel, and concerns about crime were high in the first three countries.
Adolescents who reported less recreational screen time lived in walkable neighbourhoods and had better perceptions of safety from traffic and crime than others. Girls who lived in neighbourhoods designed to support physical activity were less likely to be sedentary.
Despite differences in culture, built environments and extent of sedentary time, patterns of association were generally similar across countries, said the study’s lead author Ranjit Mohan Anjana, MD, PhD, of Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialties Centre and Madras Diabetes Research Foundation in India.
“Together, parents, policymakers and technology companies can work together to reduce access to screens, limit social media engagement and promote more physical activity, thus helping adolescents develop healthier habits and reduce their risk of chronic diseases,” said Anjana.
The study’s findings have significant implications for public health policy and highlight the need for further research into the causes and consequences of sedentary behaviour among teenagers.
A new study has shed light on a previously poorly understood aspect of breast cancer recurrence: how cancer cells survive in bone marrow despite targeted therapies. The paper appears in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Oestrogen receptor positive (OR+) breast cancer is the most common form of the disease, and cancer cells of this kind can live for years in bone marrow after remission. The persistence of these cells in marrow leads to the disease recurring about 40% of patients. This return can take the form of especially aggressive bone cancer with symptoms such as bone fractures and hypercalcaemia.
The cells can also spread to other organs, causing recurrent disease that is currently incurable.
To better understand how these cancer cells survive, and why they cause such aggressive returning disease, researchers investigated what happens to these dispersed cells in bone marrow.
Their key finding was the mechanism by which a normal cell type, mesenchymal stem cells, in the bone marrow supports the cancer cells.
“We discovered that the breast cancer cells require direct contact with mesenchymal stem cells,” said Gary Luker, MD, senior author on the paper.
“The cancer cells physically borrow molecules – proteins, messenger RNA – directly from the mesenchymal stem cells. Essentially the mesenchymal stem cells act as very generous neighbours in donating things that make the cancer cells more aggressive and drug resistant.”
In laboratory experiments, contact between cancer cells and mesenchymal stem cells induced changes in hundreds of proteins. Further analysis of which proteins allowed for survival of breast cancer cells led researchers to focus on GIV, also known as Girdin. The paper notes that GIV drives “invasiveness, chemoresistance, and acquisition of metastatic potential in multiple cancers.”
GIV makes these cancer cells specifically resistant to oestrogen-targeted therapies, such as the drug Tamoxifen. The researchers hope this understanding of the mechanism of cancer cell survival will one day lead to treatments that prevent OR+ breast cancers from returning.
Sleeper cells can awaken
“Sleeper cells can be reawakened and cause oestrogen receptor positive breast cancers to relapse years –in some cases as long as a decade – after patients were believed to be in remission,” said study author Pradipta Ghosh, M.D., a professor in the Departments of Medicine and Cellular and Molecular Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
“Since these cancer cells ‘borrow’ essential proteins from stem cells in the bone marrow through cellular tunnels – much like smuggling – approaches for targeting the tunnels or proteins they smuggle could help prevent the relapse and metastasis of oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer.”
