Tag: 7/1/21

Categories : Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

Space Could be Ideal Place for Stem Cell Production

On By ModernMedia
Astronaut Raja Chari sequences DNA from bacteria samples to understand the microbial environment on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

The lack of gravity in outer space could be the key to the efficient production of large quantities of stem cells. Scientists at Cedars-Sinai have found that the microgravity environment in space stations can potentially aid life-saving advances on Earth by facilitating the rapid mass production of stem cells.

A new paper in Stem Cell Reports outlines key opportunities discussed at a space biomanufacturing symposium to expand the manufacture of stem cells in space.

With new rocket technology, the cost of access to space has plummeted, opening up new opportunities for research and industry, as well as spaceflight by private citizens. Biomanufacturing of therapeutic and research biomaterials can be more productive in microgravity conditions.

“We are finding that spaceflight and microgravity is a desirable place for biomanufacturing because it confers a number of very special properties to biological tissues and biological processes that can help mass produce cells or other products in a way that you wouldn’t be able to do on Earth,” said stem cell biologist Arun Sharma, PhD, head of a new Cedars-Sinai research laboratory.

“The last two decades have seen remarkable advances in regenerative medicine and exponential advancement in space technologies enabling new opportunities to access and commercialise space,” he said.

Attendees at the virtual space symposium in December identified more than 50 potential commercial opportunities for conducting biomanufacturing work in space, according to the Cedars-Sinai paper. The most promising fell into three categories: Disease modelling, biofabrication, and stem-cell-derived products.

Scientists use disease modelling, to study diseases and possible treatments by replicating full-function structures – whether using stem cells, organoids or other tissues.

Decades of spaceflight experience has shown that when the body is exposed to low-gravity conditions for extended periods of time, it experiences accelerated bone loss and ageing. By developing disease models based on this accelerated ageing process, research scientists can better understand the mechanisms of the ageing process and disease progression.

“Not only can this work help astronauts, but it can also lead to us manufacturing bone constructs or skeletal muscle constructs that could be applied to diseases like osteoporosis and other forms of accelerated bone ageing and muscle wasting that people experience on Earth,” explained Dr Sharma.

Biofabrication, another major topic of discussion at the symposium, produces materials like tissues and organs with 3D printing a core technology.

A major issue with biofabrication on Earth involves gravity-induced density, which makes it hard for cells to expand and grow. This requires the use of scaffolding structures, but it generally cannot support the small, complex shapes found in vascular and lymphatic pathways. With the lack of gravity in space, scientists are hopeful that they can use 3D printing to print unique shapes and products, like organoids or cardiac tissues, in a way that can’t be replicated on Earth. This technology is being tested on the International Space Station.

The third category has to do with the production of stem cells and understanding how some of their fundamental properties are influenced by microgravity. Some of these properties include potency, or the ability of a stem cell to renew itself, and differentiation, the ability for stem cells to turn into other cell types.

Understanding some of the effects of spaceflight on stem cells can potentially lead to better ways to manufacture large numbers of cells in the absence of gravity. In coming months, Cedars-Sinai scientists will send stem cells into space to test whether it is possible to produce large batches in a low gravity environment.

“While we are still in the exploratory phase of some of this research, this is no longer in the realm of science fiction,” Dr Sharma said. “Within the next five years we may see a scenario where we find cells or tissues that can be made in a way that is simply not possible here on Earth. And I think that’s extremely exciting.”

Source: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Categories : Ageing ExerciseTags :

Mid-life Exercise Positively Shapes Late-life Brain Structure

On By ModernMedia

That exercise in one’s middle years benefits health in later life is perhaps no surprise given our current understanding of its benefits, but and MRI study has shown to influence the brain’s structure in later years.

Using MRI scans, high levels (150 minutes per week or more) of self-reported moderate-to-high physical activity were associated with reduced risk of lacunar infarct in late life (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.46-0.99) and more intact white matter integrity.

“Our study suggests that getting at least an hour and 15 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity a week or more during midlife may be important throughout your lifetime for promoting brain health and preserving the actual structure of your brain,” said Priya Palta, PhD, of Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “In particular, engaging in more than 2 and a half hours of physical activity per week in middle age was associated with fewer signs of brain disease.”

There has been mixed evidence linking physical activity to brain measures or improvements in cognitive function. PhDs Nicole Spartano, of Boston University School of Medicine, and Leonardo Pantoni, MD, of University of Milan, noted in an accompanying editorial that the “most consistent evidence for the protective effect of physical activity against dementia risk has been reported to be leisure time physical activity, and it is unclear whether there is benefit to other types of physical activity that may be less ‘enriching.'”

“It is possible that future work will uncover the requirement that physical activity interventions to reduce dementia risk actually have an enriching element, such as in leisure-time activities, rather than be strictly rote, mechanical movement,” Spartano and Pantoni added.

Recruiting 1 604 individuals with a mean baseline age of 54, the participants had five examinations over 25 years and MRI at a mean age of 72. At baseline (1987-1989) and 25 years later, participants had their moderate-to-vigorous physical activity assessed in a questionnaire. 

At midlife, 11% had low levels of moderate-to-high intensity activity (1 to 74 minutes a week), 16% middle levels (75 to 149 minutes a week), and 39% high levels (150 minutes a week or more), with the remainder reporting none.

High moderate-to-vigorous midlife activity was associated with better white matter integrity in late life, compared with no moderate-to-vigorous midlife activity, but there was no association with grey matter volume.

While the risk of lacunar infarcts were lower with more intense midlife activity, risk of cortical infarcts or subcortical microhemorrhage were not. “The associations of greater levels of mid-life physical activity with fewer lacunar (but not cortical) infarcts and greater white matter microstructural integrity suggest cerebrovascular mechanisms are primarily at play,” Palta and colleagues wrote.

When adjusted for vascular risk factors, the association of midlife physical activity to lacunar infarcts was weakened, but the association with white matter microstructure. The editorialists said that it implies that “evidence from this study supports a hypothesis that the mechanisms linking physical activity and the brain are likely multi-dimensional, including mechanisms other than simply improving cerebrovascular health.” 

Late-life moderate-to-vigorous physical activity also was associated with most brain measures compared with no moderate-to-vigorous activity, but as this was a prospective study that spanned decades, the “association between midlife physical activity levels and later-life brain imaging features makes a much stronger case for causality than does the same relationship when measured only in late life,” the researchers noted.

The study had several limitations, which included using self-reported data, did not include non leisure-related activity, and participant attrition.

Source: MedPage Today

Journal information: Source Reference: Palta P, et al. A prospective analysis of leisure-time physical activity in midlife and beyond and brain damage on MRI in older adults, Neurology 2020; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000011375.

Categories : CancerTags :

Opioid Use Linked to Pancreatic Cancer Risk

On By ModernMedia

New research has shown that the use and misuse of the highly addictive opioid class of medications may pose an additional threat – pancreatic cancer. 

In the United States, opioid misuse has spiralled into one of the biggest healthcare epidemics facing the country. Of 70 000 deaths from substance abuse in the country in 2017, 68% involved opioids. Among patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain, 29% are misusing them and 12% have developed an opioid misuse disorder. Rates of pancreatic cancer are also on the increase in the US. In West Central Asia, opium use recently been linked to pancreatic cancer.Using Centres for Disease Control (CDC) data, the study’s researchers controlled for confounding variables, took opioid death rates as a surrogate for proscription and misuse, and compared it to incidences of pancreatic cancer. 

Analysing the dataset, they found that opioid use was associated with pancreatic cancer rates, with the opioid use rates predicting the pancreatic cancer trends years later.Faraz Bishehsari, MD, Ph.D., the corresponding author of the study, said: “Our mechanistic studies could provide further insights on the pathways that opioid could potentially impact progression of cancer.”

In order to confirm the findings, there is a need for sizeable population-based studies or longitudinal datasets that reliably track long-term outcomes in opioid users. Once these findings are confirmed by population-based studies, these will have an impact in considering alternative pain management methods in patients.Adding credence to this link is a recent post-hoc analysis of advanced cancer patients that showed patients receiving regular opioid antagonists had a significantly improved survival rate over placebo.

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Usman Barlass et al. Opioid use as a potential risk factor for pancreatic cancer in the United States: An analysis of state and national level databases, PLOS ONE (2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244285