Tropical plant inspires super-slippery coating for medical use

Chemical engineers have turned to exotic meat-eating plant life for inspiration in creating materials that have potential for use as a coating on medical devices.

The pitcher plant - which is carnivorous by trapping and digesting animals in leaves that resemble trumpets or small pitchers - has a highly slippery surface that stops its prey from escaping. This surface can repel liquids and contaminants, the scientists from Harvard University found, and it has self-healing properties when scratched.

They mimicked these effects in their work to develop a transparent coating they call SLIPS (slippery liquid-infused porous surface). Taking inspiration from the pitcher plant's inner surface to develop the properties of the new material, however, has meant that it could be used to coat the insides of medical tubing, such as catheters and blood transfusion systems, improving the flow and sterility of fluids through them.

The scientists created their super-slippery surface by infusing a "nano/micro-structured porous material" with a lubricating fluid.

The chemical engineers list a number of remarkable properties to their new material, which can:

- Repel various simple and complex liquids (water, hydrocarbons, crude oil and blood)

- Quickly restore liquid-repellency after physical damage (in under 1 second)

- Resist ice adhesion, and

- Function at high pressures (up to about 680 atmospheres).

"By mimicking the pitcher plant's skin structure, this new coating self-heals almost instantly, even if scraped with a knife or blade.

It is capable of operating in extreme temperatures and high pressure, and can be applied to surfaces ranging from metals and semiconductors, to paper and cotton fabric."

New imaging technology set to reveal secret life of virus in cells

One of the challenges of unlocking the secret lives of tiny biological agents - like viruses inside living cells - is how to get close up without disturbing their structure and behavior.

Now, using high-end imaging, a team from the US has found a way to label and study the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and its activity in living cells that could become a general method for unlocking the secrets of many important RNA viruses.

With the new approach, the scientists could study how the RSV virion or infective virus particle enters cells, how it replicates, how many genomes it inserts into its hosts, and perhaps discover why some types of lung cells manage to avoid infection.

This new imaging technique brings together multiply-labeled tetravalent RNA imaging probes (MTRIPS) and direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM) - to probe the life of RSV in living cells.

Sushmitha of Batch-18, gave an excellent presentation on the topic of SUSARs (Suspected Unexpected Serious Adverse Reactions).
http://acriindia.com

Prakruthi and Mohammad Vaseem of batch-18, gave a good overview on the regulations in Denmark with regards to drugs and devices.

Nisha and Ashok of batch-18, presented a topic on Russian regulatory authority. This presentation focused on the regulations of new drugs and medical devices and procedures for online submissions.

New blood test 'can detect risk of infection in minutes'

Scientists have created a device that is able to detect a person's risk of infection from a drop of blood within minutes, as opposed to current methods, which can take up to 2 hours. This is according to a study published in the journal Technology.

One common laboratory test to determine an individual's risk of infection is the counting of neutrophils in the blood, known as absolute neutrophil count.

Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell found in human blood. These are the "body's first line of defense" against inflammation and infection.

Within minutes of detecting infection, the neutrophils flee from the blood toward tissue, where they settle at the sites of infection.

"If neutrophils do not migrate well and cannot reach inside the tissues, this situation could have the same consequences as a low neutrophil count".

With this in mind, the investigators created a "miniaturized silicone-based device" that they say is able to measure migration patterns of neutrophils from a finger prick of blood, and this can be carried out within a matter of minutes.

The researchers say that methods currently used to measure the functions of neutrophils involve separating them from the blood. This process can take 2 hours, and the investigators say that the procedure needs to be conducted by skilled laboratory personnel. This, however poses a problem within clinical conditions, such as treating cases of patients with burn injuries, as the process is time-consuming and medical professionals' priorities change throughout the day.

"To address the need for rapid and robust assays, a microfluidic device was designed that measured neutrophil chemotaxis directly from a single droplet of blood.

By comparing neutrophil chemotaxis from finger prick, venous blood and purified neutrophil samples, it was found that average velocity of (19 ± 6 μm/min) and directionality (91.1%) between the three sources was consistent."

Hence it was concluded that being able to measure patients' risk of infections in a matter of minutes from only a droplet of blood is a "significant improvement and one that will improve current treatment."

Surgery 'better than chemotherapy' for tongue cancer

For the treatment of cancer, many would consider chemotherapy to be the best option. But for tongue cancer, new research suggests that surgery may be the most effective primary port of call.

The main treatment options for people with oral and oropharyngeal cancers include surgery (partial or full removal of the tongue for tongue cancer, followed by extensive reconstruction), radiation therapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy and palliative treatment. These can be used alone or in combination.