Lung taste receptors may help treat asthma
London: Human lungs can detect bitter tastes the same way as the tongue can, potentially paving the way to new treatments for asthma.
The team from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, US, found that contrary to what they thought, the airways in the lungs opened in response to a bitter taste.
Senior study author Stephen Liggett said: "I initially thought the bitter-taste receptors in the lungs would prompt a 'fight or flight' response to a noxious inhaleant causing chest tightness and coughing so you would leave the toxic environment, but that's not what we found," reports a newspaper.
"It turns out that the bitter compounds worked the opposite way from what we thought," according to the journal Nature Medicine.
"They all opened the airway more profoundly than any known drug that we have for treatment of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease."
"This could replace or enhance what is now in use and represents a completely new approach," said Liggett.
The team tested bitter substances on human and mouse airways. Quinine and chloroquinine, normally used to combat malaria, were used as they taste bitter along with the artificial sweetner saccharin, which has a bitter aftertaste.
Liggett said: "Based on our research we think that the best drugs would be chemical modifications of bitter compounds which would be aerosolised and then inhaled into the lungs in an inhaler."
The discovery was made by accident when the team were studying muscle receptors that cause contraction and relaxation in the lungs.
It is thought that the bitter substances affect how calcium controls muscles.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
U.S. medical team uses new method to save soldier's life
A breath of life: U.S. medical team uses new method to save soldier's life
Dr. Matthias Amann, left, and Dr. Alois Philipp make final preparations for transporting a 22-year-old soldier to the university hospital in Regensburg. Philipp, a perfusionist, helped to develop the ECMO machine, which had been used the previous day to evacuate the soldier after he had been shot in the chest. It was the first time that the innovative and portable heart-lung machine had been used in a combat evacuation.The soldier had been shot in the chest, and a bullet had shredded his lungs.
That’s when Dr. (Lt. Col.) Sandra Wanek got the call. The trauma surgeon led this week’s medevac mission out of Afghanistan as part of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center’s Lung Rescue Team, which flies to combat zones to treat servicemembers with the most serious lung injuries and evacuate them to Germany.
Within hours, Wanek and her team were bound for Kandahar.
When they got there Wednesday, they operated on him for five hours and tried several different ventilators, but all of them failed.
“I just could not improve his oxygenation to the point where it was safe to fly,” Wanek said.
After missing an evacuation flight and doing one more hour of surgery, Wanek chose to use the device — known as an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine — for the first time.
The machine, developed in Germany, forces the patient’s blood through an artificial membrane that lets oxygen in and takes carbon dioxide out.
Without it, she said, the soldier would likely have died.
The flight out of Afghanistan on Wednesday was the first time the machine, not much bigger than a suitcase, was used while transporting a patient out of a combat zone.
“This is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in the Army,” Wanek said, looking at her unconscious patient. “It’s the most desperate feeling in the world to have someone who is young and whose wounds are survivable and know that I have nothing I can do for him. But now I do. And it’s small enough; it’s transportable; and it’s safe.”
The soldier, whose name was not released, was flown Thursday from Landstuhl to the university hospital in Regensburg, Germany, where the heart-lung machine was first developed and where doctors have particular expertise with it. It’s also where German doctors trained Wanek and her team on how to use the ECMO, before it was brought to Afghanistan. “We trained in July, and this is the first person who needed it,” she said.
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was developed in the 1980s as a way to save the lives of premature infants with underdeveloped lungs. Later, doctors began to use the machines on adults with lung failure, most recently with H1N1 influenza patients.
The early machines, however, were too big and heavy — more than 200 pounds — to be used in transit, such as from an accident scene, so a lighter and more compact device was developed.
In 2006, Regensburg doctors started taking the compact machines on rescue flights and ambulances to treat patients with severe lung injuries, such as from gunshot wounds or stabbings, or acute respiratory illness. They have transported about 70 patients hooked up to the machines.
Unlike a ventilator, which pushes air into the lungs, the ECMO machine bypasses the lungs entirely. The machine, which costs about $300,000, has the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, though it’s not used stateside to treat patients in transit, Wanek said.
The machine connects to blood vessels in two places: the groin and the jugular vein. Wanek recalled how nervous she was in Afghanistan when she had to unclamp the veins and let the soldier’s blood flow through the tubes.
“I had not felt my heart beat that hard in a long time,” she said.
The machine worked even better than she expected, and by the time the team landed at Landstuhl several hours later, the soldier’s condition had started to improve, said Air Force Maj. Clayne Benson, another anesthesiologist on the lung rescue team.
Dr. Alois Philipp — one of the developers of the machine — accompanied the soldier back to the Regensberg hospital. Philipp will care for the soldier until his lung injuries heal and he is healthy enough to return to Landstuhl. When the soldier does return, Wanek hopes to hand the young man a scrapbook of photos so that he can see all that was done to keep him alive.
“He’s a history-making soldier,” she said, “and he doesn’t know it yet.”
Monday, October 18, 2010
RePneu Lung Volume Reduction Coil (LVRC) System
PneumRx, Inc. Announces CE Mark Approval For Its RePneu® Lung Volume Reduction Coil (LVRC™) System
(www.pneumrx.com ), a medical device company dedicated to bringing innovation and improvements to the treatment of lung disease, today announced that it has received CE Mark approval for its RePneu Lung Volume Reduction Coil (LVRC) System to treat the later stages of emphysema.
The RePneu LVRC System is a minimally invasive device intended to improve lung function in emphysema patients by brochoscopically implanting Nitinol coils into the lungs to compress damaged tissue (lung volume reduction) and restore elastic recoil to the healthier lung tissue. This treatment offers a minimally invasive alternative to lung volume reduction surgery, and works independently of collateral ventilation. The CE mark approval enables PneumRx to move forward with commercialization in Europe and other select markets. PneumRx intends to launch its RePneu LVRC System in Europe in the last quarter of 2010. PneumRx plans to continue its ongoing partnership with physicians through training and by offering novel products for the diagnosis and treatment of lung disease.
"We are thrilled to have achieved this important milestone, and look forward to introducing our RePneu LVRC to the European market to help improve the lives of so many people who are suffering from emphysema and have few other viable treatment options," said Erin McGurk, President and CEO of PneumRx, Inc. "We are extremely pleased with the significant improvements in pulmonary function tests, exercise tolerance, and quality of life experienced by our clinical trial patients, and expect to bring these same benefits to a broader population of emphysema patients with the commercialization of the RePneu LVRC System in Europe."
About PneumRx, Inc.
PneumRx, Inc. is a rapidly growing medical device company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative products to treat emphysema using minimally-invasive techniques. It is a privately held company located in Mountain View, California.
PneumRx, Inc. is a rapidly growing medical device company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative products to treat emphysema using minimally-invasive techniques. It is a privately held company located in Mountain View, California.
SOURCE PneumRx, Inc.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
How much does a pack of cigarettes really cost?
How much does a pack of cigarettes really cost? $16.43
On Thursday, Oct. 14, the American Lung Association of Florida will host the first Florida Tobacco Cessation Summit at Lake Nona — a free, one-day event that will examine the benefits of smoking cessation for Floridians.
Participants representing a broad range of industries will learn about the short- and long-term positive outcomes that can result from providing comprehensive cessation coverage.
“Each year I see the devastating health effects of tobacco use throughout Florida,” said Martha Bogdan, president of the American Lung Association of the Southeast. “We have made great strides in reducing tobacco use through smoke-free air laws, increasing the cost of cigarettes and funding tobacco prevention programs. Now it’s time to help those who want to quit smoking succeed by ensuring full access to cessation products and services.”
The event will be held at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona. Registration for the event begins at 8 a.m. Although there is no charge to attend, space is limited. For more information on the Florida tobacco summit, click here.
A recent report released by the American Lung Association, Smoking Cessation: the Economic Benefits, revealed startling numbers related to the true costs of tobacco use in Florida. Smoking can be linked to productivity losses of $4.4 billion, premature death losses of $7.9 billion and direct medical expenditures of $7.2 billion – totaling $19.6 billion in loss to the state.
When researchers considered productivity losses and the cost of health-care for smokers, the true cost of a pack of cigarettes in Florida is $16.43.
Tobacco cessation programs have consistently proven effective and the benefits of these programs greatly outweigh the cost of implementing them. Smoking cessation is one of the most cost-effective wellness initiatives employers can undertake, the lung association says.
The summit will feature discussions on tobacco’s impact on smokers, employers and Florida, the benefits of providing smoking cessation treatment, and the recent health care reform and what it means for tobacco addiction treatment in Florida.
see more info at........
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/health/2010/10/12/how-much-does-a-pack-of-cigarettes-really-cost-16-43/
On Thursday, Oct. 14, the American Lung Association of Florida will host the first Florida Tobacco Cessation Summit at Lake Nona — a free, one-day event that will examine the benefits of smoking cessation for Floridians.
Participants representing a broad range of industries will learn about the short- and long-term positive outcomes that can result from providing comprehensive cessation coverage.
“Each year I see the devastating health effects of tobacco use throughout Florida,” said Martha Bogdan, president of the American Lung Association of the Southeast. “We have made great strides in reducing tobacco use through smoke-free air laws, increasing the cost of cigarettes and funding tobacco prevention programs. Now it’s time to help those who want to quit smoking succeed by ensuring full access to cessation products and services.”
The event will be held at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona. Registration for the event begins at 8 a.m. Although there is no charge to attend, space is limited. For more information on the Florida tobacco summit, click here.
A recent report released by the American Lung Association, Smoking Cessation: the Economic Benefits, revealed startling numbers related to the true costs of tobacco use in Florida. Smoking can be linked to productivity losses of $4.4 billion, premature death losses of $7.9 billion and direct medical expenditures of $7.2 billion – totaling $19.6 billion in loss to the state.
When researchers considered productivity losses and the cost of health-care for smokers, the true cost of a pack of cigarettes in Florida is $16.43.
Tobacco cessation programs have consistently proven effective and the benefits of these programs greatly outweigh the cost of implementing them. Smoking cessation is one of the most cost-effective wellness initiatives employers can undertake, the lung association says.
The summit will feature discussions on tobacco’s impact on smokers, employers and Florida, the benefits of providing smoking cessation treatment, and the recent health care reform and what it means for tobacco addiction treatment in Florida.
see more info at........
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/health/2010/10/12/how-much-does-a-pack-of-cigarettes-really-cost-16-43/
Thursday, October 14, 2010
ALung Technologies Closes on $14 Million Financing
ALung Technologies Closes on $14 Million Series A Financing
PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ALung Technologies, Inc. today announced that the Company has closed a $14 Million Series A financing round. The investment will support ongoing clinical trials of the Hemolung™ Respiratory Assist System and its subsequent commercialization. The Company’s Hemolung device is expected to help many patients with acute respiratory failure to avoid intubation and invasive mechanical ventilation.
“This financing will allow ALung to complete its clinical trial in Germany and subsequently commercialize the Hemolung System,” said Peter DeComo, Chairman and CEO of ALung. “The ability of the Company to secure this financing in the current economic climate reinforces the potential of the Hemolung technology to help patients heal more quickly while reducing the overall cost of healthcare.”
A pilot study of the device is currently underway in Germany to demonstrate the safety and performance of the device. A US-based pivotal trial to gain FDA clearance will follow. “We are very excited about the early results coming out of our clinical trial in Germany,” said Nicholas Kuhn, Chief Operating Officer at ALung. “We look forward to completing our clinical trial and introducing the Hemolung to physicians and patients in the near future.”
Eagle Ventures, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based private equity firm, led the financing. Participating in the round were Birchmere Ventures, a Pittsburgh-based early-stage venture capital firm, as well as new and existing individual investors.
ALung Technologies, Inc. is a Pittsburgh-based medical device company commercializing artificial lung devices for the treatment of respiratory failure. The Company’s Hemolung™ Respiratory Assist System is designed to replace or supplement the use of invasive ventilators for patients with acute respiratory failure. For more information about ALung and the Hemolung Respiratory Assist System, please visit http://www.alung.com.
Developer of Innovative Respiratory Support Device Announces Financing to Support Clinical Trials and Product Commercialization.
“We are very excited about the early results coming out of our clinical trial in Germany”The Hemolung Respiratory Assist System is designed to remove carbon dioxide and deliver oxygen directly to the patient's blood via a small catheter, inserted into the jugular or femoral vein, similar to acute kidney dialysis. This treatment is expected to provide a significant benefit over intubation and mechanical ventilation, in that it will allow the patient to talk and eat, and avoid sedation, while giving the lungs the opportunity to heal.
“This financing will allow ALung to complete its clinical trial in Germany and subsequently commercialize the Hemolung System,” said Peter DeComo, Chairman and CEO of ALung. “The ability of the Company to secure this financing in the current economic climate reinforces the potential of the Hemolung technology to help patients heal more quickly while reducing the overall cost of healthcare.”
A pilot study of the device is currently underway in Germany to demonstrate the safety and performance of the device. A US-based pivotal trial to gain FDA clearance will follow. “We are very excited about the early results coming out of our clinical trial in Germany,” said Nicholas Kuhn, Chief Operating Officer at ALung. “We look forward to completing our clinical trial and introducing the Hemolung to physicians and patients in the near future.”
Eagle Ventures, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based private equity firm, led the financing. Participating in the round were Birchmere Ventures, a Pittsburgh-based early-stage venture capital firm, as well as new and existing individual investors.
ALung Technologies, Inc. is a Pittsburgh-based medical device company commercializing artificial lung devices for the treatment of respiratory failure. The Company’s Hemolung™ Respiratory Assist System is designed to replace or supplement the use of invasive ventilators for patients with acute respiratory failure. For more information about ALung and the Hemolung Respiratory Assist System, please visit http://www.alung.com.
Contacts
Monday, October 11, 2010
creating artificial alveolus
This ersatz lung, no bigger than a multivitamin, could represent a new pharmaceutical testing method.
On it, researchers have created an artificial alveolus, one of the sacs in the lungs where oxygen crosses a membrane to enter the body's blood vessels. A polymer sheet that stands in for the membrane is in the blue strip. On one side of the sheet, blood-vessel cells mimic a capillary wall; on the other, lung-cancer cells mimic lung epithelial cells.
Scientists have tested the chip's immune response, and it behaves just like real tissue would, a first step to having lifelike organ systems on which drugs can act. The chip's primary developer, biomedical engineer Dongeun (Dan) Huh of Harvard University, hopes that within two years, the chip will succeed in mimicking the process by which the lungs swap oxygen for carbon dioxide. Huh would like to create a suite of artificial organs to be used in cosmetics testing and pharmaceutical safety trials.
Generating artificial alveolus sounds like a first in building a complete replacement lung.
artificial alveolus,lung replacement
This post by Victor Zapana originally appeared at Popular Science.
On it, researchers have created an artificial alveolus, one of the sacs in the lungs where oxygen crosses a membrane to enter the body's blood vessels. A polymer sheet that stands in for the membrane is in the blue strip. On one side of the sheet, blood-vessel cells mimic a capillary wall; on the other, lung-cancer cells mimic lung epithelial cells.
Scientists have tested the chip's immune response, and it behaves just like real tissue would, a first step to having lifelike organ systems on which drugs can act. The chip's primary developer, biomedical engineer Dongeun (Dan) Huh of Harvard University, hopes that within two years, the chip will succeed in mimicking the process by which the lungs swap oxygen for carbon dioxide. Huh would like to create a suite of artificial organs to be used in cosmetics testing and pharmaceutical safety trials.
Generating artificial alveolus sounds like a first in building a complete replacement lung.
artificial alveolus,lung replacement
This post by Victor Zapana originally appeared at Popular Science.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Making a Lung Replacement
Making a Lung Replacement
National Institutes of Health Research Matters
Hot on the heels of progress toward a liver transplant substitute, researchers have made transplantable lung grafts for rats. The accomplishment could pave the way for the development of an engineered human lung.
Lungs have a limited ability to regenerate. The primary therapy for severely damaged lungs is currently lung transplantation—surgery to remove the lung and replace it with a healthy lung from a deceased donor. However, lung transplants are limited by the small number of donor organs available—not much more than 1,000 per year.
To be successful, an artificial lung would need to retain the complex branching geometry of the lung’s airways. It would also require a large network of small blood vessels to transport oxygen and nutrients throughout the structure. Decellularization—the process of removing cells from a structure but leaving a scaffold with the architecture of the original tissue—has shown some success in other organs, including heart and liver. A team of researchers led by Dr. Laura Niklason of Yale University set out to build on this recent progress and develop a similar approach for lungs. Their work was supported by NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).
The researchers harvested lungs from adult rats. Treating the lungs with a mild detergent solution for 2 to 3 hours removed the cells but left the lung architecture intact, as reported in the early online edition of Science on June 24, 2010. A careful analysis showed that a matrix of proteins remained behind to hold the lung’s shape.
To see if they could repopulate the matrix with cells and engineer a functional lung, the researchers injected endothelial cells into the blood vessels and epithelial cells into airways. They kept the matrix for up to 8 days in a novel bioreactor that was designed to mimic the pressure changes and ventilation a lung would experience. The researchers found that the cells reseeded the surfaces of the matrix in their appropriate locations. This finding suggests that the decellularized matrix maintains cues for the cells to attach and thrive.
The researchers tested the engineered lungs in rats for short time intervals (45-120 min) and found that the lungs inflated with air, with only some modest bleeding into airways. Most importantly, the lungs successfully exchanged oxygen and carbon dioxide like natural lungs.
To see whether their method might apply to human tissues, the researchers got human lung segments from a tissue bank. They were able to decellularize the tissues while preserving their architecture. They then reseeded the matrices with epithelial and endothelial cells and found that they adhered at their appropriate locations. This result supports the idea that the approach holds promise for human lung tissue.
“We succeeded in engineering an implantable lung in our rat model that could efficiently exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide, and could oxygenate hemoglobin in the blood. This is an early step in the regeneration of entire lungs for larger animals and, eventually, for humans,” says Niklason. She notes that years of research with adult stem cells will likely be needed to develop ways to repopulate lung matrices and produce fully functional lungs for people.
—by Harrison Wein, Ph.D.
Related Links:
Lung Transplant:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/lungtxp/lungtxp_whatis.html
click to see more info news on lung transplants and Lung Replacements
National Institutes of Health Research Matters
Hot on the heels of progress toward a liver transplant substitute, researchers have made transplantable lung grafts for rats. The accomplishment could pave the way for the development of an engineered human lung.
Lungs have a limited ability to regenerate. The primary therapy for severely damaged lungs is currently lung transplantation—surgery to remove the lung and replace it with a healthy lung from a deceased donor. However, lung transplants are limited by the small number of donor organs available—not much more than 1,000 per year.
To be successful, an artificial lung would need to retain the complex branching geometry of the lung’s airways. It would also require a large network of small blood vessels to transport oxygen and nutrients throughout the structure. Decellularization—the process of removing cells from a structure but leaving a scaffold with the architecture of the original tissue—has shown some success in other organs, including heart and liver. A team of researchers led by Dr. Laura Niklason of Yale University set out to build on this recent progress and develop a similar approach for lungs. Their work was supported by NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).
The researchers harvested lungs from adult rats. Treating the lungs with a mild detergent solution for 2 to 3 hours removed the cells but left the lung architecture intact, as reported in the early online edition of Science on June 24, 2010. A careful analysis showed that a matrix of proteins remained behind to hold the lung’s shape.
To see if they could repopulate the matrix with cells and engineer a functional lung, the researchers injected endothelial cells into the blood vessels and epithelial cells into airways. They kept the matrix for up to 8 days in a novel bioreactor that was designed to mimic the pressure changes and ventilation a lung would experience. The researchers found that the cells reseeded the surfaces of the matrix in their appropriate locations. This finding suggests that the decellularized matrix maintains cues for the cells to attach and thrive.
The researchers tested the engineered lungs in rats for short time intervals (45-120 min) and found that the lungs inflated with air, with only some modest bleeding into airways. Most importantly, the lungs successfully exchanged oxygen and carbon dioxide like natural lungs.
To see whether their method might apply to human tissues, the researchers got human lung segments from a tissue bank. They were able to decellularize the tissues while preserving their architecture. They then reseeded the matrices with epithelial and endothelial cells and found that they adhered at their appropriate locations. This result supports the idea that the approach holds promise for human lung tissue.
“We succeeded in engineering an implantable lung in our rat model that could efficiently exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide, and could oxygenate hemoglobin in the blood. This is an early step in the regeneration of entire lungs for larger animals and, eventually, for humans,” says Niklason. She notes that years of research with adult stem cells will likely be needed to develop ways to repopulate lung matrices and produce fully functional lungs for people.
—by Harrison Wein, Ph.D.
Related Links:
Lung Transplant:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/lungtxp/lungtxp_whatis.html
click to see more info news on lung transplants and Lung Replacements
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