No more dialysis, Scientists Have Developed A Bionic Kidney!

Many of them must expect years to urge a kidney transplant and live normally, with seemingly no other solution on the horizon. However, there’s finally a light-weight within the dark tunnel – scientists from the University of California at the port of entry, USA, have developed the world’s first bionic kidney which might replace damaged kidneys easily and effectively.

 The bionic kidney could be a perfect replica of our kidneys. It consists of diverse microchips and is moved by the center. just like the normal kidneys, it's able to filter waste and toxins from the bloodstream.

The project was unveiled by Willian Vanderbilt Fissels and Shuvo Roy from the University of California, offering renewed hope for scores of kidney dialysis patients. Now, a number of you'll be wondering “But, what if the body rejects it?”, but, the scientists assure us that the probabilities of rejection are zero! Incredible, right?

This is because the bionic kidney is formed from renal cells. the primary prototype is the size of a cup and might balance the amount of sodium and potassium within the body while regulating pressure level.

 The project is wonderful news for any dialysis patient. within the beginning (November 2015), the scientists received $6 million from the Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and it’s safe to mention that the money was well spent.

 The scientists have high hopes for the bionic kidney, and therefore the lead researcher, Dr. Victor Gura, says that the device is going to be availably purchasable in just 2 years.

Hydroxychloroquine Hype Is Dangerous, Experts Warn

 Many different drugs found to kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus within the lab are now being tested to determine if they're effective in humans. One, however, has attracted way more attention than all the remainder, leading some people to act in dangerous ways.

Hydroxychloroquine and therefore the closely related chloroquine are drugs known to be effective against malaria and lupus, but they also carry serious risks. Its potential against a variety of other diseases is under investigation, including as a promising candidate for Covid-19. After one small, flawed study created a buzz and reached President Trump, things began to get wrong.

Trump praised a mixture of hydroxychloroquine and also the antibiotic azithromycin in tweets and at press conferences. Initially, this led to some people buying all the hydroxychloroquine they may obtain to require themselves, resulting in a shortage for those with lupus.

Not only that but NPR reports that Dr. Robin Armstrong in Texas has started giving patients hydroxychloroquine in an unregistered trial. Worse still, there's considerable doubt about whether the patients involved gave consent. Dr. Armstrong admitted to not telling families he was giving the drug to their relatives when patients couldn't consent. Having played down the drug's risks in an interview with the Houston Chronicle, it seems unlikely those given the drug were alerted to the complete list of side-effects. NIH-registered trials require extensive paperwork precisely so everyone can see what patients are being told. By using his political contacts to form an “observational study”, Armstrong appears to possess avoided these.

Meanwhile, several trials of hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine are abandoned due to the intense side effects, including potentially fatal irregular heart rates. Other trials didn't find any benefits from the drug. Many physicians remain cautious about the drug.

"There is also a task for it for a few people,” Dr. Megan L. Ranney of the university told The the big apple Times, “but to inform Americans ‘you don’t have anything to lose,’ that’s not true. People certainly have something to lose by taking it indiscriminately.”

Meanwhile, anti-vaxxers are spreading the claim hydroxychloroquine is such a miracle cure that we do not need vaccines in the slightest degree. Ridiculous because the idea is, it's going to sound credible to those immersed within the hydroxychloroquine hype. it's indeed possible hydroxychloroquine, perhaps together with other drugs, will prove helpful for a few people, which is why several proper trials continue. However, its supporters, including Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, have gone beyond claiming it works to describing it as a silver-bullet, capable of saving everyone infected with the virus. We already know this can be not true.

Hydroxychloroquine is reportedly being widely employed in Italy and Spain, and it's not stopped the toll there, leading experts to conclude that if it works in the slightest degree the advantages are modest. In March, Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and therefore the president's leading advisor on Covid-19 described the reported benefits of hyroxychloroquine as "anecdotal" and there aren't any signs his position has changed.

Gates Foundation Says We'll Need to Work Together to Vaccinate 7 Billion People

 The wealthy Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called Wednesday for global cooperation to ready COVID-19 vaccines for 7 billion people, while offering an extra US$150 million toward developing therapeutics and coverings for the virus. While it's likely to require as many as 18 months to develop and fully test a secure coronavirus vaccine, global authorities and businesses must start now on plans to manufacture it, said foundation chief executive Mark Suzman.

"It's normal to own, at maximum, many a lot of doses manufactured," he said.

"When you're addressing a completely unique pathogen like COVID-19, as and after we get to identifying a successful vaccine, we are visiting need billions of doses."

"There are 7 billion people on the earth," he said. "We are visiting have to vaccinate nearly all. there's no manufacturing capacity to try to do that."

Suzman announced the muse, started and controlled by mega-billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates, is adding US$150 million to the $100 million it announced in February to assist in international efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

Much of the money is to support the event of COVID-19 diagnostic tests, therapeutic treatments, and vaccines, and to create them globally available, he said.

Some are additionally for helping the poorest countries in South Asia and the geographical area, which lack supplies, equipment, and infrastructure to counter the new epidemic.

But the muse has concentrated on preparing for the creation of a vaccine that might effectively halt the spread of coronavirus.

Some 100 potential vaccines are being developed and tested by scientists around the world, Suzman said.

Many might appear hopeful in initial, small tests, he said, but most will fail in larger trials.

"A successful vaccine must be available for 7 billion people. you wish to check if there are unexpected side effects, or side effects within cohorts or groups, whether it's pregnant women or the elderly or the very young," said Suzman.

"The overwhelming majority of vaccine candidates fail in those larger trials, the so-called phase-three trials."

Fastest vaccine ever

But while those trials happen, he said, there must be a world group of experts, countries, and corporations honing in on those with the foremost promise and preparing previous time to manufacture them.

He said both China and also us should be a part of the joint effort, yet because of the World Health Organization. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said he was setting apart US funds for the WHO.

"Clearly for us, the globe Health Organization could be a very strong, reliable partner," Suzman said, noting the Gates Foundation is WHO's second-largest source of funding after the US.

Earlier Wednesday, European Commissioner chief Ursula von der Leyen called a donors conference for May 4 to fund the creation and global deployment of a vaccine, calling it "our collective best shot at beating the virus."

Suzman said the Gates Foundation is "reasonably optimistic" that one or more successful vaccines may be proven within 12 to 18 months.

"This is the fastest vaccine ever developed in human history," he said.

Yet getting the assembly going, he estimated, will cost several billion dollars.

Each vaccine finally approved would require its own manufacturing process, and if people don't begin to arrange within months, lots of your time are lost, he warned.

"There is no return to 'normal' until there's a vaccine," Suzman said. "But there are not any dramatic ways to short-cut it."

Scientists Find Root That Kills 98% Of Cancer Cells In Only 48 Hours

 

This root has been used in medicine since ancient times for its various health benefits. 

However, the most powerful benefit of this common herb is something that medical researchers

are very excited to have "discovered" - which is its potential to cure cancer!

This powerful root accumulates blood and the immune system, curing the prostate, lungs and 

other cancers better than chemotherapy. According to Dr. Carolyn Hamm of the Windsor 

Regional Cancer Center in Ontario, Canada, dandelion root extract was the only thing that 

helped with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. This form of cancer typically affects the 

elderly.

John Di Carlo, who was a 72-year-old cancer patient at the time, was sent home to live his 

final days after all efforts failed to cure leukemia.

He told CBC News that he had been advised to drink dandelion root tea as a last resort. 

Perhaps it should have been the first option offered in his treatment plan, since his cancer

only went into remission four months later! His doctors attributed it to the dandelion tea 

he drank.

Recent studies have shown that dandelion root extract can act very quickly on cancer cells, 

as has been shown in the case of Di Carlo. Within 48 hours of contact with the extract, the 

cancer cells begin to disintegrate. The body happily replaces them with new healthy cells.

Further studies concluded that the extract also has anticancer benefits for other types of 

cancer, including breast, colon, prostate, liver and lung cancer! Dandelion root tea may not be as pleasant as other teas, but it is certainly more pleasant than living with the side effects of chemotherapy or radiation treatments.

Traditional cancer therapies damage the immune system by killing all cells, even healthy 

ones. Dandelion root has the opposite effect: it actually helps strengthen the immune system

and affects only unhealthy cells. It is definitely a win-win situation!

Dr. Hamm warns, however, that dandelion root extract can have a negative impact on the 

effects of chemotherapy. It is always best to consult your doctor and let them know about 

any supplements or foods that you consume regularly. Even if you don't have cancer, eating 

vegetables or drinking dandelion tea can still give you great health! For example, dandelion

roots and stems can help fight diabetes. It does this by stimulating the pancreas to produce

insulin, which in turn stabilizes spikes in blood sugar levels.

If you suffer from digestive problems or need to get rid of toxins, dandelion tea might be 

just what the herbal medicine doctor ordered!

The liver helps the digestive system by producing bile and also filters the blood of 

chemicals and other impurities.

According to Dr. Ax, the vitamins and minerals present in dandelions can help cleanse the 

liver and keep it in perfect shape. So by supporting your liver, you are actually creating 

better health!

Dandelions are also rich in antioxidants and vitamin C, which is essential in helping the 

body fight infections, such as bacteria that cause urinary tract infections.

If you suffer from frequent IVU attacks, drinking dandelion tea on a daily basis can prevent

it from ever happening again.

Dandelion greens are bitter, but completely edible, as long as you get it from an area that 

hasn't been sprayed with chemicals. Greens are high in fiber, which is great for intestinal 

health! High-fiber diets have also been shown to reduce the risk of obesity, heart disease 

and irritable bowel syndrome.

Greens are also rich in vitamin A: only one cup contains 100% of the recommended daily 

allowance. Vitamin A is essential for maintaining healthy eyesight and can also prevent 

premature aging of the skin.

Since you probably won't have a whole cup of bitter vegetables to eat on your own, you can 

incorporate it into a morning smoothie. Just blend it with your favorite fruit, which will 

compensate for the bitter taste.

New Hydrogel Wound Treatment Activates Immune System to Reduce Scars

 Scientists have developed a brand new hydrogel ready to quickly heal animal wounds while minimizing scarring, with the immune system's help. It could potentially work as an upgrade to our body's injury-healing abilities.

The microporous annealed particle (MAP) gel had previously shown promise as a structure designed to support tissue growth and speed up wound healing. Here, the MAP gel was modified to trigger a specific response too.

So far, the research has only checked out wound healing in mice, but it could potentially help people with burns, cuts, diabetic ulcers, and other styles of wounds that will otherwise leave damaged, scarred skin behind.

A repaired wound with hair follicles shown in green. (Duke University)

"This study shows us that activating the system is often accustomed to tilt the balance of wound healing from tissue destruction and scar formation to tissue repair and skin regeneration," says biomedical engineer Tatiana Segura, from Duke University.

Scar tissue is made as a part of a rapid reaction to injury by the body: it reduces pain and limits the prospect of infection. However, the regrown skin isn't complete, lacking sweat glands and hair follicles, and it is also more liable to future injury.

Having already used MAP gels as how of organizing cells to repair wounds faster, here the team tried to stay the biological scaffold in situ for extended by flipping the peptide structure of a specific chemical linker within the gel therefore the body wouldn't see it as being familiar and – in theory – make it tougher to interrupt down.

"Previously we'd seen that because the wound began to heal, the MAP gel began to lose porosity, which limited how the tissue could grow through the structure," says biomedical engineer Don Griffin from the University of Virginia.

"We hypothesized that slowing down the degradation rate of the MAP scaffold would prevent the pores from closing and supply additional support to the tissue because it grows, which might improve the tissue's quality."

However, in experiments on mice, the team's attempts to prolong the lifetime of the scaffold by making it more alien to the body had the alternative effect: the gel had almost entirely disappeared from the wound site by the time it had healed.

The peptide structure flip did trigger a unique reaction, but from the more specialized adaptive system – it uses different kinds of cells and a more regenerative reaction to try and do its work.

The antibodies and macrophage cells that were triggered during this case were better ready to remove traces of the hydrogel, moreover as repairing skin in a very way that was more just like the original skin (including hair follicles).

This process still must be adapted for the organic structure, of course, but we share plenty of the repair mechanisms with other mammals, and also the scientists are hopeful that a modified version of their hydrogel could eventually be accustomed repair wounds faster and more naturally – and maybe even contribute to vaccine development.

"I am excited about the chance of designing materials that will directly interact with the system to support tissue regeneration," says Segura. "This may be a new approach for us."

A hidden code in our DNA explains how new pieces of genes are made

We’re all here thanks to mutations. Random changes in genes are what create variety during a species, and this can be what allows it to adapt to new environments and eventually evolve into a completely new species. But most random mutations actually disrupt the functions of our genes then are a standard source of genetic diseases.

This ambiguity creates a good challenge. On the one hand, mutations are needed for biological innovation, and on the opposite hand, they cause diseases. How does nature resolve this conflict? Research by me and my colleagues suggests that one answer could exist an order that enables evolution to innovate while minimizing the disruption this will create.

This code is hidden within a component of our genome (the complete set of our genetic material) referred to as repetitive genetic elements, which we now know plays a key role in evolution. These elements are sequences within our DNA which will make many copies of themselves. so as to create the proteins that our bodies need, our cells take instructions from our DNA by transcribing it into the same molecule called RNA. But in rare cases, rather than building a protein, some RNA molecules convert into DNA and insert themselves at new locations in our genome.

In this way, the repetitive elements can continually create new copies of themselves. As a result, the human genome contains thousands of repetitive elements that aren't present in the other species because they need to copy themselves since humans evolved.

But repetitive elements aren’t just useless copies. Barbara McClintock, the scientist who discovered them in 1948, showed they'll act as switches that switch genes on and off in maize. This was initially thought to be an obscure phenomenon with no relevance for humans. Yet now it's become clear that repetitive elements are a vital toolkit for evolution. By turning genes on and off, the repetitive elements can influence what characteristics a species evolves. they need been useful for biological innovations, like the evolution of pregnancy in mammals.

Perhaps the foremost elegant example of this is often within the evolution of the peppered moth. This moth normally has light-colored wings, but during Britain’s age, a repetitive element inserted itself into the gene that controls the color pattern of the wings. As a result, a black strain of the peppered moth evolved and this allowed it to blend in and escape its predators amid the polluted environment.

So what does all this should do with managing the disruption of mutations? Our research looks at the repetitive elements that were copied within the genome of the ancestors of contemporary primates. There are over 1.6m of those “Alu elements” dispersed everywhere in the human genome, and a few of them have accumulated random mutations that enabled them to become functional parts of our genes.

We have found a code within the RNA that controls Alu elements hiding inside human genes. This code combines competing for positive and negative molecular forces, sort of a yin and yang in our cells. it's well-known that competing molecular forces control many aspects of our genes. In our case, the positive force (acting through the protein called U2AF65) allows the Alu elements to stay a part of RNA and also the resulting protein. The negative force (acting through the protein called hnRNPC) opposes this and removes the weather from the RNA.

We’ve known for many years that evolution has to tinker with genetic elements so that they can accumulate mutations while minimizing disruption to the fitness of a species. Research, published within the journal eLife, checked out over 6,000 Alu elements to indicate that our code does exactly this.

The two forces are tightly coupled in evolution, so as soon as any mutations make the ying stronger, the yang catches up and stops them. this enables the Alu elements to stay during a harmless state in our DNA over long evolutionary periods, during which they accumulate plenty of change via mutations. As a result, they decrease harm and gradually start escaping the repressive force. Eventually, a number of them tackle a very important function and have become indispensable pieces of human genes.

To put it otherwise, the balanced forces buy the time needed for mutations to create beneficial changes, instead of disruptive ones, to a species. And this is often why evolution proceeds in such small steps – it only works if the 2 forces remain balanced by complementary mutations, which takes time. Eventually, important new molecular functions can emerge from randomness.

These findings tell us that humans don't seem to be a set pinnacle of evolution. Our genomes are like those of the other species: a fluid landscape of DNA sequences that keep changing. This explains how our genome can host its ever-changing repetitive elements despite their potential to disrupt the prevailing order in our cells.

6 Reasons Why Herd Immunity Without a Vaccine Is a Terrible Idea in This Pandemic

 It's a tantalizing prospect to think that herd immunity could end the coronavirus pandemic. If true herd immunity were achieved, the coronavirus would not spread, and that we could return to normal life as we knew it before.

But herd immunity is difficult to drag off. It can only be achieved in two ways: by getting plenty of people sick, or by giving many people a good, safe vaccine.

The goal is that the same: to urge a sizeable majority of the population proof against infection, so a disease can not spread among our collective 'herd'.

The consensus among epidemiologists is that chasing herd immunity without a vaccine wouldn't work. It risks too many unnecessary deaths.

Even so, the concept has become a subject of conversation in households, on social media, on TV, in bars - with people asking: "Why not try it?" Those conversations gained steam last month when the White House propped up the nice Barrington Declaration, a document drafted at a Libertarian company suggesting that almost all people should try and select herd immunity, encouraging infections among the world's young, healthy population.

"For those that are under … for example 60 or 50, the lockdown harms are, mentally and physically, worse than COVID," Jay Bhattacharya, one in every one of the authors of the declaration said last week, during a debate hosted by the medical journal JAMA.

Opposite him was epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch from Harvard, one amongst the thousands of leading experts who signed on to a stinging rebuttal of the declaration, who explained why the approach is so dangerous.

"I think it is a great idea to appear for creative solutions, but nobody responsible would abandon what we all know works, which is controlling viral spread," Lipsitch said.

Their conversation threw up six overarching reasons why achieving natural herd immunity - the sort that does not require a coronavirus vaccine - won't work.

One: Nobody thinks it is a good idea to induce everybody infected, but just targeting the young is near impossible

You'd be hard-pressed to seek out a significant public health expert who thinks natural herd immunity will work.

Leaders in Sweden recently backtracked on their unique stab at herd immunity against the virus because it killed such a lot of people in their nursing homes.

Bhattacharya name-checked Sweden as a decent example of herd immunity done right.

But, when pressed, he agreed that letting anyone within the population get sick so as to draw near disease resistance within the community isn't a decent idea. "You should social distance once you can definitely use masks after you can't social distance," he said. "All of the mitigation measures are really important."

Even Sweden's approach failed to follow what the nice Barrington Declaration suggests: "focused protection" for the vulnerable, and focused infection of the young and healthy.

Bhattacharya asked listeners for his or her ideas about the way to achieve this focused approach and added some of his own ideas, including employing rapid testing in nursing homes and multi-generational households and isolating cases.

"We protect the vulnerable with every single tool we've got," he said. "We use our testing resources. We use our staff rotations in nursing homes. We use PPE. We do every kind of thing."

The problem is, those ideas are already being tried across the US, to only mixed success.

Nevada has found the US's new federal rapid testing protocol in nursing homes so unreliable that the state sought to ban them last month, a home workforce already spread thin is getting sick, and case isolation is near-impossible to attain within the dangerous pre-symptomatic phase of the many illnesses, when people may transmit their virus to others before they even know they need it.

Two: COVID-19 has many long-term side effects which will impact lives and also the healthcare system for years to come back

The second issue with this idea of "focused protection" is that we do not actually know who we'd like to safeguard.

"For younger populations, and folks who are less in danger, frankly, COVID is a smaller amount of a risk than the lockdown," Bhattacharya said, reiterating that such closures harm people's psychological, mental, and physical health.

But COVID-19 doesn't just kill people. It also has devastating long-term effects on many of its survivors, including debilitating brain fog, hair loss, swollen toes, and scaly rashes, tinnitus, and loss of smell.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention notes that almost half (45.4 percent) of the adult population within the US is in danger for COVID-19 complications - including death - "because of upset, diabetes, respiratory illness, hypertension, or cancer."

Three: we do not actually know who COVID-19 kills and why

The argument for "focused protection" also ignores the truth of what we've learned about the coronavirus: it's killed people of each age, race, and sex because it tears through community after community across the world.

In the US, quite 45,500 people under the age of 65 have died from the coronavirus thus far, per the CDC.

It's impossible to understand, before someone becomes infected, what their true risk is. Children have died. So have college students and lots of others who failed to necessarily have hallmark preconditions.

Scientists are still studying the virus to raised understand how it works, but a unifying thread among severe cases could also be what percentage of ACE-2 receptors (which the virus uses to invade our cells) we've got.

Four: Lockdowns save lives

Lockdowns, though they're an extreme disease-fighting measure, have saved tens of thousands of lives around the world, on nearly every continent.

When schools are closed, more kids go hungry, and education gets interrupted too. Domestic abuse, ill-usage, habit, and suicidal ideation have all gone up in recent months within the US.

"I haven't been able to visit church nose to nose, really, in seven months," Bhattacharya lamented.

However, these measures have bought critical, life-saving time for developing vaccines, formulating drugs, and discovering best practices for patient treatment. "Six months from now, [a] case may well be prevented by vaccination, or can be treated by a far better therapeutic," Lipsitch said.

Bhattacharya also argued that lockdowns are "the single biggest generator of inequality since segregation."

But that's a deeply misleading statement. Racial inequality, for instance, has not been generated by the pandemic, if anything it's only been unmasked.

"Obviously, the African-American community has suffered from racism for a really, very long period of your time," Dr. Fauci told members of Congress in June. "

And I cannot imagine that that has not contributed to the conditions that they find themselves in, economically and otherwise."

Five: Getting obviate the virus is feasible, and it doesn't require killing people

Bhattacharya, and other backers of herd immunity, often peddle a false dichotomy between lockdowns and "normal life," with no area or room for virus-fighting in between.

But that either-or approach doesn't take into consideration what proportion mitigation measures like distancing, avoiding crowds, and getting everybody wearing masks can really help slow viral transmission.

Besides, the US has never really, truly tried to lock down yet. Even within the spring, "we really functionally close up only about 50 percent," Fauci recently told members of Congress.

Countries including Australia, New Zealand, and China have already achieved the "impossible goal" of zero (or, near zero) COVID, and have largely gone back to normal life after strict lockdowns. 

Taiwan even did it without locking down the least bit, by instituting strict screening and surveillance measures, effective isolation and quarantining, and widespread masking.

Six: Natural herd immunity probably won't work for this pandemic, irrespective of how hard we try

The US, like everywhere else within the world, still features a great distance to travel to hit even a number of very cheap posited herd immunity thresholds, which require 50 percent (or more) of the population to be exposed and subsequently immune. At best, only around 10 percent to twenty percent of individuals nationwide are exposed.

But whether or not everyone was to become exposed to the virus, natural herd immunity likely still wouldn't work.

This is thanks to the way that our immunity against all coronaviruses - from common colds to the current novel coronavirus - wanes over time. Immunity to the present virus through prior infection isn't definitive, or lasting: coronavirus reinfections are possible, and they are happening in some rare cases already.

That's why serious scientists agree it's better to attend for a vaccine and build up our collective immunity against the virus simultaneously.

"Humans don't seem to be herded," the WHO decision-maker of Health Emergencies Mike Ryan said in May, slamming the thought.

"I think we want to be really careful after we use terms during this way around natural infections in humans because it can cause an awfully brutal arithmetic which doesn't put people, and life, and suffering at the center of that equation."

One projection suggests that attempting herd immunity within the US would end in 640,000 deaths by February 2023.

It's true that there are adverse consequences. many folks have lost their jobs, shuttered their businesses, missed doctor's appointments, experienced more loneliness, and commenced drinking more alcohol.