wound healing Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Minerals Can Be Key to Healing Damaged Tissue

AHA Publisher — Mon, 09 May 2022 07:00:02 +0000

Texas A&M University via Newswise – Every species, from bacteria to humans, is capable of regeneration. Regeneration is mediated by the molecular processes that regulate gene expression to control tissue renewal, restoration and growth. A collaboration between researchers in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the College of Medicine at Texas A&M University identifies the crucial role of minerals in regulating gene expression, thus controlling the number of proteins that a cell should make, thereby encouraging tissue regeneration and redefining cellular identity. This research paves the way for future studies to identify the role of specific minerals, as well as how they can be assembled to design the next generation of mineral medicine to heal damaged tissue. This study was recently published in Science Advances. Minerals are inorganic elements that play many vital roles, working interactively with vitamins, enzymes, hormones and other nutrient cofactors to regulate thousands of the body’s biological functions. Although several minerals have been shown to regulate gene expression and cellular activity, very little work has focused on understanding underlying molecular mechanisms. This engineering research group is led by Dr. Akhilesh Gaharwar, associate professor of biomedical engineering and Presidential Impact Fellow, in collaboration with Dr. Irtisha Singh, assistant professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine at Texas A&M and the co-corresponding author of the study where a new class of mineral-based nanoparticles has been introduced to direct human stem cells toward bone cells. These nanoparticles are known specifically as nanosilicates, and with them, the team is able to determine the role of minerals in regulating gene expression profiles to direct stem cell differentiation. These nanosilicates are disc-shaped mineral-nanoparticles 20-30 nanometers (nm) in diameter and 1-2 nm in thickness. These nanoparticles are highly biocompatible and are readily eaten up by cells. Once inside the cell body, these nanoparticles slowly dissolve into individual minerals such as silicon, magnesium and lithium. Nanosilicates dissociate into individual minerals inside the cells and turn “on” a set of key genes that result in information flow throughout the cells, known as signaling pathways. These signaling pathways are responsible for instructing the cells to take on specific functions, such as converting into another type of cells or starting the healing process by secreting tissue-specific proteins known as extracellular matrix. These extracellular matrices are composed of various proteins, including glycoproteins and proteoglycans that facilitate tissue healing and support tissue functions. Combining interdisciplinary techniques and biomedical engineering and genomics methods, the lead authors of this study, doctoral students Anna Brokesh and Lauren Cross, identify and characterize significant genes that are turned “on” and activated by different signaling pathways due to treatment with minerals. One of the major findings of this study is that minerals such as silicon, magnesium and lithium are involved in inducing endochondral ossification, a process by which stem cells are transformed into soft and hard tissues such as cartilage and bone in young humans. The Singh Laboratory, managed by Singh, leverages high-throughput functional assays and perturbations to dissect the functional regulatory programs in mammalian cells. In this study, they analyzed whole transcriptomic sequencing (RNA-seq) data to evaluate the effect of nanosilicates and ionic dissolution products on the gene expression profiles of stem cells. RNA-seq, a transcriptome-wide high throughput sequencing assay, provides an unbiased and holistic overview of the gene expression profiles to identify pathways that are perturbed by specific treatments. “There are a lot of people who want to understand how minerals impact the human body, but there is limited evidence to identify how they affect us on the cellular level,” Brokesh said. “Our study is one of the first studies to utilize unbiased transcriptome-wide sequencing to determine how mineral ions can direct stem cell fate.” The proposed approach addresses a long-standing challenge in current therapeutic approaches that utilize supraphysiological doses of growth factors to direct tissue research. Such a high dose of growth factors results in a range of complications, including uncontrolled tissue formation, inflammation and tumorigenesis, the production or formation of tumor cells. These adversely limit the usage of growth factors as a therapeutic agent in the field of regenerative medicine. Gaharwar said the impact of this work is far-reaching because understanding the effect of minerals to achieve desired regulation of cellular activity has a strong potential to open novel avenues for developing clinically relevant therapeutics for regenerative medicine, drug delivery and immunomodulation. To read the original article click here.

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A Smart Polymer That Would Heal Wounds Without Sutures

AHA Publisher — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 08:00:52 +0000

Brian Blum via Israel21c – It’s long been a staple of science fiction to mock the simple suture as outdated. And why not – the wound-closure technique has been in use for at least 5,000 years. Prof. Hossam Haick’s chemical engineering lab at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has created a smart suture-less dressing that binds the edges of a wound together, wards off infection, and even digitally reports on the wound’s condition to the surgeon. The dressing would be applied to the area before a surgical incision is made. Following the surgery, the two ends of the wound bind together within three seconds. The dressing can release antibiotics to help prevent infection, and it is connected wirelessly to the medical team’s smart devices. The smart dressing can deliver real-time reports on changes in temperature, pH and glucose levels. Haick says he came up with the idea late one night after “watching a movie on futuristic robotics with my kids. I thought, what if we could really make self-repairing sensors?” Haick got to work on his idea the next day. But there was a problem: The sensor was not biocompatible, meaning that it couldn’t be used in contact with skin and blood. Creating a polymer that would be both biocompatible and self-healing was achieved by Haick’s postdoctoral student Ning Tang. Tang’s polymer is like a molecular zipper made from sulfur and nitrogen. The surgeon’s scalpel opens it, then when pressed together it closes and holds fast. Integrated carbon nanotubes provide electric conductivity and integrate the sensor array. In lab experiments, wounds closed with the smart dressing healed as fast as those closed with sutures. Moreover, they showed reduced rates of infection. “We’ve introduced the advances of the fourth industrial revolution – smart interconnected devices,” Haick says. “It’s a new approach to wound treatment.” He reports that the technology is now patented. “We have started discussions with a few agencies towards bringing this technology to the market.” Haick is a prolific inventor. ISRAEL21c first wrote about him in 2013 when he developed Na-Nose, a device that can detect various cancers through a simple in-office breath test. Next came “e-skin” and wearable health monitors. Earlier this year, we reported on the A-Patch, a skin sticker that can diagnose tuberculosis. This was developed in Haick’s lab and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The invention is described in the journal Advanced Materials. To read the original article click here.

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Discover 5 Incredible Health Benefits of Papaya

AHA Publisher — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 07:00:49 +0000

Stephanie Woods via NaturalHealth365 – Papaya is a wonderful tropical fruit that is so deliciously versatile. Chop it up with some mango and sweet onion to serve over grilled (pasture raised) chicken, or drop some in the blender with coconut water, pineapple, and mango for a healthy smoothie. Of course, you can always enjoy it on its own, ice cold and juicy. What might surprise you is that this tasty tropical treat actually has a number of pretty incredible health benefits. Papaya is quite good for you. It is chock full of vitamins like vitamins A and C as well as B1, B3, B5, K, and magnesium! In fact, several studies have found that papaya can be used topically and consumed to heal the body naturally. It has been shown to help manage diabetes as well as improve cardiovascular health. Here are five excellent reasons to start incorporating papaya into your diet today. Studies Find Papaya Can Help With Wound Healing Several studies have found that topical application of papaya is very effective in treating wounds. One study used papaya on chronic ulcers and found that it was more effective than other topical treatments used for ulcers. Another study found that it was very effective in treating wounds in diabetic rats. Yet another study found that it works well on burns. There was a preparation process in several of the treatments that some subjects found to be tedious or difficult. However, the power the fruit has to facilitate wound healing makes it well worth the work. But wait, that’s not all! This tropical fruit is beneficial in treating fungal infections, according to studies Papaya latex sap has gained some popularity in recent years due to its usefulness in several areas. One of the most notable was a study published in 1997 that examined how the substance, when combined with a synthetic antifungal, can treat fungal infections, specifically those from Candida albicans. The study found that the substance successfully inhibited candida growth. Here Is What Makes Papaya a Powerful Cancer-Fighting Food When you enjoy a juicy, delicious papaya, you just might be reducing your risk of certain cancers. The fruit is rich in lycopene as well as the leaf, making it a powerful cancer-fighting food. Many studies have shown its effectiveness against breast cancer. In fact, one study found that its antioxidant properties were much higher than in other foods. When it is stacked against foods like mango, tomato, avocado, grapes, and guava, papaya still comes out on top. Fight Bloating and Constipation With This Delicious Fruit Papaya is rich in papain, an enzyme that researchers believe makes it easier for the body to digest protein. Some cultures use the fruit to treat irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and constipation. One study found that subjects who took a papaya-based formula every day for 40 days reported dramatic improvement in bloating and constipation. While it is mainly the flesh of the papaya used to treat these issues, the leaves, roots, and seeds of the plant have been shown to be very effective in treating ulcers all along the digestive tract. Do You Want Healthy, Younger-Looking Skin? Here Is How Papaya Can Help Just as the lycopene and vitamin C in papaya can help heal wounds and fight cancer, they can also make your skin look younger. It protects skin, smoothing out wrinkles and fine lines, and helps to reduce the signs of aging. Its antioxidant properties fight against free radical activity like sagging skin, wrinkles, and other types of skin damage. Eating raw papaya or applying it to your skin can help you become healthier. Try incorporating the fruit into your own daily diet so you too can reap the numerous benefits of the tasty, tropical papaya. Of course, buy organic – whenever possible. Sources for this article include: GreenMedInfo.com NIH.gov NIH.gov To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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Local Startup Testing a One-Two Punch Against Hard-to-Heal Wounds

AHA Publisher — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 07:00:04 +0000

University of Wisconsin-Madison via News Wise – Silver’s antimicrobial activity rests on its ability to punch holes in the bacterial cell wall, but a biofilm can block that exposure. Chemically, gallium ions resemble a form of iron that cells use to gain chemical energy through the process of reduction. Newswise — MADISON, Wis. — Millions of people with severe burns or diabetic skin ulcers could benefit from an experimental enhancement to a next-generation covering that is already healing difficult wounds. A $1.5 million, two-year Small Business Innovation Research grant announced today will test whether adding gallium metal ions to an ultra-thin material carrying antimicrobial silver can defeat the “biofilms” that shield bacteria from antibiotics. Persistent wounds are distressingly common, says Ankit Agarwal, founder and CEO of Imbed Biosciences, the Fitchburg, Wisconsin-based University of Wisconsin–Madison spinoff that makes and sells the silver-bearing covering. According to a scientific report published in August 2019, “In the United States, chronic ulcers affect more than 6 million people, with increasing numbers in the growing elderly and diabetic populations.” In many cases, the chronic wounds remain open for months, due to difficult-to-treat infections that are often shielded by a biofilm. Imbed’s silver-covering technology was invented in the lab of Nicholas Abbott, then a professor of chemical engineering at UW–Madison. Abbott guided Agarwal’s postdoctoral studies on the technology. Imbed’s existing product, called MicroLyte, was cleared by the FDA for marketing in the U.S. in August 2016. MicroLyte is on the formulary of five major hospital systems, including UW Health, and is used in more than a dozen other hospitals across the country. “The formulary is a list of medications readily available for use at a hospital or health system,” Agarwal says. MicroLyte contains a tiny dose of metallic silver particles on an absorbable polymeric multilayer film. Flexible and only 25 micrometers thick (thinner than a human hair), the covering places silver in direct contact with bacteria. MicroLyte can eliminate the painful process of repeated removal that is needed when conventional bandages are replaced on tenacious wounds. Silver’s antimicrobial activity rests on its ability to punch holes in the bacterial cell wall, but a biofilm can block that exposure. Chemically, gallium ions resemble a form of iron that cells use to gain chemical energy through the process of reduction. “Bacteria inside the biofilm are looking for more iron, so they end up taking up gallium,” Agarwal says. But gallium ions cannot be reduced, and the bacteria atrophy for want of energy, helping to break up the biofilm. “So in return for accepting a worthless ‘Trojan horse,’ the bacteria are exposed to silver — the second punch — and they will die. By placing nanometer-sized particles of both metals on the ultra-thin film, “we are using levels of both metals that are so low that they are not toxic to human cells, placed on a film that actually supports growth of skin cells,” Agarwal says. Under the new grant, silver plus gallium will be tested on full-thickness wounds in pigs in the UW–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. “To simulate chronic wounds, we will surgically create wounds and inoculate them with pre-established biofilms of antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” says Jonathan McAnulty, chief of surgery at the vet school. “Healing in porcine skin wounds is similar to healing in humans.” McAnulty will head the animal studies in collaboration with Charles Czuprynski, chair of pathobiological sciences. Both researchers have worked for years with the silver-based dressings. “We see animals with skin injuries that get colonized by bad actors,” says McAnulty, “including different strains of antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus. These wounds don’t want to heal, despite our best efforts, and can go weeks or months without progress. This clinical scenario is almost identical to human cases.” Although the silver-bearing covering is highly effective in healing infections and closing many difficult wounds, the gallium is intended to enhance that activity by defeating bacterial biofilms. “Behind a biofilm, bacteria are more protected against any agent trying to get in and kill them,” says McAnulty. “If we can prevent the biofilm from forming, or if it is present and we can get it to dissolve, it will expose the bacteria to killing agents.” Research at the veterinary school has already shown that the combination film can “completely disperse the bacteria biofilms created by a mix of two pathogenic bacteria,” Agarwal says. “Treatment with a commercial, silver-based dressing — not MicroLyte — had no effect.” Angela Gibson, a burn surgeon and medical director of UW Health wound healing services, has used MicroLyte on patients of all ages when conventional products have failed. “The property that I find unique in MicroLyte is the total conformation to the wound bed as the thin film melts into all the crevices of a wound likely where the bacteria are hiding and preventing healing. It is also very easy to apply and may decrease irritation, such as itching, caused by other products.” Gibson says she looks forward to a clinical trial of the product to determine if her experience holds true in a larger study of patients. Finding metal ions to defeat bacteria is simpler than the usual approach of finding or inventing molecules, Agarwal says. “We like to keep it simple. We already had silver working, but we thought, ‘Let’s take another metal, one that’s has been used in other FDA-approved formulations, and put it into the matrix in combination with silver, and see if it gets into the biofilm and sensitizes the bacteria to silver, which will kill it.” An aging population, rising rates of diabetes, and a growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria all portend a bigger problem with persistent wounds. If gallium’s Trojan horse strategy proves able to defeat biofilms, that will be a first, Agarwal says. “Today there is no commercially available formulation that is indicated for dispersal of biofilm in a wound. Zero.” To read the original article click here.

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