Medical Bulletin 21/February/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Post-stroke arm mobility instantly improves after spinal cord stimulation: Study

When it comes to strokes, doctors predict a grim future: Globally, every fourth adult over the age of 25 will suffer a stroke in their lifetime, and 75% of those people will have lasting deficits in motor control of their arm and hand, severely limiting their physical autonomy.

A neurotechnology that stimulates the spinal cord instantly improves arm and hand mobility, enabling people affected by moderate to severe stroke to conduct their normal daily activities more easily, report researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University today in Nature Medicine.

A pair of thin metal electrodes resembling strands of spaghetti implanted along the neck engage intact neural circuits, allowing stroke patients to fully open and close their fist, lift their arm above their head or use a fork and knife to cut a piece of steak for the first time in years.

Reference:

Epidural stimulation of the cervical spinal cord for post-stroke upper-limb paresis,Nature Medicine,doi 10.1038/s41591-022-02202-6

New protein activity discovered in telomeres

Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, UNC School of Medicine researchers Taghreed Al-Turki, PhD, and Jack Griffith, PhD, made the stunning discovery that telomeres contain genetic information to produce two small proteins, one of which they found is elevated in some human cancer cells, as well as cells from patients suffering from telomere-related defects.

Once thought incapable of encoding proteins due to their simple monotonous repetitions of DNA, tiny telomeres at the tips of our chromosomes seem to hold a potent biological function that’s potentially relevant to our understanding of cancer and aging.

Reference:

Mammalian Telomeric RNA (TERRA) can be translated to produce valine-arginine and glycine-leucine dipeptide repeat proteins,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,doi 10.1073/pnas.2221529120

Newly developed synthetic porphyrin may be used as a dual antidote against fire gas poisoning

In a recent breakthrough, a team of researchers led by Professor Hiroaki Kitagishi from the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Doshisha University, Japan has developed a synthetic heme-model compound termed “hemoCD-Twins”, that acts as an antidote for CO and HCN poisoning. Prof. Kitagishi and his collaborators-Dr. Qiyue Mao from Doshisha University, Dr. Xuansu Zhao from the Building Research Institute, Japan, Dr. Akiko Kiriyama from Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, Japan, and Dr. Roberto Motterlini from University Paris Est Creteil, France-have detailed the development of this novel antidote in their recent research article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). In saline solution, hemoCD Twins dissolves into two heme models, of which hemoCD-P captures CO very strongly, and hemoCD-I effectively scavenges CN-.

Reference:

A synthetic porphyrin as an effective dual antidote against carbon monoxide and cyanide poisoning, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi 10.1073/pnas.2209924120

Wearable vocal fatigue sensing device senses when your voice needs a break

Northwestern University researchers have developed the first smart wearable device to continuously track how much people use their voices, alerting them to overuse before vocal fatigue and potential injury set in.

The first-of-its-kind, battery-powered, wireless device and accompanying algorithms could be a game-changer for professional singers, teachers, politicians, call-center workers, coaches and anyone who relies on their voices to communicate effectively and make a living. It also could help clinicians remotely and continuously monitor patients with voice disorders throughout their treatment.

Reference:

Closed-loop network of skin-interfaced wireless devices for quantifying vocal fatigue and providing user feedback,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,doi 10.1073/pnas.2219394120