New technique to deliver life-saving drugs to the brain
Magneto-electric nanoparticles (MENs) deliver a significantly higher level of the anti-HIV drug AZTTP to the brain (credit: FIU) Researchers from Florida International University (FIU)’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine have developed a revolutionary technique that can deliver and fully release the anti-HIV drug AZTTP into the brain. Madhavan Nair, professor and chair, and Sakhrat Khizroev, professor and vice chair of the HWCOM’s Department of Immunology, used magneto-electric nanoparticles (MENs) to cross the blood-brain barrier and send a significantly increased level of AZTTP — up to 97 percent more — to HIV-infected cells. For years, the blood-brain barrier has stumped scientists and doctors who work with neurological diseases. A natural filter that allows very few substances to pass through to the brain, the blood-brain barrier keeps most medicines from reaching the brain. “This allows a virus, such as AIDS, to lurk unchecked,” said Nair, an HIV/immunology researcher.
Smart Drug Smarts - Fuel Your Brain With the Latest in Neuroscience!
Human enhancement and the future of work report
07 November 2012 The Human enhancement and the future of work project explored potential enhancements arising from advances in science and engineering that are likely to impact on the future of work. Key messages identified by participants at a workshop in March 2012 included: Enhancement technologies could change how people work. The report of the workshop is a record of the discussion that took place at the event, and does not necessarily reflect the policy of the academies.
Nano compartments may aid drug delivery, catalyst design
This false-color image (left) depicts the core lattice in blue, where drugs can be placed in compartment pores for targeting in the body. In the hexagon-shaped cylinder branches, other types of drugs may be place for delivery. Simultaneous delivery of pharmaceuticals can thus be optimized for each drug separately. The accompanying illustration (right) clarifies how it works. (Credit: Wiesner Lab/Cornell University) Cornell researchers have created spongelike nanoparticles with separate compartments that could deliver two or more different drugs to the same location, with precise control over the amounts, avoiding unpleasant side effects. The technology might also be applied to catalysts used to enhance chemical reactions, which are sometimes formed into porous nanoparticles to expose more surface area. The starter for the process is a mixture of organosilanes, molecules built around carbon and silicon atoms, and surfactants. At first a cubic lattice forms, building cubical particles.
A ‘DNA nanotrain’ for targeted cancer drug transport
Chemotherapy drugs are specifically transported to target cancer cells carried on DNA “box cars” and powered by an aptamer “locomotive,” unloaded, and then induce cytotoxicity to cancer cells (credit: University of Florida) University of Florida researchers have developed a “DNA nanotrain” that fast-tracks its payload of cancer-fighting drugs and bioimaging agents to tumor cells deep within the body. The nanotrains can cost-effectively deliver high doses of drugs to precisely targeted cancers and other medical maladies without leaving behind toxic nano-clutter. DNA nanotechnology holds great promise as a new way to deliver chemotherapy directly to cancer cells, but until now, scientists have not been able to direct nanotherapies to consistently differentiate cancer cells from healthy ones. Other limiting factors include high costs, too-small amounts of drugs delivered, and potential toxic side effects. “It’s very exciting, but we still have a long way to go before human trials,” he said.
Are Smart Drugs the Answer to Bad Moods—and a Bad Economy?
At a party in a rambling, million-dollar Victorian mansion in Atlanta’s hip Inman Park neighborhood, artists and lawyers, musicians and businesspeople mingle, talk, and imbibe that eternally popular feel-good drug, alcohol. The slightly pungent scent of marijuana drifts in from a room off the kitchen, where joints are passed among a dozen people, some of them old enough to have been smoking marijuana as a recreational drug since the 1960s. Despite the fears of their worried parents in the hippie heyday, most of these folks have ended up successful; they say that they are using pot to unwind, de-stress, and be more sociable. Later I join some friends and head to a nearby tavern. Here we are, four middle-aged professionals (a physician, a neurology technician, a computer executive, and a writer) having beers and burgers, when the conversation turns to travel—and to a certain drug. College students are not the only ones seeking that attention edge.
The Future Of Cognition | Smarter Nootropics
WRITTEN BY: Devin Van Dyke Intelligence is the raw material of human achievement. Every distinction between man and animal is the result of our exceptional brains. Even though the forces of evolution have not ceased to work on us, for the last 50,000 years the individual human brain has not substantially changed. Our remote hunter-gatherer ancestors were as intelligent individually as we are today–all the landmark achievements of civilization are the work of our collective intelligence. The “hive-mind” is talented in some areas but challenged in others: our weaknesses in long-term planning and morality are indicated by our failures to solve global warming or end genocide and war, respectively. To fulfill our potential and transcend our animal roots it is necessary to further develop our individual minds. Imagine the consequences of, for example, a 25 point increase in intelligence worldwide, or even simply among those involved in government. Works Cited Boyd, Robynne. Zangara, A. (2003).
Nanotechnology breakthrough may improve drug delivery
Model showing a single water molecule captured inside a fullerene C60 molecular structure (credit: F. L. Bowles/Univ. of California, Davis) Columbia Engineering researchers have developed a technique to encapsulate a single water molecule inside a buckyball (C60) molecular structure. Using computer modeling, they discovered that the resulting structure responds in a surprising way to an electric field: the whole structure can be driven in either direction through a narrow channel, with adjustable transport velocity The researchers believe their discovery could have practical applications, such as more effective ways to control drug delivery. Buckyballs (more formally known as Buckminsterfullerenes, or fullerenes), are spherical, hollow molecular structures made of 60 carbon atoms. Since the discovery of C60 in the 1980s, scientists have been trying to solve the challenge of controlling a single C60 molecule.
