Ticked Off

 

                                                         Lyme disease on the rise in Canada

 

If not diagnosed and left untreated, the symptoms of Lyme disease will progress from flu-like lethargy to severe heart and neurological damage.  If treated with antibiotics, the normal prescription for Lyme disease, this disease is treatable with modern techniques, but many times this debilitating disease is misdiagnosed as something else and left untreated, in which case the complications associated with Lyme disease increase.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) usually records less than 60 cases a year of Lyme disease in a country with upwards of 30 million souls, but acknowledged in a 2008 report on Lyme disease in Canada that a large percentage of cases of Lyme disease probably go unreported or are mistakenly recorded as something else.  The British Columbia based Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation argues that the real figure is more like 2,000 cases of Lyme disease each year, which they base in part on statistics from the U.S. that show cases in the United States have doubled in number since 1991 to more than 20,000 a year.  The PHAC is currently working with the provinces and Canadian government to require doctors to make a report of all cases of Lyme disease they treat each year.

The Lyme causing bacteria (Borrelia burgdoferi) are transmitted primarily by two species: the blacklegged tick, which are most prevalent in parts of Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia, but their range has been reported lately by ecologists to be increasing and they can currently be found across the geological regions of Canada.

Prevention is the best cure for most diseases and Lyme disease is no different.  To help, wear long sleeved shirts and tuck pants into socks when in blacklegged tick infected areas, and use DEET-based insect repellent – containing up to 30 percent DEET for adults; 10 percent for children six months to 12 years of age;  and don’t give infants under six months any as it can cause additional medical concerns.

Cancer Research

Deadly Accurate Cancer Killers

 

Small carbon missiles target cancer and signal the beginning of the end for chemo’s uncomfortable side effects.

The negative side of conventional cancer killing techniques like chemotherapy is the destruction of surrounding non-cancerous cells during the course of the treatment regiment, triggering nausea, rashes, and hair loss.

The Cure is to eliminate cancerous cells while leaving adjacent non-cancerous cells untouched. The answer depends on hollow orbs of carbon polymer each 1,000 times smaller than the head of a pin. Omid Farokhzad of Harvard University and Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are inserting small amounts of chemotherapy drugs into these orbs, known as nanoshells

It’s important that the orbs only contact the cancerous cells; to make this possible the scientists impregnate the outer surface with filaments of molecules, referred to as aptamers, which attach only to proteins that grow from cancerous growths. Acting like the GPS in your cell phone, aptamers Sheppard the transfer of the particles to the cancerous cells. Arriving at the surface of the cancerous cell at a specified place, aptamers offload their anti-cancer payload inside the suspect cells, eliminating them in the process – without destroying healthy cells during the treatment.

Ready for battle? We can expect these precision-guided cancer killers sometime within the next decade say Langer and Farokhzad. Langer and Farokhzad published research this year indicating that their nano-orbs eliminate tumours in mice, but point out that three years of animal studies are needed to authenticate their research. Additional testing of human subjects will take up to five years or more. They say the wait will be worth it – associate researchers think the left-right combination of nano-particles and aptamers will be the future of medicines final victory over cancer.

Bonus research? Langer and Farokhzads’s research has spin-offs in the area of heart-disease detection. Shelby Caruthers of Washington University in St. Louis has outfitted their nano-spheres with gadolinium atoms. Inserted into the body, the nano-particles group around arterial plaques – a hallmark of cardiovascular disease – and signal while undergoing an MRI scan, pinpointing the area for treatment.

 

Warren Hayashi