Two amazing health technology discoveries to help our well-being

Medical technology offers the scientific knowledge in the service of patients, to improve the treatments, cares and prevention of disease. The process of health technology assessment summarizes medical, social, economic and ethical data in order to ensure that the technology is used in a systematic, transparent and impartially way, and well hinged. In this respect, allows the development of safe and effective health policies oriented towards patients. Although its objectives are political in nature, must not lose contact with the strong research and scientific methods. Among the examples of medical technology are included: diagnostic and treatment methods, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, rehabilitation and prevention methods, organizational and support systems within which health care is provided, etc.

• The IBM applies the computer technology to antibiotics

The IBM has created a new type of gel against germs, meant to be used against hospital-acquired infections that are resistant to drugs. To this end, IBM has used specific health technology on the semiconductors.

Using similar materials that allow computer messages rapid transfer, the IBM researchers have developed a gel which kills germs. Although the company has supplied for a long time IT technology for the healthcare sector, its efforts to develop its own pharmaceutical product are much more recent, writes Financial Times. The IBM nano-medicine program through which was developed the new gel was initiated four years ago. "The techniques and tools we used to make semiconductor type applications may allow accurate modeling of problems with social impact," said Bob Allen, senior manager in the chemical and advanced materials research program of IBM.

The main purpose of the gel, developed in collaboration with the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, is to replace the antibiotics. The overuse of antibiotics has led to an increased resistance and increased health insurance costs in the U.S., with 20 billion dollars per year. At the same time has increased the average time spent in hospital by 8 days. While the classic anti-bacterial passing through the membrane of the microbe in order to destabilize its internal mechanism, the new IBM gel breaks the membrane such as an egg shell, and then extracts the infectious material.

• The C hepatitis, cornered by a new medical technology

A new class of drugs fights against C Hepatitis without "disturbing" the immune system. An interdisciplinary team of researchers - biologists and chemists at the Florida State University (USA) have developed a device for investigating which cause the forms of hepatitis, resistant to treatment, which have developed resistance to some specific drugs. The innovative technology works in common with other unforgiving viruses such as HIV.

More than 170 million people are carriers of the hepatitis C which develops serious liver disease. "Our findings are useful to the producers of drugs with activity against HCV," said Hengli Tang, a specialist in molecular biology. How does it work? The technology of medical investigation is called CoFIM and works to identify the "cellular cofactors" and their mechanisms of action. "Cellular cofactors' are proteins of the host cells which have been damaged by viruses.

Cyclophilin A is an essential cellular cofactor for C hepatitis infection, and a favorite target for new anti-HCV action which have cyclosporine A in their composition. It was found that not only the HCV dependence of cyclophilin A cofactor and the susceptibility to medicines containing cyclosporine A but also the regulators at cellular level, which are some "tiny RNA libraries', collections of molecules that have the ability to suppress genes action. The CoFIM device induces the HCV virus mutation, in vitro, in the absence of normal replication received from a certain molecular cofactor. CoFIM tracks changes occurred following the administration of medicines based on cyclosporine A, which inhibits the key cofactor. The C hepatitis infection can lead to cirrhosis, a serious disease of the liver.

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UK study will try to stem high-risk, health-damaging risks in drug-using rural women in Appalachian Kentucky

Researchers at the University of Kentucky have embarked on a five-year study that aims to lower behavioral risks of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C among disadvantaged, rural women in Appalachian Kentucky. With the help of a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, investigators will examine the effectiveness of a brief intervention in reducing high-risk behaviors, including sexual practices and use of injected drugs.

Michele Staton-Tindall, right, associate professor in the College of Social Work, is the principal investigator. "Our intervention will focus on an individualized plan for enhancing each woman's motivation to reduce risk behaviors and to utilize existing health services," Staton-Tindall said. "The long-term goal of this study is to increase access to health and behavioral-health services in order to improve the quality of health for high-risk rural women."

According to co-investigator Jennifer Havens, HIV is not a high risk for Appalachian drug users, but hepatitis C is. Caused by a virus that attacks the liver, it is the leading cause of liver cancer in the United States. Currently, more Americans die each year from diseases related to hepatitis-C infection than from HIV-related causes, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Like HIV, hepatitis C is spread through contact with contaminated blood, often through the use of needles shared by intravenous drug users.

Hepatitis C: Teenager Jazzy's Story

NHS Choices: Teenager Jazzy was born with hepatitis C. This is her video diary about living with the condition.

Comments from Twitter:

@napernurse: Fortunate to live in UK where extensive med/psych prescriptions for HepatitisC covered by NHS. If liver transplant needed, that is covered too!

Hepatitis delta virus

From a recent review in The Lancet:

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is a small, defective RNA virus that can infect only individuals who have hepatitis B virus (HBV). More than 15 million people are co-infected worldwide.

There are 8 genotypes of HDV. The hepatitis D virion is composed of a coat of HBV envelope proteins surrounding the nucleocapsid.

The nucleocapsid consists of:

- a single-stranded, circular RNA genome
- delta antigen, viral protein

HDV suppresses HBV replication but also causes severe liver disease with rapid progression to cirrhosis and hepatic decompensation (liver failure).

The range of clinical presentation is wide, varying from mild disease to fulminant liver failure.

Treatment of HDV is with pegylated interferon alfa; however, response rates are poor.

Better understanding of the molecular structure of HDV may lead to new therapeutic targets for this most severe form of chronic viral hepatitis.

References:

Hepatitis delta virus. Sarah A Hughes MBBCh, Heiner Wedemeyer MD, Dr Phillip M Harrison MD. The Lancet, Volume 378, Issue 9785, Pages 73 - 85, 2 July 2011.

New hepatitis C treatment: 2 new medications may increase success rate to 70%

Mayo Clinic: Four million people in the U.S., 100 million worldwide, are infected with Hepatitis C. It's a virus you can get from blood transfusions given before 1990, shared needles, unclean tattoo needles and sometimes sex.

In many cases it leads to cirrhosis of the liver and eventually liver cancer. Standard treatment with interferon and ribavirin only cures about 45% of all patients. But thanks to two new medications, up to 70% of people with hepatitis C may be be cured. More than 40 medications are in development.