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Relying on principles similar to those that cause Jell-O to congeal into that familiar, wiggly treat, University of Michigan researchers are devising a new method of detecting nitric oxide in exhaled breath. Because elevated concentrations of nitric oxide in breath are a telltale sign of many diseases, including lung cancer and tuberculosis, this development could prove useful in diagnosing illness and monitoring the effects of treatment.

Assistant professor of chemistry Anne McNeil and graduate student Jing Chen work with molecular gels, which differ from Jell-O in being made up of small molecules, rather than proteins. But there are also key similarities, McNeil said. “In both Jell-O and molecular gels, you can use heat to dissolve the material, which then precipitates out into a gel structure. This gel structure is basically a fibrous network that entraps solvent in little pockets,” she said.

The researchers wanted to design a material made up of molecules that would organize themselves into a gel when prompted by particular cue – in this case, the presence of nitric oxide and oxygen. Other research groups have achieved similar feats with materials whose solubility changes when exposed to triggers (for example, a change in pH). But McNeil had the idea of promoting the process, known as stimuli-induced gelation, by changing the stackability of the molecules that make up the material.

“We took the approach of designing a molecule that has a shape that won’t pack together with other, identical molecules very well, but will change into a more stackable shape on exposure to nitric oxide,” McNeil said. When the molecules stack together, gelation occurs. Because it’s easy to see when the material stops flowing and turns into a gel, this method of nitric oxide detection is simpler and less subject to interpretation than other detection methods such as colorimetry and spectroscopy.

“I like the simplicity of not needing an instrument and just being able to flip the sample vial over and see if a gel has formed,” McNeil said. At this point, the new technique isn’t sensitive enough for clinical use, but McNeil and Chen are working to improve its sensitivity. They’re also extending the approach to design materials that would use stimuli-induced gelation to detect hazardous materials, such as explosives.

Osteoporosis patients could benefit from a new device an MIT graduate student is designing to test balancing ability. The iShoe insole could help doctors detect balance problems before a catastrophic fall occurs, says Erez Lieberman, a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology who developed the technology as an intern at NASA, and who is also a Hertz Fellow receiving funding from the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense.

Falls among the elderly are common and can be deadly: In 2005, nearly 300,000 Americans suffered hip fractures after a fall, and an average of 24 percent of hip-fracture patients aged 50 and over die in the year following their fracture, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation.

Lieberman is now testing the iShoe technology in a small group of patients. The current model is equipped to diagnose balance problems, but future versions could help correct such problems, by providing sensory stimulation to the feet when the wearer is off-kilter. “By doing that we can improve people’s balance,” Lieberman says.

Lieberman and other iShoe team members have applied for a patent on the technology, to be jointly held by MIT, Harvard and NASA. In April, the company won a $50,000 grant from the Lunar Ventures Competition to help with start-up costs.

Lieberman originally developed the technology to help NASA monitor balance problems in astronauts returning from space. Zero gravity environments wreak havoc on the vestibular system, one of three body systems that control balance. (The others are vision and sensory receptors called proprioceptors, which tell you where your body parts are in relation to other body parts and the outside world.) The effect usually lasts about 10 days, but NASA tests astronauts’ balance for 16 days after their return. Astronauts go into a phone-booth-like box, where they undergo a series of balance tests such as platform shifts and wall shifts.

While at NASA, Lieberman developed a new system for gathering data and an algorithm to analyze the data. “We’ve developed the first algorithm that is really capable of not just looking at the pressure distribution of proprioceptors on the feet but also analyzing what that’s saying,” he says.

Lieberman soon realized that the technology could reach a wider audience than just astronauts. His own grandmother suffered a bad fall several years ago, and he theorized that a balance diagnostic could help doctors catch balance problems before such a fall occurs.
“You have a gradual progression of loss of balance, osteoporosis, and other factors that can lead to the fall,” Lieberman says. The iShoe insole would measure and analyze the pressure distribution of the patient’s foot and report back to their doctor. The device could also be outfitted with an alarm that would alert family members when a fall has occurred.

Lieberman and his colleagues are now testing the device in about 60 people, hoping to generate data that will help them create a model to predict the risk of a fall. Other members of the iShoe team are Katherine Forth, a former NASA postdoctoral associate; Ricardo Piedrahita, a graduate of University of California at San Diego; and Qian Yang, a Harvard undergraduate.

Researchers from the University Hospital Reina Sofía of Córdoba, Spain have carried out a study in order to determine the influence of the micronutrients of certain fats on cardiovascular diseases, diabetes or cancer, and if their consumption might modify the inflammatory process in healthy people.

To this end, they have studied the consumption in diets with different fatty composition, based on extra virgin olive oil, nuts and butter, observing that extra virgin olive oil modulate on a downward trend healthy individuals’ inflammatory levels, whereas a diet rich in nuts has an intermediate effect and the diet rich in butter exerts a damaging effect on inflammation mediators.

The researchers attribute this new beneficial effect of olive oil to the presence of micronutrients which may act similar to that of anti-inflammatory drugs. According to them, a diet based on olive oil reduces bad cholesterol (LDL) brings arterial pressure down, improves diabetes control and reduces the trend to suffer from thrombosis. Olive oil is a natural juice, which contains hundreds of non-fatty micro-components of biological interest, such as vitamin E, carotenes, scalene, chlorophyll and, especially, phenolic compounds.

Uma Vivek of Health Support Systems routinely publishes articles on interesting new developments in the health care field. HSS does not endorse any third party website or their products or services. HSS does not guarantee the accuracy or usefulness of any information on any linked Web site.

Parents of children diagnosed with autism-spectrum now have a new online tool (paid site). Help is readily available in a new membership website, http://www.autismactionplan.org/, created by Dr. Kurt Woeller, a biomedical-autism physician with a practice in Southern California. Biomedical intervention treats the underlying medical conditions that can trigger or inflame autism symptoms. Biomedicine has had a higher profile recently, due to being championed by actress/author, Jenny McCarthy, who used it for her son affected by autism.

Hospital-borne infections are a serious risk of a long-term hospital stay, and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), a lung infection that develops in about 15% of all people who are ventilated, is among the most dangerous. With weakened immune systems and a higher resistance to antibiotics, patients who rely on a mechanical ventilator can easily develop serious infections.

Thanks to a new approach developed by Tel Aviv University nurses there is a tool for stopping the onset of VAP in hospitals. This new high-tech tool? An ordinary toothbrush!

The team of nurses found that if patients – even unconscious ones, have their teeth brushed three times a day, the onset of pneumonia can be reduced by as much as 50%. It’s hard to say by exactly how much tooth-brushing prevents VAP but the published evidence shows a direct correlation for intubated patients, the researchers say.