Anti-inflammatory effects of carbon monoxide

Makes me awfully nervous, since we know that carbon monoxide is a toxic poison.

"Specifically, mitochondria react to low levels of carbon monoxide by releasing chemical signals that reduce or shut down the body's inflammatory response, raising the possibility for the development of new anti-inflammatory therapies, one of which may be low levels of inhaled carbon monoxide."

Researchers seem to be having a good response, though.

"...inhaled medical grade carbon monoxide has been shown to be useful in animal models for organ transplantation, vascular injury, inflammatory bowel disease, organ injury resulting from severe blood loss, as well as experimental hepatitis and experimental pulmonary hypertension."

As long as they can find an effective antidote for overdose, this could be really useful in the future.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070330092813.htm

A Mini console for your collection of old Atari 2600 games

Brings back memories...

This guy makes them on request, and has cool pics on his website. He calls this latest creation the Atari VCSp Rev 5.1.

Takes 4 AA batteries.

http://benheck.com/03-29-2007/vcsp-rev-51-prototyped-at-7-year-mark/#more-262

Treating asthma with radio waves?

Might this someday mean the end of inhalers? (left)

By using radiofrequencies in a procedure called bronchial thermoplasty, researchers heat the muscle lining and bronchial tubes to decrease bronchial inflammation. They hypothesize that there is an excess of smooth muscle, which may narrow the airways and cause inflammation. More info at the New England Journal of Medicine narrative video.

Their findings:

"At the end of the one-year trial, the subjects who received bronchial thermoplasty treatments reported an average of 10 mild asthma attacks over the course of the study – roughly 50% fewer than those who received asthma drugs only. The researchers defined "mild" asthma attacks as those that did not warrant a hospital visit...The patients who received the experimental heat treatment were free of asthma symptoms for 40% of days during the year, on average. Those who did not receive thermoplasty were symptom-free for only 17% of the days."

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11487&feedId=online-news_rss20

Star Wars Commemorative Postage Stamps

Lots more gossip about it here: http://movies.ign.com/articles/776/776577p1.html

41 cent postage stamps, from the US Postal Service.

Light pulses for reversibly silencing overactive neurons

Left: MIT is spelled out by neuronal voltage, with yellow light inducing downward neural deflections, and blue light inducing upward neural deflections. Such unprecedented, precise programming of neuronal activity is now possible due to efforts of MIT scientists. (Credit: MIT Media Lab)

The first thing this made me think of was when Pikachu was giving children seizures in 1997. That has led to some banned pokemon episodes, as well as increased awareness of photosensitive epilepsy.

Since it has been established that light can stimulate cells into seizure activity in a small percent of the population, it also makes sense that there should be some way to harness light to turn off these signals.

"Science Daily — Scientists at the MIT Media Lab have invented a way to reversibly silence brain cells using pulses of yellow light, offering the prospect of controlling the haywire neuron activity that occurs in diseases such as epilepsy and Parkinson's disease."

Check out the article for more information about how they are using the halorhodopsin gene. By shining a yellow light, this gene activates chloride pumps, which inhibit the cell, like an 'off' switch. By shining blue light on the cell, it gets turned back on. They plan to use this to learn more about neural circuits.

"The technique also offers a way to study other brain diseases, as well as normal brain circuitry, offering insight into which brain regions and neurons contribute to specific behaviors or pathological states, Boyden said."

What a cool map this could someday make. Creeping ever closer to cyborg-ness. Their hope:

"In the future, controlling the activity patterns of neurons may enable very specific treatments for neurological and psychiatric diseases, with few or no side effects," said Edward Boyden, assistant professor in the Program in Media Arts and Sciences and leader of the Media Lab's new Neuroengineering and Neuromedia Group."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070327161418.htm

Antidepressants vs. mood stabilizers vs. placebo in bipolar disorder

Since I spend many of my waking workday hours on this conundrum, I definitely had to mull over this one.

"Science Daily — For depressed people with bipolar disorder who are taking a mood stabilizer, adding an antidepressant medication is no more effective than a placebo (sugar pill), according to results published online in the New England Journal of Medicine. The results are part of the large-scale, multi-site Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD), a $26.8 million clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)."

It is accepted knowledge that if you give a person with bipolar disorder an antidepressant without a mood stabilizer, there is as good chance you may trigger a manic episode. Often, once someone is on adequate doses of their mood stabilizer (many are available, the most well known are lithium or depakote, though I tend to like lamictal for bipolar depression), then an antidepressant medication is added to help lift up the depression without worry of mania.

This study had 366 participants. Participants were randomized to placebo, wellbutrin, or paxil. They first stabilized patients on their mood stabilizers, then added them into one of these treatment groups.

"After about 26 weeks, Sachs and colleagues found that 24 percent of those who had been randomized to the antidepressants stayed well for at least eight consecutive eeks--the study's stringent standard for recovery; 27 percent of those randomized to a placebo stayed well long enough to meet the eight-week recovery standard, indicating no difference between adding an antidepressant or adding placebo. In addition, about 10 percent of each group experienced emerging symptoms of mania, indicating that the antidepressants did not trigger a manic switch any more than placebo. Finally, when comparing the two antidepressants to each other, both showed similar rates of response and manic switch."

If their findings are reproducible, it could lead to changes in clinical practice which would definitely simplify things. Fewer different drugs means less polypharmacy, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, it still doesn't give us many good options for managing the depression in bipolar people.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070329075342.htm

The highest resolution holo deck so far

And there are tours available to the public. Too bad it's in Iowa.

Iowa State University's Virtual Reality Applications Center has a virtual reality cube called C6. They recently poured another $5 million into upgrades, to make the resolution twice that of any other virtual reality room in the world. All 6 sides have images and sound. No smells yet though.

"The public is invited to tour C6 -- Iowa State's 10-foot by 10-foot virtual reality cube that immerses users in computer-generated 3-D images and eight channels of audio -- from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, April 26, in Howe Hall on the Iowa State campus. Reservations are required and can be made by calling (515) 294-3092. The tours will be part of the Emerging Technologies Conference 07."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070326152552.htm