January 28, 2014

Ranjini Raghunath for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Cancer treatment through chemotherapy, radiation or stem cell therapies can be physically and mentally exhausting for patients, especially younger ones. Many factors can help them feel positive about themselves and their treatment, including spiritual practices, supportive home environments and strong social connections with friends, family and physicians.

Now, a new study shows that making music videos and writing song lyrics may also help young cancer patients better cope with their treatment.

Researchers at the Indiana University School of Nursing, Indianapolis, carried out the music therapy intervention study, which was published online in the journal Cancer.

113 young patients aged 11-24 undergoing stem cell transplants for cancer were selected randomly for the study. Half of them were given audiobooks (the control group) and the other half were given three weeks to write down song lyrics, collect images and record music videos.

Patients in the second (test) group went through six training sessions each with a music therapist, who helped them identify and write about what was important to them, and guided them in creating the videos.

It really targeted them writing, having an opportunity to write about whats important to them, co-author of the study and music therapist, Sheri Robb, told Reuters. A lot of these kids as theyre going through treatment, they tend to not talk about these things.

The patients also had a chance to share the videos they created with family and friends. After about 100 days of treatment, patients in the test group reported that making those videos helped them better connect with their loved ones.

The intervention therapy helped the young patients feel stronger, more positive and helped improve their relationships with family and physicians, based on their responses to follow-up questionnaires, the researchers reported.

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Making Music Videos Helps Young Cancer Patients Cope With Treatment

27/01/2014 - 09:35:51Back to Ireland Home

Stem cells for human use are to be made in a university lab in the first medical programme of its kind in Ireland.

Scientists behind the new facility at the National University of Ireland Galway will aim to produce adult cells to combat conditions like arthritis, heart disease and diabetes.

Stem cells created at the lab will be used in clinical trials following regulatory approval the first of which is to test their effects on critical limb ischemia, a common complication associated with diabetes which often results in amputation.

The cells, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), will undergo safety tests after being isolated from bone marrow from donors and grown in the laboratory to generate sufficient quantities.

The university said it will position it as a global player in regenerative medicine.

NUI Galways Centre for Cell Manufacturing Ireland is the first facility on the island of Ireland to receive a licence from the Irish Medicines Board to manufacture culture-expanded stem cells for human use.

And it is one of less than half a dozen in Europe authorised for the process.

President of NUI Galway Dr Jim Browne said: Developing Galways role as med-tech hub of global standing, the Centre for Cell Manufacturing Ireland captures NUI Galways commitment to bring bold ideas to life.

Innovation can bridge the gap between patient and provider and meet the needs of industry and the wider society in a balanced way.

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Galway stem cell lab to be used in fight against heart disease and diabetes

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27-Jan-2014

Contact: Press Office pressinfo@ki.se 46-852-486-077 Karolinska Institutet

A new method allows for large-scale generation of human embryonic stem cells of high clinical quality. It also allows for production of such cells without destroying any human embryos. The discovery is a big step forward for stem cell research and for the high hopes for replacing damaged cells and thereby curing serious illnesses such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

Currently human embryonic stem cells are made from surplus in vitro fertilized (IVF) embryos that are not used for the generation of pregnancies. The embryos do not survive the procedure. Therefore it has been illegal in the USA to to use this method for deriving embryonic stem cell lines. Sweden's legislation has been more permissive. It has been possible to generate embryonic stem cells from excess, early IVF embryos with the permission of the persons donating their eggs and sperm.

An international research team led by Karl Tryggvason, Professor of Medical Chemistry at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Professor at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore has, together with Professor Outi Hovatta at Karolinska Institutet, developed a method that makes it possible to use a single cell from an embryo of eight cells. This embryo can then be re-frozen and, theoretically, be placed in a woman's uterus. The method is already used in Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) analyses, where a genetic test is carried out on a single cell of an IVF embryo in order to detect potential hereditary diseases. If mutations are are not detected, the embryo is inserted in the woman's uterus, where it can grow into a healthy child.

"We know that an embryo can survive the removal of a single cell. This makes a great ethical difference," says Karl Tryggvason.

The single stem cell is then cultivated on a bed of a human laminin protein known as LN-521 that is normally associated with pluripotent stem cells in the embryo. This allows the stem cell to duplicate and multiply without being contaminated. Previously the cultivation of stem cells has been done on proteins from animals or on human cells, which have contaminated the stem cells through uninhibited production of thousands of proteins.

"We can cultivate the stem cells in a chemically defined, clinical quality environment. This means that one can produce stem cells on a large scale, with the precision required for pharmaceutical production," says Karl Tryggvason.

Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent and can develop into any kind of cell. This means that they can become dopamine producing cells, insulin producing cells, heart muscle cells or eye cells, to name but a few of the hopes placed on cell therapy using stem cells.

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New method increases supply of embryonic stem cells