Via scaryideas.com.

Fifteen minutes after researchers intentionally paralyzed this rat by dropping a weight on its back, they injected the rodent with Brilliant Blue G dye, a derivative of common food coloring Blue Number One. The dye reduced inflammation of the spinal cord, which allowed the rats to take clumsy steps—but not walk—within weeks, a new study says.

In both rats and people, secondary inflammation following spinal cord trauma causes more lasting damage than the initial injury: Swelling sparks a small “stroke,” which stops blood flow and eventually kills off the surrounding tissue.

Other than blue skin and eyes, “we can find no clinical effect on the rat,” said Maiken Nedergaard, a neuroscientist at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York.

Six weeks after injecting the blue dye, the research team killed and dissected the treated rat to inspect its spinal cord …. —though not entirely without regrets. “It was so cute, that rat,” study co-author Nedergaard said.

The team was surprised to find that the spinal cord was still blue—the rat’s skin and eyes had returned to normal after one week.

With a blue complexion as the only side effect, the substance may someday be the first major intervention available for people with spinal cord trauma, Nedergaard said.

“The problem is we don’t have any treatment now,” she said, adding that steroids are currently the most common medication used to help spinal-trauma patients. “That was really what prompted the search. … As far as I can see, every patient can receive the blue food dye, because there’s no downside.”

Link and photo via nationalgeographic.com.

Created by Alex Andreev:

Link via englishrussia.com.

From io9.com:

A group of Spanish researchers reported today in Science that they may have stumbled upon a substance that could become the ultimate memory-enhancer. The group was studying a poorly-understood region of the visual cortex. They found that if they boosted production of a protein called RGS-14 in that area of the visual cortex in mice, it dramatically affected the animals’ ability to remember objects they had seen.

Mice with the RGS-14 boost could remember objects they had seen for up to two months. Ordinarily the same mice would only be able to remember these objects for about an hour.

From Vice Magazine:

Ever wondered how a Brazilian without a source of disposable income or a reliable drug connection gets high? Us too. So we asked some buddies of ours down there to sate our curiosity. They gave us three simple recipes for frying up neurons that can be made with crap lying around the house. Just so we’re on the same page, we are not to be held responsible if you try these out and end up catatonic. Seriously, do not do this. We are NOT telling you to do this. Bad things will happen to you and we will not apologize to your mom when you become a drooling vegetable.

Link via disinfo.com.

A new study has found the air in Madrid and Barcelona is also laced with at least five drugs - most prominently cocaine.

The Superior Council of Scientific Investigations, a government institute, said on its website that in addition to cocaine, it found trace amounts of amphetamines, opiates, cannabinoids and lysergic acid -a relative of LSD - in air-quality control stations in the cities.

But it said there was no reason for alarm.

“Not even if we lived for a thousand years would we consume the equivalent of a dose of cocaine by breathing this air,” said one of its scientists, Miren Lopez de Alda, in the statement.

The scientific group added that “in no case should these levels be considered representative of the air in the two cities”.

In Madrid the test site was close to a ruined building believed to be frequented by drug dealers. And in both Madrid and Barcelona, the studies were carried out close to universities

Quote via telegraph.co.uk.

Thanks to LBA for the tip-off!

From The New Yorker:

…given the amount of money and research hours being spent on developing drugs to treat cognitive decline, Provigil and Adderall are likely to be joined by a bigger pharmacopoeia.

Among the drugs in the pipeline are ampakines, which target a type of glutamate receptor in the brain; it is hoped that they may stem the memory loss associated with diseases like Alzheimer’s. But ampakines may also give healthy people a palpable cognitive boost.

A 2007 study of sixteen healthy elderly volunteers found that five hundred milligrams of one particular ampakine “unequivocally” improved short-term memory, though it appeared to detract from episodic memory—the recall of past events.

Another class of drugs, cholinesterase inhibitors, which are already being used with some success to treat Alzheimer’s patients, have also shown promise as neuroenhancers.

In one study, the drug donepezil strengthened the performance of pilots on flight simulators; in another, of thirty healthy young male volunteers, it improved verbal and visual episodic memory.

Several pharmaceutical companies are working on drugs that target nicotine receptors in the brain, in the hope that they can replicate the cognitive uptick that smokers get from cigarettes.

TB, or tuberculosis, requires a lengthy multi-drug treatment regimen which people might not finish. China has adpoted a scheme originally develeopled at MIT to combat this problem:

The scheme, originally developed by students at MIT, offers free top-ups to sufferers who send text messages to health care centres with a unique code proving they have taken their drugs.

TB sufferers are often prescribed a cocktail of 15-20 pills, which they must take every day for six months to overcome tuberculosis, but many fail to complete the course, allowing the disease to build resistance to conventional drugs.

The mobile phone incentive scheme works by patients conducting their own urine tests using test-strips which, if they have taken their medicine properly, reveal a unique code which they SMS to a healthcare centre.

Take your pills on time, get mobile phone credits. Simple. Easy.

Link via textually.org.

Before I start, yes. Propranolol. That little geek-ganglion deep inside me just jiggled.

So. A team of Dutch scientists - Merel Kindt being their fearless leader, Marieke Soeter and Bram Vervliet her minions - have successfully weakened fear memories using the beta-blocker drug, Propranolol. And we’re not talking fleeting adrenaline-type halflife here, it’s basically permanent.

Before fear memories are stored in the long-term memory, there is a temporary labile phase. During this phase, protein synthesis takes place that ‘records’ the memories. The traditional idea was that the memory is established after this phase and can, therefore, no longer be altered. However, this protein synthesis also occurs when memories are retrieved from the memory and so there is once again a labile phase at that moment. The researchers managed to successfully intervene in this phase.

The researchers used 2 different pictures of spiders as the ‘fear’ triggers on human volunteers. One of these pictures was accompanied by a pain stimulus, which eventually triggered a startle reaction even when the pain stimulus wasn’t administered. The protein synthesis had been set up.

One day later the fear memory was reactivated, as a result of which the protein synthesis occurred again. Just before the reactivation, the human volunteers were administered the beta-blocker propranolol. On the third day it was found that the volunteers who had been administered propranolol no longer exhibited a fear response on seeing the spider, unlike the control group who had been administered a placebo. The group that had received propranolol but whose memory was not reactivated still exhibited a strong startle response.

Even when the pain stimulus was reapplied, there was still no fear, or anxiety, response. They had weakened  the anxiety memory to such an extent that the test subjects could not find the neurolink between ’spider’ and ‘argh’.

It’s currently being looked at as an alternative form of cognitive behavioural therapy, but personally? I’d like it to hit the market as a way of inhibiting the fear of making mistakes.

Found over at NWO, which was highly difficult for me to read with my pissweak Dutch, so I went to Science Daily instead.

Continuing his efforts to popularize his theory of the Singularity, and I also think make it a self-fulfilling prophesy, Ray Kurzweil has turned his book The Singularity is Near into a movie.

Here be the poster and the synopsis.

At the Onset of the 21st Century, it will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity. While the social and philosophical ramifications of these changes will be profound, and the threats they pose considerable, celebrated futurist Ray Kurzweil presents a view of the coming age that is both a dramatic culmination of centuries of technological ingenuity and a genuinely inspiring vision of our ultimate destiny.

Sure, it’ll be preaching to the converted, but most of us will watch this, yeah?

Previously:

• Ray Kurzweil - Transhumanist. Singulatarian. Grinder?

- photo via reuters.com

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch group Philips has developed an “intelligent pill” that contains a microprocessor, battery, wireless radio, pump and a drug reservoir to release medication in a specific area in the body.

Philips, one of the world’s biggest hospital equipment makers, said Tuesday that the “iPill” capsule, measures acidity with a sensor to determine its location in the gut, and can then release drugs where they are needed.

Delivering drugs to treat digestive tract disorders such as Crohn’s disease directly to the location of the disease means doses can be lower, reducing side effects, Philips said.

While capsules containing miniature cameras are already used as diagnostic tools, those lack the ability to deliver drugs, Philips said.

Link and photo via reuters.com

- image via inventorspot.com

Targeting smokers that are suffering outside in the cold under the smoking ban, Liquid Smoke offers an alternative to a nicotine fix in the can. “Fruit flavored”, with the promise of an instant high followed by a ‘euphoric calming feeling, the company hopes to make it as popular as Red Bull is bars.

Link and photo via inventorspot.com.

Scientists at the Medical College of Georgia, claim to have found a method for manipulating certian proteins in the brains of mice that erases specific memories with no damage to the brain, according to this BBC report.

The scientists say that in the long-term it should be possible to develop a pill that wipes out traumatic and fearful memories in humans.

Dr Joe Tsien, of the Brain and Behaviour Discovery Institute in Georgia said: “First of all I should emphasise the methodology is not applicable to the human clinical situation yet.

“However, it does suggest molecular paradigms which we can explore to perhaps achieve the same kind of effects in humans - but those are probably years or decades away.”

- image via mchips.com

From gizmodo.com:

The chip is much more precise than the finger pricking method for monitoring blood, and in diabetes sufferers, can minimize the risk of complications like blindness and kidney failure. The first glucose-monitoring and osteoporosis drug-releasing chips will begin human clinical trials next year. MicroCHIPS is looking into developing more advanced versions that can predict heart or kidney failure, biodegrade in the body, and release multiple vaccine or drug doses over time.

Hello Medical Tag! Ok, a primitive medical one, but it’s a good step in the right direction. I wonder if they have even considered adding any kind of sercurity to this? How easy could it be to hack into the tag and trigger an overdose of meds?

Made of pieces of engineered RNA, which was assembled inside a yeast cell:

A newly developed bio-computer allows scientists to “program” molecules to carry out “commands” inside cells.

Such devices could one day allow humans to manipulate biological systems directly, said the California Institute of Technology’s Christina Smolke, who co-authored the study, which will be published tomorrow in the journal Science.

Bio-computers might eventually serve as brains for producing biofuels from cells, for example, or to control “smart drugs” that medicate only under certain conditions.

From nationalgeographic.com.

Researchers are developing ways to link multiple robotic pills together, with each section of the robotic pill having it’s own function. One might take pictures, or section might take samples. A drug delivery section would add the needed drugs to treat which ever medical conditions the pills might find.

Link and photo via gearlog.com.

See Also:

• Take your robot pill now

- photo via sciencedaily.com

The nanobialys are an important addition to the stock of diagnostic and disease-fighting nanoparticles developed by researchers in the Consortium for Translational Research in Advanced Imaging and Nanomedicine (C-TRAIN) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. C-TRAIN’s “smart” nanoparticles can deliver drugs and imaging agents directly to the site of tumors and plaques.

The nanobialys weren’t cooked up for their appealing shape — that’s a natural result of the manufacturing process. The particles answered a need for an alternative to the research group’s gadolinium-containing nanoparticles, which were created for their high visibility in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.

Gadolinium is a common contrast agent for MRI scans, but recent studies have shown that it can be harmful to some patients with severe kidney disease.

Link and image via sciencedaily.com.

Chinese scientists announced on Monday that they have bred a genetically altered cow capable of producing cancer fighting proteins for humans. The cow, which can produce CD20 antibodies in its milk, was born in Beijing on Aug. 2 and a dozen more are due to be born next month. The human monoclonal (produced from a single cell) antibodies could be purified from the milk of the transgenic cow, and used to treat B cell lymphomas and leukemias and some auto-immune diseases, said research team leader Li Ning, an academician with China Academy of Engineering. The calf weighed 38 kg at birth. In seven to eight months, the research team would induce lactation to test its antibody expression.

The low antibody expression level and high cost of cell culture has been a stumbling block in the industrial production of the antibody drug, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1997. The U.S.-based Business Communication Corp. has estimated the worldwide market for transgenically sourced therapies at more than1 billion U.S. dollars in 2008 and 18.6 billion dollars by 2013.

Link via fareastgizmos.com.

This looks like a very interesting documentary; Bigger, Stronger, Faster an examination of the culture and history of performance enhancing drugs, specifically steroids.

Here is the trailer:

Anyone seen it? I think it is pretty easy to extrapolate this to other areas. Do they do blood tests at the Math Olympics; are nootropics banned there, I wonder?

Next Big Future has a nice roundup of current DARPA supersoldier projects.  Some of my favourites are:

A major focus is on helping the soldier’s body to better deal with trauma and damage. One such is the “pain vaccines” coming out of a program at Rinat Neuroscience [Pfizer acquired Rinat Neuroscience in 2006]. Researchers are hopeful these “will block the sense of pain for almost a month,” describes DARPA’s Michael Goldblatt.

The substance does is block intense pain in less than 10 seconds. Its effects last for 30 days. It doesn’t stifle your reactions. If you touch a hot stove, you still have the initial shock; your hand will still automatically jerk away. But after that, the torment is gone. The product works on the inflammatory response that is responsible for the majority of subacute pain. If you get shot, you feel the bullet, but after that, the inflammation and swelling that trigger agony are substantially reduced.

And…

The plan is for new body armor that, instead of Kevlar, is filled with nano-materials that are connected to a computer. [Computer controlled liquid armor] It would normally be as flexible as regular uniform made of fabric. But, like how a crash-bag works inside a car, it would activate whenever the system detects a bullet strike and turn as hard as steel in an instant.

Gloves could turn into real-life brass knuckles.

The fabric could even be woven in with “nanomuscle fibers” that simulate real muscles, giving soldiers more an estimated “25 to 35 percent better lifting capability.” So myostatin strength boost to get to olympic athlete strength levels and then 25-35% boost from a soft suit. Use better exoskeletons for more strength enhancement.

From deflecting bullets to powers of invisibility, as military analyst Max Boot writes, such a suit truly “would give ordinary mortals many of the attributes of comic book superheroes.

Head back to Next Big Future for a lot more links and current military enhancement projects.