New Irish Cardiac Device

Irish researchers have developed a soft robotic device that fits around a heart and helps it to beat. The invention raises the future possibility of a new form of treatment for patients suffering from heart failure.

The device takes the form of a sleeve that wraps around the outside of the heart and squeezes and twists it in synch with the natural heart beat.
The big advantage of the new device is that unlike other forms of treatment, it doesn't come in contact with blood, reducing the risk of clotting, stroke and the need for the patient to take blood thinning drugs.

The invention raises the future possibility of a new form

of treatment for patients suffering from heart failure

It is attached to the heart using a gel, sutures and a suction device. It is then connected to an external pump, and this powers the soft actuators.
The device was developed by NUI Galway and Harvard post-doctoral researcher, Dr Ellen Roche, along with Professor Conor Walsh, an Irish engineer based at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at the Boston based university.
The current treatments for heart failure are medical management, transplant or use of ventricular assist devices or VADs.
These pump blood from the ventricles of the heart to the aorta, but because they come in direct contact with the blood they can cause dangerous side effects, including stroke and clots.
"The novelty of this device is that it doesn't contact the blood," said Dr Roche.
"Additionally we can actuate different parts of it independently so we can tailor the movement of the device to the patient's needs."
"We can transfer both a compression motion and a twisting motion to the heart which mimics the way the heart beats itself."

Trinity College Dublin graduate, Professor Walsh established Harvard's bio-design laboratory where he and colleagues are developing a range of other soft robotics which have the potential to help people with disabilities.
According to the Irish Heart Foundation, 90,000 people in Ireland are suffering from heart failure with 10,000 new cases reported every year.
The condition also affects 41 million people worldwide.

The new device has been trialled in the lab and in animals, with excellent proof of concept results.
However, it is likely to be between three and five years before it has been refined, tested and approved for use in humans.
Dr Roche said she expects refinements will include trying to make it wireless.
It's hoped that the device could become a bridge to transplants or could be worn by a patient suffering from heart failure for the rest of their life.
"This research is really significant at the moment because more and more people are surviving heart attacks and ending up with heart failure," said Dr Roche.
"Soft robotic devices are ideally suited to interact with soft tissue and give assistance that can help augmentation of function and potentially even healing and recovery."
The research, a collaboration between Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Wyss Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, is published in the journal - Science Translational Medicine.

New Treatment - Lung Disease

Scientists in Ireland are developing a new treatment for lung diseases, including cystic fibrosis and asthma, as part of an €8.8m international project.

The first of its kind dry powder inhaler will deliver an innovative drug into the lungs in a way that is hoped will effectively break up thick sticky mucus, that can cause lung infections.
Cystic fibrosis is caused by a genetic anomaly that leads to the production of a thick sticky mucus in the lungs, which in turn can lead to serious infections.



Ireland has the highest incidence of cystic fibrosis in the world.

While there are therapies that can break up the mucus, there are a limited number of effective ones.
In fact there have been no new versions of these mucolytic therapies in the past 20 years, and only one in the past 50.
Scientists at the University of California and University College Dublin have developed a novel compound which shows great promise as a drug for breaking up mucus.

Professors John Fahy and Stefan Oscarson from those universities have secured €8.8m from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) for two projects associated with the development of new lung disease treatments.
As part of one of these, scientists from the Science Foundation Ireland-funded AMBER and SSPC centres, led by Prof Anne-Marie Healy, head of the school of pharmacy at TCD have been awarded €600,000 to devise a new method of delivering the drug into the lungs.
They will develop a first of its kind dry powder inhaler that will enable the treatment to reach the mucus and break it up.
Professor Anne Marie Healy, Head of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Trinity, Investigator in AMBER and SSPC (The Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre, led by the University of Limerick) said,
"I am delighted to be part of a transnational NIH project, which aims to take the research from bench to bedside," said Prof Healy.
"Ireland has the highest incidence of cystic fibrosis in the world, with approximately 1 in 19 Irish people carrying one copy of the altered gene that causes the condition.
"In addition, Ireland has the fourth highest prevalence of asthma in the world, with almost 5,000 asthma admissions to hospital on average each year.
"Our proposed new treatment has the potential to greatly improve the respiratory function of these patients with lung disease, thus improving overall quality of life and reducing hospital admissions."
It is expected that within the five year lifetime of the project the new treatment will be clinically trialled on humans.

It is hoped that as well as being used for treating cystic fibrosis and asthma, the inhaler will also be useful for tackling other lung conditions, like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

3D Images - New Technique at TCD

A new bone-scanning technique that generates ultra-high resolution 3D images without the need for potentially harmful x-rays has been developed by scientists in Ireland.

The technique, devised by chemists at Trinity College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, involves the use of tiny pieces of gold, which have compounds attached to them that are luminescent in certain conditions.
The fragments are attracted to tiny fissures that appear when bones crack, and attach themselves to the area.
Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), the researchers can then scan the damaged area which is revealed in a three-dimensional map of the microcracks.
The research, published in the journal Chem, could lead to the development of a method for diagnosing problems with bone strength and other degenerative bone diseases like osteoporosis.

The research could lead to the development of a method for diagnosing problems with bone strength

The technique also avoids the use of x-ray imaging, which has been associated with a higher risk of cancer.
"The nano-agent we have developed allows us to visualise the nature and the extent of the damage in a manner that wasn't previously possible," said TCD Professor of Chemistry, Thorri Gunnlaugsson.
"This is a major step forward in our endeavour to develop targeted contrast agents for bone diagnostics for use in clinical applications."
"Current x-ray techniques can tell us about the quantity of bone present but they do not give much information about bone quality," said RCSI Professor of Anatomy Clive Lee, who was also involved.
"By using our new nano-agent to label micro-cracks and detecting them with magnetic resonance imaging, we hope to measure both bone quantity and quality and identify those at greatest risk of fracture and institute appropriate therapy.
"Diagnosing weak bones before they break should therefore reduce the need for operations and implants - prevention is better than cure."

TCD researchers find possible link between autism and schizophrenia

A group of international scientists, including researchers at Trinity College Dublin, has for the first time identified genetic mutations that suggest that schizophrenia and autism share underlying mechanisms.

The research could help with future understanding of both conditions and may contribute to the development of treatments.

Schizophrenia is partially inherited, but the biological causes and the progression of the disease are not well understood, with a wide range of genetic risk factors identified as possible causes.

This research involved the genetic sequencing and analysis of 171 Irish people from families where at least one member was affected with schizophrenia.

Through this analysis the team was able to identify mutations in genes that were present in those suffering from the condition, but not in their unaffected parents.

The affected genes control epigenetic regulation - the process where experience and environment together decide how the gene operates.

The process is of fundamental importance to how the brain develops and responds to life experiences.

The researchers found that the mutations of the genes occurred more commonly than expected in people with schizophrenia and are likely to affect brain functionality.

The senior author of the study, Trinity Professor in Psychiatry Aiden Corvin, said: "This is a really exciting finding as it suggests that neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism, which hitherto have been seen as different diseases, may involve common underlying disease mechanisms."

"This may have implications in the future for how we conceptualize and treat these conditions."

The research was carried out in collaboration between Trinity College and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories (CSHL) in the US.

The findings are published in today's edition (29 April 2014) of the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

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Reducing Blindness in the Elderly:

A preventative drug for one of the most common causes of blindness in older people could be a step closer, as a result of new research by scientists at Trinity College Dublin.

The research team has found that a molecule naturally occurring in our bodies can suppress the production of damaging blood cells in the eye that cause Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

A condition that affects 70,000 people in Ireland, AMD involves a loss of central vision that can lead to an inability to carry out common tasks such as driving, watching TV and reading.

• Watch: Preventative drug for age-related blindness a step closer

         

There are two forms of AMD; dry and wet.Dry makes up the vast majority of cases, but wet AMD is the cause of 90% of the blindness that follows the disease.

Wet AMD sees the blood vessels below the retina, or light sensor, in the eye begin to grow abnormally and leak, causing almost immediate blindness in the eye affected.Currently treatment for wet AMD is only available for the later stages of the disease.It consists of regular monthly injections into the eye of antibodies, which mop up a molecule called VEGF which causes the problem.

But the injections do not cure the problem, which continues indefinitely and can lead to resistance. However, the scientists at TCD discovered in 2012 that a protein called IL-18, which occurs naturally in human immune systems, can inhibit the production of VEGF in the first place.Results of subsequent trials on mice are published in this week's edition of the high-profile international journal Science Translational Medicine.

They found it can effectively control blood vessel production and also boost the immune processes that spur healing of the retinal tissue, without causing toxicity.

They found the molecule works as effectively as the current treatment when given as a non-invasive intravenous injection, and say it could potentially one day be used as a guardian of eyesight in older people.

Early indications suggest patients may be able to go for extended lengths of time before having to receive another IL-18 injection, potentially making it an effective treatment for wet AMD.
The researchers have cautioned, however, that an approved and licensed treatment for AMD using the molecule is a long way off as clinical trials must first be undertaken in humans.

However, that process may be speeded up by the fact that the pharmaceutical company GSK has already tested IL-18 in humans as a treatment for cancer and other illnesses, and found it to be safe.
The study was supported by Enterprise Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland, US-based charity Brightfocus Foundation and drug company GlaxoSmithKline.
View RTE link