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Nanotech and the Blind
tomsastroblog writes "In a BBC report scientists injected blind hamsters with a solution containing nanoparticles. The result? Nerves re-grew and sight returned. The researchers injected the blind hamsters with a solution of synthetically made peptides; within 24 hours the brain started to heal itself. The peptides were later broken down by the body into a harmless substance and was excreted three to four weeks later. From the article: 'We are looking at this as a step process. If this can be used while operating on humans to mitigate damage during neurosurgery, that would be the first step,'"
After injecting the hamsters with a solution containing nanoparticles, the nerves re-grew and sight returned
This is pretty advanced. So why did Jordy have to wear that stupid visor?In order to try to restore quality of life to those individuals you can try to reconnect some disconnected parts to try to give some functionality
I guess John Bobbit could've used this as wellOn a serious note though, this seems really amazing. It's basically neuro-knitting a damaged brain back in place.
I wonder if this can somehow treat brain defects due to developmental problems. Disorders such as Schitzophrenia can be treated with a frontol lobotomy (although this is only done in extreme circumstances) where they disconnect nerves the front part of the brain. I wonder if they can use this technology to reconnect it in a way that will act as a treatment (sort of "rewiring").
They will no doubt look to see if it can heal the lesions from myelin deteriation caused by diseases like Multiple Sclerosis. I think the fact that brain tissue regenerated in adult hamsters that weren't supposed to grow new brain tissue gives some promise to that. I know that Parkinson's disease also affects the nervous system, but I believe its caused by some kind of cellular failure. Nevertheless, this looks like some very promising research!
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From sombody who may need neurosurgery in the near future, I HOPE this works!
"Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life." Terry Pratchet
What a great technology this looks to be. However, I would hesitate to call it 'nanotechnology', since it does not appear in any way to be 'molecular manufacturing'. Indeed, while the article didn't specify the means of production, making peptides sounds like chemistry to me.
It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
Everytime I read one of these articles with a breakthrough in treating a deadly disease or severe disability, I have to say to myself that it's surely a wonderful time to be a mouse!
I hope these cures can be adapted for humans too.
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Glad to see the blind getting some vaperhope, but might this process have potential to repair spinal damage?
A large percentage would also be interested in having it transferred to their heads.
... they almost make it sound trivial in some ways.
On a more serious note, it seems like calling this a 'first step' in understating things a bit. This alone is of huge value in repairing nerve damage
I am sure that it will take a few generations for this to make it to human medical proceedures, as long as funding is not pulled away. If Christopher Reeve was frozen he might have had a chance in 100 years, if they can bring a frozen person back then.
Much of the permanence of nerve damage is due to scarring, which creates a barrier that nerves can't heal across. If you cut the nerve and put this gel into the wound within 45 minutes, it apparently helps the healing process. The reason? Minimizing scarring: Of course, this doesn't mean it's a useless discovery. If you have to perform surgery, say tumor removal, injecting this gel may promote growth in any nerves you may have just cut.
"The first thing we saw was that the brain had started to heal itself in the first 24 hours. We had never seen that before - so that was very surprising."
Hopefully this means this it could be used in the peripheral nervous system as well, to heal severed sensory neurons, or perhaps even spinal cord injuries. Too bad Christopher Reeve won't be around to see that.
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There's a lot of work, testing, and development that has to go into this before it can be used on humans. We don't know yet if the "repairs" are permanent or if the hamster's sight will deterioriate within weeks/months. We also don't know the side effects this would have on a human. Bottom line: this is a first step. An impressive one, no doubt, but it's important to remember that this isn't a tried and true cure, found and ready for manufacturing and distribution. In that sense, this really is only a first half-step; they're not even ready to begin using it for neurosurgery yet.
Would this also work on the three blind mice?
From my point of view and IAAMB (I am a molecular biologist) this is only encouraging. it has been shown several times and through several ways you can get nerves to regrow in a living animal. We have seen stems cells, hormones smooth surfaces, and now injectable protein gel however all these tricks fail on a few levels. But there are some issues I have:
1.) Such procedures are useless for fixing old damage, scar tissue build up physically prevents nerves from "having a place to grow into". Additionally, large gaps are still impossible, so for big lesions or paternally using a surgical procedure to prep a site to regenerate will not fly. You cant just cut out the chunk of "damaged goods" and let it regrow fresh. So unless you use this trick as the article suggests at the time of injury ( surgery time perhaps), before scar forms you have ) chance of help.
2.) The other problem is one of myelination, the insulation around the axon on each motor nerve. Adult tissue lacks the ability to produce significant amounts of myelin to sheath nerves. Fetal stem cells cant, but not adult tissue. So it is likely that any nerves grown this way will be de-myelinated and not at all good for good signal transmission. Incidentally, one common type of de-myelinated nerve is the sensory nerve. just imagine, fix a arm amputation this way and i bet you will get VERY weal motor control, and potentially full or malformed sensory information due to the very good regrowth of random sensory nerves (think life long chronic pain). This side effect has been seen in a number of spinal injury patients given experimental stem cell treatment in china (right location I think).
3.) Of course proteins are small, nano even, but how is this "Nanotech". This would be more like "Biotech", ahh well the rain of buzz words to sell ideas shall continue unabated.
even for those with 20:20 vision. This is a very cruel trick to play on the blind!
Absolutely amazing story. On a related note I know a guy who has been stuck in a wheelchair for 10+ years. He was a helicoptor pilot for the national guard long ago and had an accident where he landed really hard. The skids of the helicoptor were damaged but he walked away with a really bruised backside. 10 years after the accident he woke up one morning unable to move his legs. Apparently the accident had caused some sort of damage to his lower spine that wasn't diagnosed until his legs stopped working. Well after 10+ years in the wheelchair he was picked for a double-blind medical study with some European medical firm. After doing nothing more than taking a pill for a few weeks he was able to walk again with the help of a walker. The fact that we can develop a pill that can target conditions like blindness or this spinal injury is truely amazing.
BBC Scientists made blind mice into the Borg who armed themselves with linux powered laser-headed sharks and took over the BBC and released this pleasant sounding statement.
We're doomed! Borg mice, who'd'a'thought it!
Sam
blog.sam.liddicott.com
You're suggesting that it could be too expensive for the military to use it, but not too expensive to use for medical reasons? And you're from what planet again? :-)
This is not nanotechnology.
The scientists injected peptides. Short strings of amino acids. The same stuff that comprises every protein in our bodies. So how is that nanotech? Simply because molecules are on the nanometer scale? Then I guess that makes all electronics pico- or femtotechnology.
Don't listen to the bullshit article's vocabulary--there's a more appropriate word for what they're doing, and it's called MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
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It's neat to see an altnerative to stem cells. A few months ago, I read about a mouse suffering from degeneration of the retina that regained some of its eyesight from an injection of stem cells into the area.
Why o why did they have to use HAMSTERS??
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before the treatment, for folks who have had long term damage?
It certainly may be possible to do those sort of things. The tricky part is that a good number of the cells may simply die off if the injury isn't quickly repaired. Another effect of the gel is to provide a nutrient-rich solution to help growth, so time is of the essence.
The good news is that there's lots of research going into nerve regeneration and repair. Things like nerve growth factors, removing mylein-induced inhibition, and stem cells are all promising fields.
It'll be interesting when people's brains can be kept alive for long periods of time by replacing or modifying large chucks of it. When do I stop being really me?
One can only hope that the amount of effort it takes to make these (even if for benevolent reasons) is expensive/difficult enough to keep all but the most altruistic applications out of the mix.
Hrm... Wouldn't it be easier to cultivate Anthrax or make Nerve Gas for military applications?
Well truth be told aerosol attacks are highly ineffective for military applications.
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when reading the title "Nanotech and the Blind" was that we'll just make everything excruciatingly small so no one can see it, thereby making everyone "blind" and balancing the scales.
Kind of like how "No Child Left Behind" can be true, so long as everyone is held back equally.
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For this positive action there are most likely unseen negative reations. Nanotechnology will be a bane and blessing. If we only allow positive developments for the betterment of health, we should forge ahead. But governments will surely add it to their list of available weapons technology and take us backwards. Kevin Dill http://ushightech.com/
I went ahead an tried your experimient.
First, I kicked my brother in the crotch. He doubled over, held his crotch and moaned. This was really just for form's sake cause I kick him there all the time and I already know what he does.
Then, I went to Disneyland... almost screwed up the experiment cause my travel agent booked Disney World instead but I caught the error in time. Anyway, I wandered around looking at Mickey until he was the same size as my brother. Funny that he can change his size, but I tell youe, he can. Anyway, I then proceded to kick him in the crotch. He yelped "Hey!", lifted off the ground about an inch, then reached back his big fist and clobbered me. His fist was really fatty or something, cause it didn't really hurt, but it was so large it knocked me off balance, and he got a good kick in before some kind of security guard ran up, shouting "Angela! Are you OK?". "Yeah," Mickey replied in a disconcerting falsetto. Into his walkie talkie thingy he said "She's all right, I am taking him in". I was then detained and dragged away.
All in all, I have to conclude your hypothesis that the responses would be the same is a crock of shit.
This helps to explain why Chicago makes blind students take Driver's Education classes. A little Nano-Technology and they will be able to drive. Read More Here
I'm really excited about this type of work. Those who used to be sighted that have lost their sight (or had their sight impaired) may be able to regain the senses they once had. The medical implications of these technologies are exciting.
I would like to play the thinker's advocate, though. It is important to understand the other side of this... blind culture, much like deaf culture, is a distinct means of life - one that doesn't think that blind (or deaf) people are "broken" in some way. Yes, folks with all five of their senses tend to look at those with less-than-five as though something is "wrong" with them. But, from the perspective of a great many blind and deaf people, they're not "broken" or "impaired" at all. Indeed, in some places, the deaf and the blind communities celebrate their different-ness and have wonderful, productive lives. You can see a few starting points here at this simple Wikipedia article: Wikipedia article on deaf culture.
With all that said... if indeed this technology leads to folks (that want to see (or see again)) having new or regained sight, then I'm really interested in this. I'd like to see this technology extended to nerve damage, spinal repairs (particularly spinal injury repair).
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The word "chemistry" is now considered archaic. Use "nanotechnology". Likewise, replace the archaic word "chemist" with "nanotechnologist".
BTW, a protien is just an overgrown peptide. Basically they injected protien.
This is pretty advanced. So why did Jordy have to wear that stupid visor?
While scientists are undoubtedly doing their "working for humanity" thing I could see how such technology could be appiled to aging/reversing aging. (Which brings up the question why anybody would have wrinkles.)
My expectation is that quite a lot of this tech will be used for cosmetic applications (in addition to helping the blind see and that sorta thing.) If the optimal look for attracting the opposite sex serves as a guide, women of the future will look permanently 17, and men will look permanently 24.
And on the Hamster front, don't tell Richard Gere about this!
Jingoism means extreme patriotism, and generally implies support of war.
Jargon is specialized technical language or terms
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Sort of like the fact that most of Bones' tools in the Original Star Trek were made from salt and pepper shakers. Basically for the first episode the prop people had forgotten to make anything for his medical tools, and at the last minute just handed him a salt shaker. After that they went out searching for more and more elaborate salt shakers as a joke.
I hate to parade my Star Trek geek credentials, but in Star Trek Memories by Shatner, it's stated that the salt shakers came in during the episode with the salt vampire. Basically, the props guy was told to go out and find "futuristic-looking salt shakers." When he brought them back, they realized that the shakers didn't look enough like salt shakers for viewer recognition, so they turned them into medical instruments. *shrug* Then again, probably as many stories as there are cast and crew...
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I submitted this story with a better description and a better link from MIT.
Actually what happened is this: the tracks in the visual cortex were severed and then a biodegradable peptide solution was injected into the damaged area in the brain, which created a 3d matrix of that allowed new cells to the edges in the matrix thus reconstructing the actual cell connections rather than producing scarring tissue.
This process can be applied to damaged areas of the brain or nerves in the spinal cord.
I think this brings the humans one step closer to immortality - imagine using stem cellls and these peptides to reconstruct damage of the brain and the nerve system that is caused by aging and/or trauma.
You can't handle the truth.
Our new 20-20 vision endowed rodent overlords have been here for over an hour and nobody has even said hello to them. I for one think that's hardly the way to create a good first impression - and you don't get a second chance.
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
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Something that combines the sense of technical terms (a la jargon) and inappropriate use (as in malapropism)
:o)
I propose: malargon. It combines malapropism and jargon in a word that sounds suspiciously like malarky
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I can't decide which will garner more Funny mods...a Lemmiwinks joke or an obscure Star Trek TNG cellular peptide with mint frosting reference. Decisions decisions...
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When you're talking about 'being too expensive for military use', remember:
1. This would count as a chemical weapon
2. Explosives to physically cause damage are cheap
3. Guidance packages and such are just as expensive no matter what the payload - whether it be inert, explosive, or NBC.
Also, if the chemicals are expensive, you have to remember that manual application on patients would take alot less than the amount you'd have to spray to try to get a couple hundred people in a field or other uncontrolled area.
I don't read AC A human right
The fact that molecular biology was around before the term "nanotechnology" was conceived does not disqualify it--it is a perfectly viable method for engineering nm scale materials, and probably the approach that will yield the greatest advances in the near future. To me, the point at which molecular biology becomes nanotechnology is when it is used to engineer novel molecules, as opposed to just shuffling them around from organism to organism or cell to cell.
The implications of biological warfare could be about to become a whole lot more interesting.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The problem is comparing this with laboratory mice. See, Mickey is Copyrighted while laboratory mice are Patented. Any comparison is doomed to fail under litigation.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
That's two words.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
>When do I stop being really me?
IN SOVIET RUSSIA!
Do you by any chance the Bush Administration?
One would expect they had some theories of what might happen when they did this, but I didn't get that impression from the article. Is anyone familiar with related science that might have been a motivator for this study? I'm sure this must have had better hypothetical motivation than whoever the first person to stick a CD in the microwave did.
1. surgical severing - in the real world, it's more likely blunt force trauma or an infectious jagged part of a car stuck in your brain.
...
2. hamsters are not human - mind you, experimenting on hamsters is probably a better idea than experimenting on humans.
3. for all we know, it's just sticky factor regluing it together.
4. initial studies, until replicated with sufficient controls more than once with similar results, are just that - initial studies. wait until we get larger amounts of data before Worshipping Our Split-Brain Hamster Overlords.
Um, wait, ok, you can Worship Our Split-Brain Hamster Overlords now. Who am I to stop you
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Why o why did they have to use HAMSTERS??
...
Because they figured you'd pay more attention if they used Hamsters.
No go turn off the reality show about Geeks you're watching, and watch some scientific programming for a change
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Also keep in mind that:
1. It was a joke
2. Notwithstanding all that, the military could research it to see if there might be some use for them that we haven't thought of yet
This is indeed the canonical nutty position when it comes to "deaf culture". But the cochlear implant isn't a no-brainer. For one thing, it involves surgery which has intrinsic risks. For another, you'd want to make sure that appropriate support and social services were still available to the child, and not denied on grounds that the kid's now not "deaf enough" to qualify for sign language or lip-reading instruction, or other forms of assistance in school, for instance.
None of which is to endorse the position of those who have apparently not only made lemonade of their disabilities but insist that everyone should drink it.
Or condeming parents for sending a promising black student to a good mostly-white school.
Mind the Gap
It should be noted that 'cures for blindness' are only useful in people who have developed their visual systems; that is, people who were not blind during their early ages when the brain was very plastic. For those who are blind all their life, suddenly gaining the sense of vision is pretty much useless; the person is still effectively blind as their brain has not developed the meaning of vision, and how to use it.
Why didn't she cure LaForge's sight? This is a hoax, I tell you!
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We finally have a cure for all those poor labrats who, during cruel and unusual expirements, were exposed to Goatse.
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this is kinda the first thing i thought. could you imagine someone cutting your optic nerves (or spine) and then getting you hooked on this shit? you would do anything they say lest they stop giving it to you and a few weeks later your back to being blind or paralyzed
If they apply this technology to mice, the farmer's wife is out on the street.
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There were articles in the past where they implanted chips in people's retinas who were going blind. Their sight was restored, both in that eye and the other eye. Color vision was restored, despite the implanted chip sensing only black and white.
This looks like the same thing. It's not the nanoparticles, or chips, or whatever other green pixie dust they implant. It's probably the mucking about and subsequent healing.
Doesn't that make the term redundant?
Quantum Physics a.k.a. sub-molecular statistics
As I understand it (definite layman here) people who are blind from birth never develop the capacity to process visual information. It will be interesting to see if a mouse or human who has been blind from birth can develop useful sight.
Why not let natural selection take its course?
GO AHEAD! FUCKING FLAME AWAY 0R WASTE YOUR GOD-DAMNED M0D POINTS FUCTARDED SHITDOT SHEEPLE!