16-year-old teen devises way to treat deadly breast cancer .

A 16-year-old boy from Epsom, Surrey, believes he may have the answer to treat deadly breast cancer. Krtin Nithiyandam thinks he has devised a way to turn the most deadly form of triple negative breast cancer into a kind which responds to drugs. 7,500 women each year are diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, a type of disease which does not respond to today's most effective drugs. Many breast cancers are driven by oestrogen, progesterone or growth chemicals so drugs that can block those fuels, such as tamoxifen, make effective treatments. However triple negative breast cancer does not have receptors and it can only be treated with a gruelling combination of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy which lowers the chance of survival. Scientists have known for some time that some women with triple negative cancer respond very well to treatment while others quickly decline. The problem lies in whether the cancer cells are ‘differentiated’ or not. Differentiated means they look more like healthy cells and they tend to grow and multiply quite slowly, and are less aggressive. However when cancer cells are ‘undifferentiated’ they get stuck in a dangerous primitive form, never turning into recognizable breast tissue, and spreading quickly, leading to high grade tumors. Krtin believes he has found a way to coax these more deadly cells into their differentiated form by blocking a protein called ID4. Most cancers have receptors on their surface which bind to drugs like Tamoxifen but triple negative don’t have receptors so the drugs don’t work.“The prognosis for women with undifferentiated cancer isn’t very good so the goal is to turn the cancer back to a state where it can be treated.“The ID4 protein actually stops undifferentiated stem cell cancers from differentiating so you have to block ID4 to allow the cancer to differentiate. He has also discovered that upping the activity of a tumour suppressor gene called PTEN allows chemotherapy to work more effectively, so the dual treatment could prove far more effective than traditional drugs. The therapy idea, which saw him shortlisted for the final of The Big Bang Fair competition, would most likely be delivered in a nanoparticle containing RNA – the messenger molecule which carries instructions from the DNA. The RNA nanoparticle would be encoded to silence or boost gene activity. continue

Home treatment of diarrhoea in dogs.

VETERINARY MEDICINE:Bloat in dogs.

VETERINARY MEDICINE:Bloat in dogs. BLOAT, including how to recognize it, and what you can do at home. is it better to bandage a wound or leave it open?the answer will surprise you.

VETERINARY MEDICINE: How to use laser therapy in dogs.

VETERINARY MEDICINE: How to use laser therapy in dogs Benefits are 1) painless 2)non-invasive 3) drug-free management of pain an inflammation. The cold laser therapy also referred to as low-level lasers can be used for topical conditions as well as deeper conditions such as in bones,ligaments and tendons.The laser promote faster healing when used as they energize the cells in the affected areas by giving it more oxygen to accelerate healing. VETERINARY MEDICINE: How to use laser therapy in dogs Veterinarians often resort to use of therapy to ease pain of pets and also because of rapid healing conditions and most especially because its noninvasive. continue

VETERINARY MEDICINE : Laser therapy in veterinary practice.

VETERINARY MEDICINE : Laser therapy in veterinary practice. . The term "laser" describes the process, where light amplification of stimulated emission of radiation is used to treat . The laser therapy lessens pain, relaxes muscles, and improves circulation. It accomplishes this by altering the physiology of cells and tissue by means of light (photons) . VETERINARY MEDICINE : Laser therapy in veterinary practice. The effectiveness of treatment and the nature of responses depend heavily on if and how light enters living tissue.For tissue to absorb light and alter its physiology, a photochemical or photobiologic event must occur. Ideally, this event would take place within the tissue, whether it is skin, muscle, fascia, nerves, vessels, bones, and/or joints. continue

Turning the promise of stem cell therapy into a reality.

Stem cell therapy. Sounds complicated. Is it possible in everyday veterinary practice? Yes! Sherman Canapp, DVM, MS, DACVS, DACVSMR, CCRT, lays it out simply on how it can help alleviate pain in patients with osteoarthritis and even heal patients with tendon or ligament injury. It’s not complicated. You can do this! courtesy dvm360.

Rainwater Harvesting Could Revolutionize Poultry Industry.

A new system for harvesting and storing rainwater from poultry barns provides birds with high quality water while reducing the grower’s dependency on local wells and municipal water systems. A typical broiler farm with four poultry houses uses an estimated 1.8 to 2 million gallons of water per year with costs up to $22,000 annually from a municipal water system. According to Gene Simpson, Alabama Cooperative Extension System and associate director of Auburn University’s National Poultry Technology Center, rainwater harvesting has the potential to reduce those water bills by as much as $16,000 and pay for itself in 7-8 years. The harvesting system utilizes a gutter system to funnel rainwater from poultry-house roofs into a 100-foot by 36-foot flexible bladder. A 2-inch rainfall on the 82,000 square feet of roof space on four poultry barns would fill the bladder to its 100,000-gallon capacity. The water is then filtered multiple times, including an ultraviolet light filter that kills any bacteria, producing water with excellent quality free from contaminants. A control room pumps the collected water to the houses as needed and automatically switches over to municipal water in the event of an emergency. Simpson believes harvesting rainwater could help producers reduce their municipal water bills by as much as 90%, making it a strong option for growers who have high water rates, low availability of well water or water with significant quality issues.continue