2016 International Top 10 Medical Science and Technology News: Insufficient Fruit Intake in China Causes Heart Disease.

Implanting microelectrode arrays helps paralysed patients regain motor ability
a neuroscience study published in the journal Nature by American researchers says, using the brain's motor cortex to record signals, has for the first time succeeded in restoring the ability of a paralysed patient to move multiple fingers, hands and wrists.
team implanted microelectrode arrays into the motor cortex of a 24-year-old quadriplegic male subject, then used machine learning algorithms to decode neuronal activity and used a neuromuscular electrical stimulation system to activate the muscles that control the forearms. In the trial, the subjects were trained three times a day for 15 months after implanting the electronic "neural bypass". The electrostimulation system allowed the subjects to exercise their fingers independently, as well as six different wrist and hand movements. The researchers believe the work will advance the development of neuroimplantation prosthesis technology in paralysed patients.
The scientific community has learned how to crack brain signals in paralysed people over the past decade, and now this brain activity is converted into action for the first time, showing that brain signals bypass the injured spinal cord and transmit it directly to the arm through an electronic "neural bypass" and control its activity. Scientists have previously developed systems that convert neural activity into signals that control auxiliary devices such as robotic arms, as well as systems that allow paralysed non-human primates to regain their motor ability, but for the first time, a "nerve chip" that allows humans to regain their ability to move in real time. While improvements in microelectrode technology, electrical stimulation systems and the machine algorithms on which the system depend soning are needed to make them more widely available, they have opened up new hope for millions of paralysed people around the world to return to their own lives.
several studies to explore the pathogenesis of the Zika virus
in 2016, the Zika virus attracted worldwide attention, and well-known journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine and Science published scientists' findings on how the virus is treated.
researchers at the University of California, San Diego, worked with their counterparts in Brazil and Senegal to isolate the strain of the Zika virus from clinical cases in Brazil and inject it into the mother mouse in high doses, finding that the virus enters from the placenta, causing the neurons in the fetal rat to die and inhibiting its overall growth. Researchers at the University of Washington created mouse models that further confirmed the route of infection and published the article in the journal Cell.
researchers at Purdue University in the United States, writing in the journal Science, said they had observed the structure of the virus under a high-precision frozen electron microscope with a resolution similar to that of atoms, and measured the three-dimensional structure of the Zika virus at 3.8 e. The results showthat the structure of the Zika virus is generally similar to other viruses belonging to the yellow virus, such as dengue fever and West Nile virus.
an international team led by Harvard University scholars has developed a low-cost test paper-based rapid diagnostic system that specifically detects the Zika virus and could soon be used to screen blood, urine or saliva samples in the field.
by sequencing the genomes of a handful of Zika viruses from Brazil, researchers confirmed that the virus was introduced into the Americas in one go, between May 2013 and December 2016, 12 months before the virus was discovered in Brazil.
Zika outbreak has spread rapidly to 66 countries and territories around the world, including our country, since the outbreak in Brazil in 2015. A growing body of research now suggests that Zika virus infection is closely related to microcephaly in fetuses and newborns, and that the virus can also cause many neurological disorders. No vaccine or effective treatment for the Zika virus has been developed, so there is no way to respond to a large-scale outbreak of Zika. The threat and inaction have drawn the attention of scientists around the world, and there are already numerous research projects around the world related to the Zika virus, focusing on disease symptoms, diagnosis, disease mechanisms and the exploration of how the disease is transmitted, in part of the 2016 study on the Zika virus.
10 years of follow-up to limited prostate cancer, with little difference in treatment outcomes
researchers from the United Kingdom published a 10-year follow-up study in the New England Journal of Medicine in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study compared the therapeutic effects of active monitoring, prostate cancer cures, and external radiation therapy for clinically limited prostate cancer. Between 1999 and 2009, 82,429 men between the ages of 50 and 69 were tested for PSA blood, of whom 2,664 were diagnosed with limited prostate cancer. A total of 1,643 persons agreed to receive randomized active monitoring (545), surgery (553 persons) and radiotherapy (545 persons). The results showed that, during the average follow-up 10 years, the prostate cancer-specific mortality rate was lower, regardless of which treatment was chosen, and the differences between groups were not significant. Only surgery and radiotherapy reduce the incidence of disease progression compared to active monitoring.
this is the first assessment of the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and acceptability of three treatment-limitation prostate cancer stakes (active monitoring, surgery, and radiotherapy). The findings provide patients and clinicians with detailed information about the effectiveness and impact of each treatment so that they can decide wisely which treatment to take. The study showed that, so far, prostate cancer detected through PSA blood tests has been very slow, with a very low 10-year mortality rate of about 1%, far below expectations at the time the study began. The study found that radiation therapy slowed the progression of cancer in half of all patients, but no difference in survival rates was found after surgery or radiation therapy, and three-quarters of men in the active monitoring group did not spread the cancer further within 10 years. In the long run, further research is needed to determine whether preventing cancer progression through surgery or radiotherapy will lead to better outcomes.
the 30 percent incidence of improper antibiotic prescriptions in outpatients in the United States from 2010 to 2011
American scholars published an opinion in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the use of antibiotics in u.S. outpatient clinics. Using data from the 2010-2011 National Outpatient Medical Survey and the National Hospital Outpatient Medical Survey, the researchers calculated the proportion of prescriptions for oral antibiotics used by outpatients and the rate of prescriptions for reasonable antibiotics per 1,000 people per year. The study involved 184,032 visits, with 12.6% of patients prescribed antibiotics by their doctors. The results showed that sinusitis was the most common disease prescribed for antibiotics, followed by purulent otitis and pharyngitis. Overall, 221 antibiotic prescriptions are prescribed per 1,000 people per 1,000 people per year, but only 111 are reasonable. Between 2010 and 2011, about 506 antibiotic prescriptions were prescribed per 1,000 people per year, including 353 prescriptions. As a result, about 30% of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions in the United States were unreasonable between 2010 and 2011. The rational use of antimicrobials is a common global challenge.
study suggests the need to set targets for antibiotic management for outpatients, such as a 15 percent reduction in total antibiotic use, to meet the national action plan to curb antibiotic resistance and to reduce prescriptions for inappropriate use of antibiotics in outpatient clinics by 50 percent by 2020. To that end, the American Heart Federation (AHA) Physician Leadership Forum also offers an antibiotic management toolkit to help hospitals and health systems improve their antimicrobial drug management programs.
fruit intake is a risk factor for Chinese group of heart disease and stroke
a study of 500,000 Chinese in the New England Journal of Medicine, published by British and Chinese researchers, showed that people who ate very little fresh fruit had a significantly lower risk of heart disease and stroke than those who ate very little. Eating 100 grams of fresh fruit per day can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease death by about one-third. The report's data comes from a large prospective cohort study of 500,000 people (also known as the China Adult Chronic Disease Prospective Study, or CKB). The team, created by the University of Oxford and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, recruited respondents in 10 regions of China and collected a large number of health-related individual data, including eating habits, by linking to reports of death and common chronic diseases and the health care system, to obtain data on the incidence and death of the subjects during the seven-year follow-up period.
the Global Burden of Disease Study has pointed out that fruit intake levels are one of the main risk factors for premature death in adults in China, but this finding is based largely on large, forward-looking population studies in the West rather than in China. The study is the first large-scale Chinese-based cohort study. The study revealed a stronger correlation between fruit intake and cardiovascular risk than previously reported western populations, possibly because Chinese group had significantly lower fruit intake than in the U.S. and Europe. In addition, Chinese eat sourcing fresh fruit mainly in raw, rather than in the West, a significant proportion of the fruit is processed (such as canned fruit and fruit juice). Unlike this study, most previous studies have combined fresh and processed fruits. As an observational epidemiological study, the study does not fully establish a causal relationship between fruit intake and low cardiovascular risk, and if there is a causal link between the two, and if health promotion enables every Chinese to consume fresh fruit daily, it can reduce more than 500,000 cardiovascular deaths per year, including more than 200,000 premature deaths before the age of 70, while preventing more non-fatal heart disease and stroke.
nanoparticles containing tumor-containing RNA can stimulate the body's immune system to fight tumors
German researchers say in an article published in the journal Nature that they have developed a cancer-resistant Trojan horse that introduces virus simulations into the body, allowing the body to launch an antiviral immune attack. The treatment, designed to stimulate the body's own immune defenses against disease, has so far been tested in only three cancer patients. The Trojan horse made in the lab, or viral analogue, is made up of nanoparticles containing cancerRNA, wrapped in fatty acid membranes. These nanoparticles are injected into the patient's body to simulate a virus invasion, which then dives into dendritic cells, triggering cancer antigens. These antigens then activate cancer-resistant T-cells, allowing the body to attack vigorously and launch anti-tumor attacks. Three patients with advanced skin cancer were treated with low-dose viral analogs as a first step in a long and rigorous process of testing new drugs in humans.
the new treatment, known as the RNA vaccine, simulates an infectious agent and trains the body to respond to it, and thus works as a preventive vaccine. In the three cancer patients, "impressively observed immune responses", but the study is still in its early stages and a larger randomized trial is needed to validate the findings. Despite the concerns of this study, it is still some distance from being able to give patients a definitive effect. A prominent issue is the "practical challenge of manufacturing nanoparticles with a wide range of clinical applications".
the global burden of viral hepatitis increased from 1990 to 2013
a study completed by multi-national scholars from the Americas, Europe and Asia, published in the Lancet, investigated the global viral hepatitis disease burden in 2013. Viral hepatitis is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with 1.45 million deaths caused by viral hepatitis worldwide in 2013, a 63% increase over 1990, according to the paper. Unlike most infectious diseases, the absolute burden and relative level of viral hepatitis did not decline and increase from 1990 to 2013. Using data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, the researchers estimated the incidence and mortality of four major hepatitis virus acute infections, as well as morbidity and mortality associated with secondary cirrhosis and liver cancer, among people of all ages, genders and countries worldwide from 1990 to 2013.
this is by far the most comprehensive analysis of the global burden of viral hepatitis, exploring the relationship between the burden of viral hepatitis and economic status. The study revealed a startling finding that the number of deaths from viral hepatitis is now 1.45 million, while mortality from infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria has continued to decline since 1990, viral hepatitis mortality has been on the rise, viral hepatitis has remained a major cause of death in middle- and high-income countries, and in low-income countries in 2013 the death rate from viral hepatitis has also increased. Although effective treatments and vaccines for viral hepatitis are available, investment in patients is limited. A global programme of action for viral hepatitis has been developed and still needs to be implemented. The health funding structure should be changed to adapt to the changing burden of viral hepatitis and to allow low-middle-income countries to take effective measures to increase the affordability and accessibility of viral hepatitis treatment through increased efforts.
a human-derived monoclonal antibody that significantly reduces beta-amyloid levels in Alzheimer's patients
U.S. researchers wrote in the journal Nature that they produced a human-derived monoclonal antibody, aducanumab, in a mouse model of genetically modified Alzheimer's disease (AD), showing that aducanumab can enter the brain and bind to beta-amylotype plaques and reduce the amount of dose-dependent ath- Studies in patients have shown that patients with prefrontal or mild symptoms have a monthly intravenous aducanumab, where the abeta plaques in the brain decrease with increased dose and time. The clinical dementia assessment scale was found to slow down the degree of AD dementia. These results prove that this approach has good prospects. But the slowdown in clinical symptoms also needs to be confirmed by ongoing Phase III clinical trials.
Aducanumab is a drug developed by Perien to treat Alzheimer's disease and can selectively target beta-amyloid, known as "the new hope for alzheimer's disease." The effects of this antibody are so impressive that anti-beta-amyloid therapy can delay cognitive decline and may radically change the way we understand, treat and prevent Alzheimer's disease. However, the antibody drug can also have side effects, including fluid build-up in the brain and headaches. The results of the study are as well.