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'SEE-ing' The Difference: Evaluation Shows $167 Million Investment Improves Community Mental Health System, But Many Still In Need
Can $167 million in provincial funding make a difference to Ontario"s community mental health system? According to the results from the Systems Enhancement Evaluation Initiative (SEEI), the answer is yes. Ontarians now have access to more appropriate community mental health services. But, the research also highlights the system"s limited res to serve all those in need.
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Medtronic Annual Meeting Date Scheduled For August 27, 2009
The board of directors of Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT), announced that the company"s annual meeting of shareholders will be held at 10:30 a.m., Central Daylight Time, on Thursday, August 27, 2009 at Medtronic World Headquarters, located at 710 Medtronic Parkway, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Shareholders of record at the close of business on June 29, 2009, will be eligible to vote at the meeting.
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Advocates Are Back With Real Health Care Stories
Thousands of people are "now telling their stories on videos, ads and Web sites on both sides of the health care debate," The Associated Press reports. Proponents and "foes of expanding government-run health care" are posting "stories of real people on YouTube and in advertisements," as well as building up banks of the stories online. "Voters and lawmakers may be moved by the stories or turned off by what they see as emotional pandering. But in the weeks to come, the airwaves and blogosphere are sure to be populated by real people telling what happened to them when they got sick." For example, "Obama"s political operation, Organizing for America, put up a Web site last week where people can post their own health care tales and read the stories of others."
Medical Devices

Like Burrs On Your Clothes, Molecule-Size Capsules Can Deliver Drugs By Sticking To Targeted Cells

It is now possible to engineer tiny containers the size of a virus to deliver drugs and other materials with almost 100 percent efficiency to targeted cells in the bloodstream. According to a new Cornell study, the technique could one day be used to deliver vaccines, drugs or genetic material to treat cancer and blood and immunological disorders. The research was published recently (June 25, 2009) online at the Web site of the journal Gene Therapy. "This study greatly extends the range of therapies," said Michael King, Cornell associate professor of biomedical engineering, who co-authored the study with lead author Zhong Huang, a former Cornell research associate who is now an assistant professor at the Shenzhen University School of Medicine in China. "We can introduce just about any drug or genetic material that can be encapsulated, and it is delivered to any circulating cells that are specifically targeted," King added. The technique involves filling the tiny lipid containers, or nanoscale capsules, with a molecular cargo and coating the capsules with adhesive proteins called selectins that specifically bind to target cells. A shunt coated with the capsules is then inserted between a vein and an artery. Much as burrs attach to clothing in a field, the selectin-coated capsules adhere to targeted cells in the bloodstream. After rolling along the shunt wall, the cells break free from the wall with the capsules still attached and ingest their contents. The technique mimics a natural immune response that occurs during inflammation, which stimulates cells on blood vessel walls to express selectins, which quickly form adhesive bonds with passing white blood cells. The white blood cells then stick to the selectins and roll along the vessel wall before leaving the bloodstream to fight disease or infection. Selectin proteins may be used to specifically target nucleated (cells with a nucleus) cells in the bloodstream. The study shows that since only the targeted cells ingest the contents of the nanocapsules, the technique could greatly reduce the adverse side effects caused by some drugs. In a previous paper, King showed how metastasizing cancer cells circulating in the blood stream can stick to selectin-coated devices containing a second protein that programs cancer cells to self-destruct. Said King, "We"ve found a way to disable the function of cancer cells without compromising the immune system," which is a problem with many other therapies directed against metastasis. The current study demonstrates that genetic material can be delivered to targeted cells to turn off specific genes and interfere with processes that lead to disease. The researchers filled nanocapsules with a small-interfering RNA (siRNA) and targeted them to specific circulating cells. When the targeted cells ingested the capsules, the siRNA turned off a gene that produces an enzyme that contributes to the degradation of cartilage in arthritis. In a similar manner, the method could be used to target the delivery of chemotherapy drugs, vaccine antigens to white blood cells, specific molecules that mitigate auto-immune disorders and more, King said. The paper is available here. Blaine Friedlander Cornell University


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