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Biotech

Fantastic Voyage Into the Heart 80

Posted by Zonk from the rat-superheroes-expected-soon dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "According to the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI), researchers from the Harvard Medical School have written a sequel to 'Fantastic voyage,' the 1966 sci-fi movie. By injecting self-assembling peptide nanofibers loaded with pro-survival factors into rats, they've showed that the animals could be protected from heart failures. So far, the researchers have not extended their experiments to humans."
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Fantastic Voyage Into the Heart More

Fantastic Voyage Into the Heart

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  • Hmm (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tezkah ( 771144 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @12:28AM (#14289161)
    I am going to write a song that includes

    Girl, you broke my heart
    please, start injecting self-assembling peptide nanofibers
    loaded with pro-survival factors
    to fix it... it would be a start




    </hoping the RIAA wont sue him for posting lyrics>
    • I was thinking more along the lines of the original(?) Fantastic Voyage [lyricsondemand.com]

      Hey, come on, come along take a ride
      There's a party over there, that ain't no jive
      It's live, live, it's all the way live
      Don't even have to walk, don't even have to drive
      Just slide, glide, slippity-slide
      Just forget about your troubles and your 9 to 5
      And just sail on (That's what you do), just sail on
      Now this groove's so funky, hey, what to you think
      What is it called, let's call it Lakeside stank

      Come along and ride on a fantastic voyage

      • I've been replaying GTA: San Andreas the last few days, and have had that song in my head. Synchronicity.

        (No, not the song, Synchronicity. That's by The Police.)

    • Re:Hmm (Score:5, Funny)

      by Hektor_Troy ( 262592 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @12:49AM (#14289231)
      Wow ... just ... wow!

      Not the lyrics. But - right now your comment is the only one rated 3+, and the quote of the day/hour thing at the bottom of slashdot?
      over in west Philadelphia a puppy is vomiting ...
      Not sure if it's random, or if the server has come alive.
  • Yes, but only about 1 in 10 of these types of things are tested on humans, and about 1 in 50 of those are ever approved for human use. Still neat though!
  • ...but the original article will do just fine. If you want to advertise your blog, fucking pay for an ad you cheap prick!
    • ..but the original article will do just fine. If you want to advertise your blog, fucking pay for an ad you cheap prick!

      I have three arguments in his defense:
      #3: I just click on the original link. Problem solved.
      #2: The editors change the links in these cases (they have done the same with some of my submissions).
      #1 and the most important: He's not Beatles-Beatles! :P (yes, this one's a joke)

  • Is there an English translation? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ritz_Just_Ritz ( 883997 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @12:30AM (#14289172)
    For those of us without PhD's in medical sciences?
    • Injecting growth factor (PGDF)* laced stuff** into the hearts of mice improves heart function more than just injecting the growth factor or the other stuff alone. *"[Note: PDGF stands for "Platelet-derived growth factor" and is is one of the numerous proteins that regulate cell growth and division according to Wikipedia.]" ** Self assembling peptide nanofibres - I assume sort've like a bioligically based delivery/binding device for the PGDF, which would explain the synergystic effect.

    • Re:Is there an English translation? (Score:5, Informative)

      by XPulga ( 1242 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @12:44AM (#14289215) Homepage
      They are experimenting with the injection of nanofibers that react with the heart tissue to make it more resilient after infarction (heart attack). In particular, they show that a particular kind of nanofiber leads to the desired results, while the other similar kind of nanofiber doesn't. It is a perfectly valid research work that identifies a factor that could be used in humans both for prevention and treatment of heart attacks, but it's not the first research like this and if the ZD guy who posted it thinks it's the closest we've got to Fantastic Voyage, he's got a huge stack of medical books and papers to read.
      • I read the paper and the nanofibres are not actually the effector but merely a carrier. The paper shows two main things : - the growth factor has a protectant effect (PDGF-BB is the growth factor) in the heart - nanofibres allow for a longer term dosage (14 days)of the protein growth factor Not sure why this paper is on slashdot, if something truly groundbreaking happens expect a Nature, Science, or PNAS publishing.
      • that react with the heart tissue to make it more resilient after infarction (heart attack)

        loaded with pro-survival factors

        Pro-survival factors cracks me up. Wouldn't be much of a report if, while trying to make the heart more resiliant after a heart attack, doctors injected the heart with anti-survival factors.

        • > Wouldn't be much of a report if, while trying to make
          > the heart more resiliant after a heart attack, doctors
          > injected the heart with anti-survival factors.

          Actually, when I read the header, the first thing to pop into my mind was how long until someone invents some self-assembling something-or-other that turns all your blood to goop, or dried flakes, ala that other ancient Sci-Fi movie, The Andromeda Strain.
      • > and if the ZD guy who posted it thinks it's
        > the closest we've got to Fantastic Voyage,
        > he's got a huge stack of medical books and papers to read.

        Don't forget stacks of Playboy, in which Raquel Welch has appeared...
    • It is a cellular peptide cake (with mint frosting)
    • So all the nanofibre is doing is holding the survival signalling molecule (PDGF) in place. Without the the nanofibre the signal gets carried away in the blood. Unfolded nanofibre is mixed with the signalling molecule in the lab. The solution is injected to the "injury" site. The nanofibres change shape when put into a different chemical environment(the animal's body). At the injection site fibres form. Trapped within the fibres is the signalling molecule. The molecule gives survival signals to the targe

  • Whoah... Flair for the dramatic... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Ruff_ilb ( 769396 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @12:36AM (#14289193) Homepage
    The title of the article is rather confusing... but here's my take -

    First of all, I doubt that this is going to be approved for human use any time soon, even IF they can prove a good success rate.

    Speaking of which, what IS their success rate? As promising as this seems, I don't know if I want this if it's a save-you-or-kill-you sort of treatment. However, their study results show that, in mice, it seems to work just fine.

    From TFA:

    "A blinded and randomized study in 96 rats showed that injecting nanofibers with PDGF-BB, but not nanofibers or PDGF-BB alone, decreased cardiomyocyte death and preserved systolic function after myocardial infarction. A separate blinded and randomized study in 52 rats showed that PDGF-BB delivered with nanofibers decreased infarct size after ischemia/reperfusion."

    "[Note: PDGF stands for "Platelet-derived growth factor" and is is one of the numerous proteins that regulate cell growth and division according to Wikipedia.]"

    I'm not a doctor/biologist/etc, but is this something we want to be messing with? I mean, sounds like encouraging excessive cell growth in the heart wouldn't be a good idea at all. It's one thing if the patient is dying, but quite another if people are taking this so they're at a lowered risk of a heart attack later. TFA doesn't seem to mention side effects at all, much less potential side effects in humans.

    I'm also not a statistician, but their sample size doesn't seem to be all that large, either.

    I may be overanalyzing this, but I'll definitely want to see a LOT more research before I'll write this off as anything other than another group of scientists claiming a magic bullet.

    • Re:Whoah... Flair for the dramatic... (Score:5, Informative)

      by myc ( 105406 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @02:26AM (#14289465)
      I am not a cardiovacular research, but my wife is. excessive growth of the heart is the least of your worries. Adult cardiomyocytes are nortoriously hard to get to proliferate. Getting them to growth at all, even just a little bit, is a big deal.

    • Guts of the thing. (Score:4, Informative)

      by tempest69 ( 572798 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @05:20AM (#14289848) Journal
      Surviving a heart attack still has it's issues. The heart makes some adaptations that make the cells affected less reliant on oxygen. The problem is that those cells become much less efficient. So you have a chunk of the heart that has lost some of it's endurance function in order to be a bit better at not dying the next time you down a big mac. So these nano fibers arent going to fix you on the ER table, but will reduce the amount of cells that are low endurance during recovery.

      The sample size isnt too bad, if you have a good correlation. Cutting open that many mice and giving them heart attacks can take some work. Then you need to let them recover, then you need to "harvest" the mice and examine their hearts.

      Storm

      Scientists, the leading cause of cancer in lab rats.

  • Accuracy (Score:5, Interesting)

    by XPulga ( 1242 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @12:38AM (#14289198) Homepage
    Fantastic Voyage is originally a book by Asimov, who already wrote a sequel (Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain). The link between TFA and Asimov's novel is faint, if not null. People with interest in Medical research shouldn't be getting their feeds from ZD Net. And while we're at it, the past participle of show is shown.

    • How else to get us looking at Roland's adblog? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Taco and the other "editors" know we hate Roland's scummy backhand deals with Slashdot, so they have to try a few more tricks to make us click'n'pay the guy, such as almost lying about the article contents. The summary of the next article they post from him will probably progress to outright lies.
    • Fantastic Voyage (the book) was based on Fantastic Voyage (the screenplay) so the plot wasn't Asimov's.

      However, Fantastic Voyage II is an Asimov original.

    • Re:Accuracy (Score:5, Funny)

      by Geburah ( 610977 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @03:03AM (#14289542)
      My God... You sub 5 digiters... How do you do it? Every post is an elegant stroke of artistic wisdom; neigh an iron fist of doom! It's as if pre-5 digit slashdotters are part of a secret society of word tamers. An ancient and dying people they are, surfacing only in the darkest of times to smote thy noob and vanquish thy tard.

      Kudos my tiny numbered friend, kudos.
    • The link between TFA and Asimov's novel is faint, if not null.

      I think a closer analogy is the HeartLander [cmu.edu]. Not exactly a submarine, but still a small mobile "vehicle" to deliver treatment.

  • We are the borg. (Score:4, Funny)

    by TheSpoom ( 715771 ) * <slashdot@ubermAA ... inus threevowels> on Monday December 19, 2005 @12:49AM (#14289232) Homepage Journal
    You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

    Also, do you have any cheese?

  • Nano's Not Fantastic, It's Borg ... (Score:5, Informative)

    by rewinn ( 647614 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @12:51AM (#14289236) Homepage

    ... the better SF reference is not to "Fantastic Voyage", for that movie used mAcrotech made tiny, without any changes allowing for different effects of nano-scale. The atomic-powered minisub was a normal atomic-powered minisub, the two-handed surgical laser was a normal two-handed surgical laser, and the madatory busty female [imdb.com] was a normal mandatory busty female. They were simply rendered smaller, that's all.

    In contrast, Borg nano-technology [memory-alpha.org] takes full advantage of the unique properties of objects in small scale, just as does the self-assembling peptide nanofibers referenced in the announcement [eurekalert.org].

    We wouldn't want our SF references to be unrealistic, would we?

  • Sequel (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Have Blue ( 616 )
    There was already a sequel to Fantastic Voyage. It was a novel called Fantastic Voyage 2: Destination Brain, and it was written by Isaac Asimov just like the novel the first movie was based on.

  • Human Trials (Score:2, Funny)

    by TheSixth1 ( 81935 )
    So far they've only used rats for the trials. I say they should take the next step and use politicians for the next round of tests. Medical science has shown that politicians and rats share 99.99% of their genes in common, so the risks should be minimal. Besides, with the current state of political affairs in the U.S. I doubt that many of the voting public would complain if a few wayward politicians made a valiant sacrifice in the name of science.

    ---

    First step: Politicans with a heart.
    Second step: Politicia
  • Does it come in the 'choose your own adventure' paperback edition?
    • Does it come in the 'choose your own adventure' paperback edition?
      Not yet. But that's only because they're still trying to teach the rats to read. (They've had some success, but they will keep eating the books...)
  • Scientists develop peptide nanofibers loaded with pro-survival factors, and use them only on rats...

    Until one day a lead scientist learns that he has a degenerative heart condition, and has only a month to live.

    So late one night he injects the nanofibers into himself (pulp-fiction/Firefly style direct injection to the heart region)...

    Now only the late-night crew (inclduing a dashing plumber and kick-ass security babe) stand between the man with greatly enhanced "pro-survival factors" and the outside world!

    I

  • To the scientists: (Score:5, Funny)

    by cachimaster ( 127194 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @01:26AM (#14289350)
    Stop fixing the rats dammit!, they gonna kill us all!
    • Stop fixing the rats dammit!, they gonna kill us all!

      Nah. I wouldn't worry about a race of super-rats.

      I've never understood this idea of insulting somebody by calling him a rat. Rats are just interested in eating, having sex, and finding a cozy dark place to hang out with their friends. For many humans, being called a rat would be a compliment.
      • I've never understood this idea of insulting somebody by calling him a rat. Rats are just interested in eating, having sex, and finding a cozy dark place to hang out with their friends. For many humans, being called a rat would be a compliment.

        You mean, for many Slashdotters?

  • Fantastic Voyage (Score:3, Funny)

    by Stephen Tennant ( 936097 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @01:34AM (#14289366) Journal
    Does it star Coolio?

  • Hmm.. my marketing filter is flashing.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by drspliff ( 652992 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @02:29AM (#14289473)

    Hmm, my marketing filter is flashing again..

    Panten Pro-V conditioning shampoo with "self-assembling peptide nanofibers loaded with pro-survival factors" for extra shine and longevity..

    I'm not calling BS, but cant a crack team of Hardard scientists be a little bit more specific with a short quote!

  • Wouldn't it just be better to invest in prevention instead of thinking about all this high tech when the damage has already been made? I know I will be trolled for this, but face it: most people who live in more "advanced" states and countries have serious trouble with high obesity figures. Face it: you all take your car far too often, visiting your neighbour who sometimes lives 20m away from you or going to the shop to buy some small groceries. Exercise seems to be the tool of the devil, since nobody ev
    • Not everyone has heart attacks because they eat the wrong food though (eg. *Every* male in my family will have a heart attack before they've reached 40. My dad did, his dad did, etc. etc.). Not helping recovery would suck for me and my family, being told I should have eaten healthier food won't help at all when the massive amounts of cholesterol that my body produces is stuck in a blood vessel.
      • Your right about that. Some things regretfully are still far from our reach, even with high tech or low tech, like I stated in my prevention. But I'm at least a little frustrated to see that there are lots of people who take news like this the wrong way. They shape their attitude with "oh well, if there's a cure, why should I worry?"
        I didn't mean to offend the technology, but far too often, it doesn't get to those who would really need it.
    • Wouldn't it just be better to invest in prevention instead of thinking about all this high tech when the damage has already been made?

      Prevention won't prevent death by natural causes.

      Advanced technologies will.

      To expand on this idea. Will eating right and being healthy prevent you from dying of a genetic disorder? How about physical accident like an intensive care rendering car crash? Not to mention incurable illnesses like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's.

      Of course this doesn't mean you shouldn't live a healthy
  • Buncha medical terms... something about cells and heart tissue not dieing as much after injecting stuff into them... a few pictures with more medical jargon descriptions saying something about why and how the pictures are different, tho they look the same to me... and be sure to look at more pretty pictures here: URL

    Yeh, thats about it. Summary was a copy of the first paragraph, and is about as far as you can go and still make sense of it without a med degree...

    tm

  • They're going to have to come up with a shorter name for this before someone starts offering this as cheap medd$ sent out in discreet packaging through their online pharmacy.
  • Let's see this here: "self-assembling peptide nanofibers loaded with pro-survival factors into rats..."

    Wow, we better load with with unrelated sci-fi movie references and sensationalism or it's gonna be a boring article.
  • It is a self-assembling peptide nanofiber cake.. with pro-survival factor frosting!
  • I have a problems with this idea. One of the themes I'm currently writing about is technologies that closely resemble 'fictional' technologies/magic but aren't 'seen' as those 'pretend' things because the science gets in the way of our understanding. For instance, a car would be a great interpretation of Seven League Boots. This stuff with the carbon nono-fibre gunk and self assembling whosits sounds an awful lot like nanobots. Are we there, yet?
  • I'm impressed that they've gotten so far along with this. Nanotechnolgy is intriguing.

    Still, my inner child giggles at the phrase, "...A separate blinded and randomized study in 52 rats showed that...". I picture all those little rats with blindfolds on...

    Ahem,.. back to work.

  • Therapeutic Prions? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by adavies42 ( 746183 ) on Monday December 19, 2005 @05:51PM (#14294906)
    I'm too lazy to read the actual study results, and TFA doesn't say, but "self-assembling peptide nanofibers" sound an awful lot like prions to me. Given all the work that's been done on using viruses for genetic engineering, I suppose prion-based therapy was bound to come along eventually.
  • Not super-rats; rats that get fat and won't die from heart attacks. Hardly a super-power. The self-assembling nature of these nanopeptides is the most interesting aspect of this. It should reduce or eliminate the need for repeat administrations. Also, there is likely no downside from this type of treatment; it shouldn't prevent any healing or advantageous adaptation. Before anyone reminds me, yes, this is a first step, and we're at least several years from human use. And yes, it's unlikely that this will

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