Clitoris plays a part in reproduction

A recent study claims that the female clitoris is vital for the reproduction process.

The review notes that stimulating the clitoris activates the brain to cause a combination of changes in the female reproductive tract that creates its readiness to receive and process sperm to achieve possible fertilisation of the egg.

These include enhancement of vaginal blood flow, an increase in vaginal lubrication, an increase in vaginal oxygen and temperature, and most importantly a change in the position of the cervix, the entrance to the uterus.

This change brings the cervix away from the semen pool and prevents semen from travelling into the uterus too rapidly, this allowing sperm time to become mobile and activates to fertilise the egg.

Therefore, the clitoris has both procreative ( reproductive( and recreative ( pleasure) functions, reported the study.

Removal of the clitoris- which is performed in some countries and cultures not only a sexual disability but also a possible reproductive disability.

The often repeated mantra, that the sole function of the clitoris is to induce sexual pleasure, is now obsolete, said the review's author.

The concept changes a major sexual belief and the physiological evidence is now obvious, he concluded.

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Optic nerve stimulation offers hope for visually impaire

Scientists are developing a technology for the visually-impaired people that bypasses the eyeball entirely and sends messages to the brain, paving the way for a new visual aid for daily living. 

Researchers from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Italy use a new type of intraneural electrode called OpticSELINE to stimulate the optic nerve. The technology, described in the journal , has been successfully tested in rabbits.

 

"We believe that intraneural stimulation can be a valuable solution for several neuroprosthetic devices for sensory and motor function restoration. The translational potentials of this approach are indeed extremely promising," said a professor. Researchers noted that blindness affects an estimated 39 million people in the world. Many factors can induce blindness, like genetics, retinal detachment, trauma, stroke in the visual cortex, glaucoma, cataract, inflammation or infection. Some blindness is temporary and can be treated medically, researchers said. 

The idea is to produce phosphenes, the sensation of seeing light in the form of white patterns, without seeing light directly. Retinal implants, a prosthetic device for helping the blind, suffer from exclusion criteria. For example, half a million people worldwide are blind due to Retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disorder, but only a few hundred patients qualify for retinal implants for clinical reasons. A brain implant that stimulates the visual cortex directly is another strategy albeit risky. 

A priori, the new intraneural solution minimises exclusion criteria since the optic nerve and the pathway to the brain are often intact. Previous attempts to stimulate the optic nerve in the 1990s provided inconclusive results. Intraneural electrodes may be the answer for providing rich visual information to the subjects. They are also stable and less likely to move around once implanted in a subject, according to the scientists. "Cuff electrodes are surgically placed around the nerve, whereas intraneural electrodes pierce through the nerve," said Diego Ghezzi from EPFL. 

Together, Ghezzi, Micera and their teams engineered the OpticSELINE, an electrode array of 12 electrodes. In order to understand how effective these electrodes are at stimulating the various nerve fibres within the optic nerve, the scientists delivered electric current to the optic nerve via OpticSELINE and measured the brain's activity in the visual cortex. 

They developed an elaborate algorithm to decode the cortical signals. The researchers showed that each stimulating electrode induces a specific and unique pattern of cortical activation, suggesting that intraneural stimulation of the optic nerve is selective and informative. As a preliminary study, the visual perception behind these cortical patterns remains unknown.

 

"For now, we know that intraneural stimulation has the potential to provide informative visual patterns," Ghezzi said. "It will take feedback from patients in future clinical trials in order to fine-tune those patterns. From a purely technological perspective, we could do clinical trials tomorrow," he said. 

 

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Acupuncture helps treat autism spectrum disorders

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are developmental disorders, which have four core characteristics: communication and social impairment, irritability, repetitive behaviour and limited range of interests. There is a wide variance in the type and severity of autism.

Medication is used to help support children with autism. However, the adverse reactions to drugs have led to the increasing popularity of complementary treatments for autism.  

The research set out in this paper used body acupuncture and weekly treatments based on an individual diagnosis using an integrated TCM-Five Element style for each child, depending on their own specific symptoms. The study was conducted in one institute to minimise the variations in treatments.

This pilot control trial took place at a specialist residential school for children with ASD  between September 2012 and July 2013.  While 16 children (aged 9-16 years) accepted the invitation to participate, two withdrew. The remaining 14 students were allocated into two groups. Both groups received weekly treatments. The first group received treatment between September 28, 2012 and February 28, 2013, that made to a maximum of 14 possible sessions. The second group, a delayed control group, commenced treatment from March 1, 2013 and it continued till July 12, 2013, with a maximum of 15 possible session.

All diagnoses and treatments were undertaken by a single acupuncturist, who is the author of this study.  The practitioner has 16-year experience, is fully qualified and specialist in Acupuncture. The appointment duration was 30 minutes and parents were asked to attend the first session. The first four sessions consisted of massage and acupressure (pressing points with fingers, pressing with a metal probe, and progressing on to stimulating the point with the back of the needle in order to accustom children to the process). Needles were used from the fifth session depending on each participant’s acceptance of needles. Seirin 0.16x15mm needles were inserted to a depth of 0.3- 0.5 cun, and were retained for up to 20 minutes for the older and more compliant children. For the remaining participants, needles were not retained.

Children and their parents reported a variety of benefits, including feeling more relaxed, less anxious, less angry and improvement in social behaviour, all of which are common challenges that autistic children face. The majority of children were happy to receive acupuncture, provided they received support and a plenty of preparation and reassurance.  

Eight of the 14 children were unable to communicate verbally. Of the six who could communicate, only three children could articulate how they felt. In addition, parents only gave their feedback at the end of the five-month treatment. Parents suggested that treatment had made a positive impact on kids’ social behaviour but it was also suggested that regular treatment was needed to maintain its efficacy.

This treatment is now being made available in India.

 

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Novel pacemakers can be powered with light

Scientists have developed a tiny solar cell that encourages the heart to beat, an advance that may pave the way for pacemakers powered by light. Researchers created a flexible mesh out of silicon, that when activated by flashes of light, creates a tiny electro-chemical effect which can stimulate the heart muscle in a unique way.

They started with one of their own designs previously used to stimulate neurons, but made the mesh thinner to easily wrap around the heart and strewed tiny nano-wires across its surface to attach to cardiac cells. A small optical beam scans the area with a laser. Each flash activates the cells, causing the heart to beat at the same frequency as the light, according to the study.

“Unlike today’s pacemakers, this method appears to ‘train’ the cardiac muscle to beat,” said an associate professor.

It takes a while for the effect to kick in, but the muscles continue to fire for some time after the light pulses are stopped. The method is still early in development. If implanted in humans, the mesh could be injected at the target site, and a small optical fibre that would deliver the light pulses could be inserted through minimally invasive surgery, the asst. Prof. said.

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This Virus Could Help Treat Cancer

A study which attempted to show that viruses could be delivered to brain tumors has delivered that and more. 

Not only did the particular virus in question reach its target, but it also stimulated the patient's own immune system - which then went on to attack the tumor as well. 
 

Pre-clinical trials in mice, followed by window-of-opportunity trials in nine human patients, showed that this naturally occurring virus offers potential for a new type of cancer therapy that could be used alongside other treatments. 
 
The virus that they used is one that has previously shown potential for cancer treatment. It's called the mammalian orthoreovirus type 3, and it has already been shown to kill tumor cells, but leave healthy cells alone. 

Previous experiments have demonstrated this, but these researchers are the first to successfully direct it at brain tumors. This is because, until now, it was thought unlikely that it was possible that the virus could cross the blood-brain barrier - a membrane that protects the brain from pathogens. 

Co-lead says that "this is the first time it has been shown that a therapeutic virus is able to pass through the brain-blood barrier, and that opens up the possibility that this type of immunotherapy could be used to treat more people with aggressive brain cancers."

Nine patients were selected to be injected with the virus. All either had brain tumors that had spread to other parts of the body, or fast-growing gliomas - a type of brain tumor that is hard to treat and has a poor prognosis. All were scheduled to have their brain tumors surgically removed following the reovirus experiment. 

The researchers took samples from the tumors after they had been removed, and compared them to the tumors of patients who had had brain surgery, but not the reovirus beforehand. They found the virus in the tumor samples of the trial patients, clearly proving that the virus had been able to reach the cancer. 

However, they also found an increased level of interferons, the proteins that activate our immune system. They team says that these interferons were attracting white blood cells to the site to fight the tumor. 

Co-lead author says that "our immune systems aren't very good at seeing cancers - partly because cancer cells look like our body's own cells, and partly because cancers are good at telling immune cells to turn a blind eye. But the immune system is very good at seeing viruses. In our study, we were able to show that reovirus could infect cancer cells in the brain. And, importantly, brain tumors infected with reovirus became much more visible to the immune system."

These findings are now being applied in a clinical trial, where patients are being given the reovirus treatment in addition to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. One patient's treatment is already underway - he is being given 16 doses of the reovirus to treat his gliobastoma.

The reason why he is being given multiple doses is because of the way the virus activates the immune system. This clinical trial will determine how well cancer patients can tolerate the treatment, since the virus can cause flu-like symptoms, and whether it makes the standard treatment more effective.

An oncologist, who is also leading the clinical trial, says that "the presence of cancer in the brain dampers the body's own immune system. The presence of the reovirus counteracts this and stimulates the defense system into action. Our hope is that the additional effect of the virus on enhancing the body's immune response to the tumor will increase the amount of tumor cells that are killed by the standard treatment, radiotherapy and chemotherapy."

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