Author: lisaweiner

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Autism Brain MRI

Prenatal MRI study suggests autism differences may begin in the womb

A small Boston Children’s Hospital study led by Assistant Professor Emi Takahashi and postdoc Alpen Ortug showed increased volume of the insular lobe as a potential strong prenatal MRI biomarker that could predict the emergence of ASD later in life. It revealed significant differences in brain structures at 25 weeks’ gestation between children who were later diagnosed with ASD and those who were not.

If validated, this could enable earlier treatment after birth, which could improve outcomes. Early treatment has been shown to improve language and cognitive abilities, but current diagnostic tools can only identify the disorder around 18 months of age.

39 fetal MRI brain scans at 25 weeks’ gestation taken at Boston Children’s Hospital were analyzed. 9 children were later diagnosed with ASD, 20 were neurotypical and 10 did not have ASD but had other conditions also observed in the children with ASD.

An atlas-based automated anatomical labeling method was used to segment the scans and compare brain regions between the different groups. The insular lobe was found to have significantly larger volume in the ASD group compared with the other 3 control groups.

The findings align with studies that have reported changes in the insular cortex in adults with autism, and suggests these differences may begin in the womb. The scans from children with ASD also showed a significantly larger amygdala and hippocampal commissure compared with children who had other health conditions but not ASD.

According to Ortug, “to the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to semi-automatically segment the brain regions in the prenatal stage in patients who are diagnosed with autism later and compare different groups of controls.”

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Genome Genomics

Complete, gapless human genome sequence published


The T2T consortium have published the first complete, gapless sequence of a human genome, two decades after the Human Genome Project produced the first draft human genome sequence. Having a complete, gap-free sequence of the roughly 3 billion bases in our DNA is critical for understanding the full spectrum of human genomic variation and for understanding the genetic contributions to certain diseases.

This will significantly add to our knowledge of chromosomes, including more accurate maps for five chromosome arms, to answer basic biology questions about how chromosomes properly segregate and divide. The T2T consortium used the now-complete genome sequence as a reference to discover more than 2 million additional variants in the human genome. These studies provide more accurate information about the genomic variants within 622 medically relevant genes. 

Consortium co-chair Adam Phillippy believes that sequencing a person’s entire genome should become less expensive and more straightforward, enabling physicians to better guide their healthcare.

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COVID 19 Sensors

Hopkins developed saliva sensor improves speed and accuracy of COVID detection

David Gracias and Ishan Barman at Johns Hopkins have developed a COVID 19 sensor which provides fast and accurate results using a drop of saliva placed on a device. No additional chemical modifications like molecular labeling or antibody functionalization are required, which could allow the sensor to be used in wearable devices.

Current PCR tests are highly accurate, but require complicated sample preparation, with results taking hours or even days to process in a laboratory. Rapid tests are less successful at detecting early infections and asymptomatic cases and can lead to erroneous results.

The Gracias/Barman developed sensor is nearly as sensitive as a PCR test and as convenient as a rapid antigen test. In a study, the sensor demonstrated 92% accuracy at detecting SARS-COV-2 in saliva samples—comparable to that of PCR tests. It was also highly successful at rapidly determining the presence of other viruses, including H1N1 and Zika.

The sensor material can be placed on any type of surface, from doorknobs and building entrances to masks and textiles, or potentially be integrated with a hand-held testing device for fast screenings at crowded places like airports or stadiums.

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BCI

Shallow implant plus precise stimulation startup aims to treat depression

Inner Cosmos is a new, shallowly implanted brain stimulation system meant to address depression. It calls its system a “digital pill” but still requires a procedure for electronics to be placed under the skin on the head. Chief Medical Officer Eric Leuthardt is a top neurosurgeon from Washington University in St Louis and the CEO is former AR entrepreneur Meron Gribetz.

The goal is for tiny electrical pulses to normalize connections among neurons and improve mood with out deeply implanted electrodes. The patient would activate the system daily for 15 minutes by placing a second device, a magnetic power pod, on top of the implant. The implant sends pulses into the brain as the system measures neuronal activity to determine the appropriate amount of stimulation.

ApplySci was unable to locate photos of the device or papers describing the technology.

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Sensors

Zenan Bao further develops stretchable, potentially reshapeable, skin inspired electronics

Zhenan Bao Stanford Skin Inspired Electronics

Stanford’s Zhenan Bao and team have developed a stretchable, potentially reshapeable, wearable display that can allow a new way of interactive human-machine interface. “We can see the image and interact with it, and then the display can change according to our response” said Bao in a Stanford interview.

The display is made entirely of stretchy polymers, with a maximum brightness of twice that of a cellphone. It can be stretched to twice its original length without tearing.

Most light-emitting polymers are crack when stretched. Flexibility can be increased with elastic insulating materials, which decrease electrical conductivity, and require a dangerously high voltage.

Postdoc Zhitao Zhang discovered that a yellow-colored light-emitting polymer called SuperYellow became soft and pliable, and emitted brighter light when mixed with a type of polyurethane. The interconnected net of nanoscale fibers that make the SuperYellow stretchy don’t inhibit electricity flow. The group also created elastic red, green and blue light-emitting polymers.

The final display contains seven layers. Two outer layers are two substrates that encapsulate the device. Two inner electrode layers follow, each followed by charge transporting layers. The light-emitting layer is sandwiched in the center.

When electricity runs through the display, one electrode injects positive charges, called holes, into the light-emitting layer, while the other injects negatively charged electrons into it. When the two types of charges meet, they bond and go into an energetically excited state. Almost immediately, the state returns to normal by producing a photon.

The resulting all-polymer film can adhere to an arm or finger and doesn’t rip during bending or flexing. This allows wearable tracker displays to directly attach to skin.

Bao imagines “a display where you can both see and feel the three-dimensional object on the screen. This will be a completely new way to interact with each other remotely.”

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Brain

Stanford study: High dose magnetic stimulation eases severe depression

Nolan Williams, Alan Schatzberg, and Stanford colleagues have published a small, double blind study showing that high dose, noninvasive, magnetic brain stimulation alleviated depression symptoms in 80% of participants.

Stanford accelerated intelligent neuromodulation therapy (SAINT) is an intensive, individualized form of transcranial magnetic stimulation. Effects were seen within days and lasted months. Side effects included fatigue and headaches.

29 people with treatment-resistant depression participated. Half received SAINT, and half received a placebo procedure. After five days, 78.6% of the participants in the treatment group had eased symptoms.

See CBS Sunday Morning video describing patient experiences with SAINT

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Brain

Passive EEG assessment detects cognitive decline early

George Sothart and University of Bath colleagues have developed a new, EEG + game memory assessment technique which could enable the earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, the underlying cause of around 60% of dementia cases..

The need for early diagnosis tools to help doctors to prescribe lifestyle interventions to slow the rate of cognitive decline is obvious. This tool could also help identify dementia patients for clinical trials.

“Fastball EEG” is passive. The person performing the test is not given priorinstructions prior to the task, as dementia patients may struggle to follow complex directions, and is not asked to reflect on, respond to or remember any items. She or he simply watches a screen of flashing images.

Two discrete frequency responses are captured, reflecting the participant’s periodic neural responses to the stimuli. The first reflects visual processing; the second mirrors the brain’s response to previously seen images and reflects recognition memory. Analyzing the EEG spectrum at the second, slower frequency can quantify the patient’ memory response.

Fastball EEG was studied in 20 patients with Alzheimer’s disease, 20 healthy older adults and 20 healthy younger adults. For both the recognition and repetition conditions, Fastball EEG detected significantly impaired recognition memory in Alzheimer’s disease patients compared with healthy older control subjects. There were no differences between the two groups under the control condition, where image recognition was not included. The Fastball test could also discriminate Alzheimer’s disease patients from healthy older adult controls, with an accuracy of 86%. No significant performance differences were seen between older and younger healthy controls.

After the Fastball task, participants completed a forced-choice task, in which they had to identify a previously seen image from two alternatives. Here, the researchers observed little difference between Alzheimer’s disease patients and controls, suggesting that Fastball was more sensitive to memory performance than this behavioral recognition test.

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Sensors

Candy sensor prototype to monitor electrolytes, ovulation, kidney function through saliva

Korea University professors Beelee Chua and Donghyun Lee have developed a health monitoring sensor using saliva collected from a Tootsie Roll candy to detects salt and electrolyte levels, and monitor ovulation status and kidney health.

The easily accessible, low-waste sensor is simply licked.

To make the prototype sensor, a Tootsie roll was flattened and crevices were pressed into its surface to hold the saliva sample. Two thin, reusable aluminum tubes were inserted, acting as electrical contacts, connecting the candy electrode into a circuit with a current source and an output voltage detector. In preliminary tests, the device could measure salt levels that were physiologically relevant for health monitoring in a salt-water solution and artificial saliva. When covered in diluted artificial saliva, the sensor could reliably measure a change in voltage low enough to detect the 10 to 30 percent drop in salts that occurs when a person ovulates. While the maximum salt content in the artificial saliva samples was similar to that of a healthy adult, the researchers used calculations to estimate that conductivities three times higher, which signal a problem with the kidneys, would be within the measurable range of the device.

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Biomarkers

Blood test distinguishes bacterial vs viral infections in 15 minutes

MeMed BV is a blood test which uses the body’s immune response to distinguish between bacterial and viral infections. It does not detect the cause of an infection — instead it analyzes the “host response,” measuring levels of three proteins that appear differently, depending on whether the immune system is fighting a virus or bacteria. Results appear within 15 minutes.

Used to rapidly treat patients properly, only using antibiotics when appropriate, the test, which recently received FDA approval and will be used in emergency rooms, is a potential breakthrough.

MeMed also has received CE clearance for a COVID severity test, which can provide an early indication of deterioration and predict disease progression and recovery.

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COVID 19 Sensors

DNA sensor detects whether virus is present and infectious, including COVID 19

Yi Lu and Benito Marinas at the University of Illinois and University of Texas have developed a sensor that detects both the presence of a virus and whether or not it is infectious, integrating purpose designed DNA fragments and nanopore sensing. They have already studied its potential with the adenovirus and COVID 19.

Current PCR tests detect viral genetic material but cannot distinguish whether a sample is infectious or determine whether a person is contagious.

DNA aptamers bind selectively to infectious viruses. In addition to the nanopore sensor, they could be integrated into other platforms such as color-changing dipsticks.

According to Lu: “With the virus that causes COVID-19, it has been shown that the level of viral RNA has minimal correlation with the virus’s infectivity. In the early stage when a person is infected, the viral RNA is low and difficult to detect, but the person is highly contagious. When a person is recovered and not infectious, the viral RNA level can be very high. Antigen tests follow a similar pattern, though even later than viral RNA. Therefore, viral RNA and antigen tests are both poor in informing whether a virus is infectious or not. It may result in delayed treatment or quarantine, or premature release of those who may still be contagious.”

Plaque assay Tests that detect infectious viruses require special preparation and days of incubation. The new method produces results in 30 minutes to two hours. Since it requires no pre-treatment of the sample, it can be used on viruses that will not grow in the lab.

The sensing technique could be applied to other viruses by tweaking the DNA to target different pathogens. The DNA aptamers used in the sensor can be readily produced with widely available DNA synthesizers, similarly to the RNA probes produced for PCR tests. Nanopore sensors are also commercially available, making the sensing technique readily scalable.

The researchers are working to integrate the sensors into easy to use detection methods, including dipsticks or smartphones.

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Brain

Apple partners with UCLA, Biogen for iPhone mental/cognitive health monitoring


The Apple/UCLA project “Seabreeze” and Apple/Biogen project “Pi” represent a further move into iPhone health monitoring.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is attempting to develop an algorithm to identify depression and cognitive decline from sleep patterns, mobility, and how one uses the phone — for example, how often they look at its clock.

This follows a study that Apple Did with Eli Lilly, which showed that MCI and early dementia patients typed slowly, used devices erratically, sent fewer texts, and used “helper apps” often.

A recent Apple/Duke study analyzed kids phone use to understand emotions and behavior that could be associated with autism.

Mindstrong Health and others have been evaluating phone use to detect mental illness for years, and Mindstrong has recently moved into therapy and psychiatry offerings, based on phone based digital phenotyping, which could be where Apple is headed with these new projects.

The very earliest stages of mental and cognitive wellness changes could be missed using phone data alone, but could still be detected with EEG or other brain signal monitoring technology.

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Join ApplySci at MIT on April 8, 2022 for the 14th Wearable Tech + Digital Health + Neurotech Conference.

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Conference


ApplySci’s 14th Wearable Tech + Digital Health + Neurotech conference returns to MIT on September 30, 2022.


ApplySci’s 14th Deep Tech Health + Neurotech conference returns to MIT on September 30, 2022, focused on healthy longevity  –  understanding, detecting, treating and preventing disease through technology.  Topics include:

  • Slowing and reversing aging
  • The new preventive care paradigm
  • Next generation remote healthcare
  • Causes of neurodegeneration
  • Sensor-driven diagnostics and treatment
  • Broad spectrum brain technologies
  • Healthcare in the metaverse
  • Digital biomarkers
  • Robots at home
  • Enhancing our senses
  • Clinical trials of the future

ApplySci will have exclusive use of the 7th floor of the Samberg Center, and its large terraces.  Registration is limited.  Terrace doors will remain open, and meals will be served outside.  Masks and proof of vaccine will be required by both MIT and ApplySci.