RESEARCH NEwS

Focused ultrasound used to open the blood-brain barrier and clear toxic proteins in the brain

Dr. Vibhor Krishna (right) reviews a brain image with MRI technician, Brett Bryan as a part of a new clinical trial at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Toxic proteins called amyloids are associated with several incurable diseases. A new clinical trial at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center uses a non-invasive procedure to open the blood-brain barrier. While the blood-brain barrier acts as a protective layer to shield the brain from infections or pathogens in the blood, it can also make it next to impossible to deliver therapeutics to the brain to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

“While it’s protective and beneficial for day-to-day brain function, when we think about therapeutics, the blood-brain barrier poses a significant challenge,” said Dr. Vibhor Krishna, a neurosurgeon at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “The focused ultrasound procedure allows us to non-invasively access the brain tissue, so treatment can be administered straight to the site of pathology.”

Through MRI imaging, doctors can target specific areas of the brain where amyloids exist. A helmet-like device then delivers 1,000 focused ultrasound waves that cause microbubbles in the blood which oscillate and open the blood-brain barrier. In this study, doctors aren’t delivering any medication. Instead, they hypothesize that once the blood-brain barrier is open, the patient’s own immune system may clear some of the amyloids.

The procedure is performed three times at two-week intervals to allow for as much amyloid clearance as possible. Researchers are hopeful opening the blood-brain barrier may also apply to new treatments for brain tumors and epilepsy.

Aging seniors reap long-term health benefits from Edmonton-based artificial intelligence project

Three Edmonton entities are combining forces to improve patient-centred interventions to support healthy aging. The project is a collaboration between Health City and Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd. that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to examine data to predict frailty and its impact on chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

Edmonton AI and machine learning (ML) company, AltaML, will develop ML algorithms to combine data sets that will uncover predictions and patterns to answer key questions physicians are asking patients. The goal of the project is to enable healthcare teams to proactively identify patients who could benefit from individualized care such as fall prevention, medication review or social service interventions to mitigate frailty.

“This is such a significant collaboration on so many levels for this city,” says Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson. “When I launched Health City in 2016, I knew that our region had the ability and opportunity to benefit from our world-class health research and innovative spirit. I am looking forward to more investment and jobs in this sector that result in economic prosperity for this region and ultimately impact the health and well-being of our citizens.”

Approximately one in four older adults are at risk of becoming frail and are at a greater risk for declining health, higher health care utilization, and loss of independence. Frailty is one of the most concerning realities of our aging population.

“Our mandate is to drive economic development through innovation in the health sector in this region and this project is the first example of the kind of model we believe will do that,” says Health City CEO, Reg Joseph. “We’re excited that our partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim allows us to bring together this collaborative team from our vibrant health community to solve this very real challenge for our senior’s population, locally and nationally.”

Including local organizations from the onset of the project lets them test their AI solutions in real-world situations, allowing them to eventually scale beyond the local region.

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson

First-of-its kind all-natural food preservative

New clinical pathway for cancer patients leads to better outcomes and lower health care costs

Tanzina Huq

A natural and clean label alternative to artificial preservatives will soon be available thanks to Chinova Bioworks. The Fredericton-based start-up’s mission is to replace unhealthy artificial preservatives in foods and beverages with natural mushroom chitosan. This alternative, called Chiber, is based on a fibre extracted from white button mushrooms that acts as an anti-microbial, protecting against bacteria, yeast, mold and pathogens.

Chiber is the brain child of Tanzina Huq, co-founder and chief technology officer at Chinova Bioworks. The product has earned her the Outstanding Entrepreneur Award from Mitacs, a not-for-profit Canadian organization fostering growth and innovation in business and academia.

“In light of recent efforts by Health Canada and the Food and Drug Administration to curb the use of artificial preservatives like sodium benzoate and sodium sorbate — which have been linked to health risks — food and beverage companies are seeking natural alternatives,” Huq explained. “Our product offers an affordable, effective and flexible solution.”

Mitacs will be recognizing five winners of the Entrepreneur Award for their work in turning their research into innovative businesses that impact the lives of Canadians. “Canada has exceptional talent and Mitacs is extremely proud to support young entrepreneurs in spring-boarding to market the next generation of innovations,” said Alejandro Adem, Mitacs CEO and Scientific Director.

Huq’s initial goal was to reduce food waste and she “never imagined that the idea to develop a natural preservative would go this far”. Since launching in 2016, Chinova Bioworks has expanded to include 11 employees and is planning to extend Chiber to cosmetic applications by 2022.

Chiber is launching in the U.S. in October 2019.

Researchers at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute are improving quality of life, providing better health care outcomes and doing it all with lower costs to patients. The centre has developed a clinical pathway, called Supportive Care of Oncology Patients (SCOOP), that results in fewer visits to the emergency department, fewer hospital admissions and fewer readmissions when compared to a control group of similar patients during the first two years of the pathway.

“The SCOOP protocol is a unique, early intervention tool shown to improve how we treat curative cancer patients effectively, safely and at lower cost,” said Nicholas J. Petrelli, M.D.,Bank of America endowed medical director of the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute. “Our experience would indicate that any group of patients at high risk for emergency department visits and hospital admissions could potentially benefit from this kind of approach.”

The total cost savings for SCOOP patients was on average $1,500 per patient with a total cost savings of more than $319,000 for 207 SCOOP patients in 2018. Improvements included in the SCOOP pathway include introducing supportive and palliative care management early in the patient experience Helen F. Graham Cancer and Research Center, Christiana Care Health Systems. Photo: Eric Crossan

and including an electronic nurse navigation checklist to keep everyone on the same page. “What we have learned is that enhancing supportive and palliative care for patients being treated curatively seems to work as well as for patients with advanced disease,” said Chris Koprowski, M.D., MBA, associate service line leader for Cancer and director of Quality and Safety at the Graham Cancer Center. “As far as we could determine from our review of the literature, the full scope of this approach was never before applied to patients with potentially curable cancers.”

Initially developed for patients with potentially curable thoracic, colorectal or head and neck cancers, the protocol has been expanded to include patients with brain and hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers.