19387 results about "Disease cause" patented technology

The invention discloses a family of peptides termed NRP compounds or NRPs that can promote neuronal migration, neurite outgrowth, neuronal proliferation, neural differentiation and / or neuronal survival, and provides compositions and methods for the use of NRPs in the treatment of brain injury and neurodegenerative disease. NRP compounds can induce neurons and neuroblasts to proliferate and migrate into areas of damage caused by acute brain injury or chronic neurodegenerative disease, such as exposure to toxins, stroke, trauma, nervous system infections, demyelinating diseases, dementias, and metabolic disorders. NRP compounds may be administered directly to a subject or to a subject's cells by a variety of means including orally, intraperitoneally, intravascularly, and directly into the nervous system of a patient. NRP compounds can be formulated into pharmaceutically acceptable dose forms for therapeutic use. Methods for detecting neural regeneration, neural proliferation, neural differentiation, neurite outgrowth and neural survival can be used to develop other neurally active agents.

Gene targeting is a technique to introduce genetic change into one or more specific locations in the genome of a cell. For example, gene targeting can introduce genetic change by modifying, repairing, attenuating or inactivating a target gene or other chromosomal DNA. In one aspect, this disclosure relates to methods and compositions for gene targeting with high efficiency in a cell. This disclosure also relates to methods of treating or preventing a genetic disease in an individual in need thereof. Further disclosed are chimeric nucleases and vectors encoding chimeric nucleases.

The present invention relates to the discovery, identification and characterization of toxic agents which are lethal to pathogens and methods for targeting such toxic agents to a pathogen or pathogen infected cells in order to treat and / or eradicate the infection. In particular, the present invention relates to toxic agents which target bacteria at different stages of the bacterial life cycle, which are delivered alone or in combination to bacteria or bacteria-infected cells. The invention relates to toxic agents which are lethal to diseased cells and methods for targeting such toxic agents to a diseased cell in order to treat and / or eradicate the disease. The present invention relates to promoter elements which are pathogen-specific or tissue-specific and the use of such promoter elements to achieve pathogen-specific or tissue-specific expression of the toxic agent(s) and / or ribozyme(s) of the present invention. Specifically, the invention relates to the delivery of one or more toxic gene products, antisense RNAs, or ribozymes, or combination thereof. The invention provides a novel system by which multiple pathogenic targets may be simultaneously targeted to cause the death of a pathogen, or cell infected with a pathogen. Further, the invention has important implications in the eradication of drug-resistant bacterium and bacterial pathogens. The invention provides a novel system by which multiple targets may be simultaneously targeted to cause the death of a diseased cell. The invention also has important implications in the eradication of drug-resistant pathogens and drug-resistant diseased cells (such as cancer cells).

Spinal stabilizing elements and spinal stabilization systems composed of spinal stabilizing elements in combination with disc prostheses or disc nucleus replacements are provided. The stabilizing elements and stabilization systems are designed to preserve the natural mobility of vertebral discs and facet joints in patients with facet joint disease or patients who has undergone a prior destabilizing procedure, such as a facetectomy. The stabilizing elements may be pivoting elements or dynamic elements.

Methods are provided for treating a subject for a condition caused by an abnormality in the subject's autonomic nervous system. In accordance with the subject methods, at least a portion of a subject's autonomic nervous system is modulated to increase the parasympathetic activity / sympathetic activity ratio in a manner that is effective to treat the subject for the condition. Certain embodiments include modulating at least a portion of a subject's autonomic nervous system by inhibiting and / or increasing activity in at least a portion of the subject's autonomic nervous system. The subject methods find use in the treatment of a variety of different conditions, where such conditions include various disease conditions. Also provided are systems and kits for use in practicing the subject methods.

The invention relates to a microfabricated device for the rapid detection of DNA, proteins or other molecules associated with a particular disease. The devices and methods of the invention can be used for the simultaneous diagnosis of multiple diseases by detecting molecules (e.g. amounts of molecules), such as polynucleotides (e.g., DNA) or proteins (e.g., antibodies), by measuring the signal of a detectable reporter associated with hybridized polynucleotides or antigen / antibody complex. In the microfabricated device according to the invention, detection of the presence of molecules (i.e., polynucleotides, proteins, or antigen / antibody complexes) are correlated to a hybridization signal from an optically-detectable (e.g. fluorescent) reporter associated with the bound molecules. These hybridization signals can be detected by any suitable means, for example optical, and can be stored for example in a computer as a representation of the presence of a particular gene. Hybridization probes can be immobilized on a substrate that forms part of or is exposed to a channel or channels of the device that form a closed loop, for circulation of sample to actively contact complementary probes. Universal chips according to the invention can be fabricated not only with DNA but also with other molecules such as RNA, proteins, peptide nucleic acid (PNA) and polyamide molecules.

The present invention relates to molecules, particularly polypeptides, more particularly immunoglobulins (e.g., antibodies), comprising a variant Fc region, wherein said variant Fc region comprises at least one amino acid modification relative to a wild-type Fc region, which variant Fc region binds FcgammaRIIA and / or FcgammaRIIA with a greater affinity, relative to a comparable molecule comprising the wild-type Fc region. The molecules of the invention are particularly useful in preventing, treating, or ameliorating one or more symptoms associated with a disease, disorder, or infection. The molecules of the invention are particularly useful for the treatment or prevention of a disease or disorder where an enhanced efficacy of effector cell function (e.g., ADCC) mediated by FcgammaR is desired, e.g., cancer, infectious disease, and in enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of therapeutic antibodies the effect of which is mediated by ADCC.

This invention relates to methods and pharmaceutical compositions for treating amyloid-β related diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. The invention, for example, includes a method of concomitant therapeutic treatment of a subject, comprising administering an effective amount of a first agent and a second agent, wherein said first agent treats an amyloid-β disease, neurodegeneration, or cellular toxicity; and said second agent is a therapeutic drug or nutritive supplement.

The method of the present invention derives the illness probability of any selected person from a database of people stored in a computer and / or on a computer network using collected relational data from every person in the database, including whether a person has a contact relationship with another person in said database and utilizes a database of illnesses infection probability functions given different illnesses and states of nature including data relating to social relationship; type of disease; probability function of infection given a time unit; length of contact of the particular contact relationship link; and calculates at least one relational path between said person and each person in the data base with whom there is a contact relationship, direct or via other persons in the said database for deriving the illness probability of the selected person. In addition. the method of the present invention permits selecting the optimum treatment for a patient with an infectious disease based upon recommending a drug or drugs deemed optimum for treating the patient and permits generating alerts for the detection of emergency events such as the outbreak of an infectious disease or a biological, chemical or nuclear attack and for diseases management. Moreover, in accordance with the method of the present invention a given patient may compare his or her medical record with summary information of patients with similar defined criteria.

This invention concerns in general treatment of diseases and pathological conditions with anti-VEGF antibodies. More specifically, the invention concerns the treatment of human patients susceptible to or diagnosed with cancer using an anti-VEGF antibody, preferably in combination with one or more additional anti-tumor therapeutic agents.

A system and method for building and / or manipulating a centralized medical image quantitative information database aid in diagnosing diseases, identifying prevalence of diseases, and analyzing market penetration data and efficacy of different drugs. In one embodiment, the diseases are bone-related, such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Subjects' medical images, personal and treatment information are obtained at information collection terminals, for example, at medical and / or dental facilities, and are transferred to a central database, either directly or through a system server. Quantitative information is derived from the medical images, and stored in a central database, associated with subjects' personal and treatment information. Authorized users, such as medical officials and / or pharmaceutical companies, can access the database, either directly or through the central server, to diagnose diseases and perform statistical analysis on the stored data. Decisions can be made regarding marketing of drugs for treating the diseases in question, based on analysis of efficacy, market penetration, and performance of competitive drugs.

A method of treating spine disease including the steps of removing at least a portion of a natural facet joint from a vertebral body; implanting an intervertebral disc prosthesis and replacing the portion of the natural facet joint with a facet joint prosthesis. The removed facet portion may be a cephalad or a caudal facet or both. The replacing step may include the step of attaching the facet joint prosthesis to the vertebral body, such as at or near a pedicle and / or spinous process. The invention also provides spinal prostheses to treat spine disease. The spinal prostheses include an intervertebral disc prosthesis and a facet joint prosthesis having artificial facet joint structure adapted and configured to replace a removed portion of the natural facet joint (cephalad, caudal or both).

Disclosed are devices and methods for detecting, preventing, and / or treating neurological disorders. These devices and methods utilize electrical stimulation, and comprise a unique concentric ring electrode component. The disclosed methods involve the positioning of multiple electrodes on the scalp of a mammal; monitoring the mammal's brain electrical patterns to identify the onset of a neurological event; identifying the location of the brain electrical patterns indicative of neurological event; and applying transcutaneous or transcranial electrical stimulation to the location of the neurological event to beneficially modify brain electrical patterns. The disclosed methods may be useful in the detection, prevention, and / or treatment of a variety of indications, such as epilepsy, Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease, depression, bipolar disorder, phobia, schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, migraine or headache, concussion, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, eating disorder, substance abuse, and anxiety. The disclosed methods may also be used in combination with other peripheral stimulation techniques.

A neurological control system for modulating activity of any component or structure comprising the entirety or portion of the nervous system, or any structure interfaced thereto, generally referred to herein as a “nervous system component.” The neurological control system generates neural modulation signals delivered to a nervous system component through one or more intracranial (IC) stimulating electrodes in accordance with treatment parameters. Such treatment parameters may be derived from a neural response to previously delivered neural modulation signals sensed by one or more sensors, each configured to sense a particular characteristic indicative of a neurological or psychiatric condition.

Devices and methods for improved soft tissue securement are disclosed, and, in particular, to tissue anchoring elements and deployment thereof. Such tissue anchoring elements may comprise a linkage element and an array of spreading elements. Endoscopic devices and methods are disclosed for deploying multiple anchoring elements to multiple sites and manipulating at least some of the associated linkage elements to approximate selected sites. Applications of such endoscopic devices and methods may include endoluminal therapy such as gastroplasty, which may be used for the treatment of obesity and gastroesophageal disease. Such devices and methods may also include the attachment of a foreign body to a tissue mass. Further aspects of the invention include devices and methods for the modification of mechanical properties of the anchoring sites so as to decrease the likelihood that anchoring elements will pull out. Such modification may include irritating or injuring the tissue within the anchoring sites, thereby causing a healing or scarification response, or may alternatively include deploying a solidifying agent within the anchoring sites.

The present invention concerns methods and reagents useful in modulating gene expression in a variety of applications, including use in therapeutic, diagnostic, target validation, and genomic discovery applications. Specifically, the invention relates to synthetic chemically modified small nucleic acid molecules, such as short interfering nucleic acid (siNA), short interfering RNA (siRNA), double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), micro-RNA (miRNA), and short hairpin RNA (shRNA) molecules capable of mediating RNA interference (RNAi) against target nucleic acid sequences. The small nucleic acid molecules are useful in the treatment of any disease or condition that responds to modulation of gene expression or activity in a cell, tissue, or organism.

A system and method for providing goal-oriented patient management based upon comparative population data analysis is presented. At least one therapy goal is defined to manage a disease state. A patient population is selected sharing at least one characteristic with an individual patient presenting with indications of the disease state. One or more treatment regimens associated with the patient population are identified as implementing actions under the at least one therapy goal. The implementing actions are followed through one or more quantifiable physiological indications monitored via data sources associated with the patient.

Glucocorticoid blockers, including glucocorticoid receptor antagonists, are effective to prevent glucocorticoid-induced decrease in permeability of the blood-brain barrier and to increase the permeability of the blood-brain barrier. Administration of glucocorticoid blockers, including glucocorticoid receptor antagonists, concomitant with administration of drugs for treating diseases of the central nervous system increases delivery of such drugs into the central nervous system.

The present invention concerns methods and reagents useful in modulating gene expression in a variety of applications, including use in therapeutic, diagnostic, target validation, and genomic discovery applications. Specifically, the invention relates to synthetic chemically modified small nucleic acid molecules, such as short interfering nucleic acid (siNA), short interfering RNA (siRNA), double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), micro-RNA (miRNA), and short hairpin RNA (shRNA) molecules capable of mediating RNA interference (RNAi) against target nucleic acid sequences. The small nucleic acid molecules are useful in the treatment of any disease or condition that responds to modulation of gene expression or activity in a cell, tissue, or organism.

Embodiments of the invention provide a method and apparatus for a wireless health monitoring system for interactively monitoring a disease or health condition of a patient by connecting a mobile phone to or with a digital camera and / or a medical monitoring device. The health related data or visual information from the camera is transmitted to a server using standard internet protocols and may be integrated with various operating systems for handheld or wireless devices, especially those with enhanced capabilities for handing images and visual data.

Methods are provided for treating a subject for a condition by modulating at least a portion of the subject's autonomic nervous system. In accordance with certain embodiments of the subject methods, at least a portion of a subject's autonomic nervous system is electrically or pharmacologically modulated in a manner that is effective to treat the subject for the condition. The subject methods find use in the treatment of a variety of different conditions, where such conditions include various disease conditions. Also provided are systems and kits for use in practicing the subject methods.

The present invention relates to methods for detecting, enriching, and analyzing rare cells that are present in the blood, e.g. fetal cells. The invention further features methods of analyzing rare cell(s) to determine the presence of an abnormality, disease or condition in a subject, e.g. a fetus by analyzing a cellular sample from the subject.

The invention is directed to compositions and methods for selectively reducing the expression of a gene product from a desired target gene in a cell, as well as for treating diseases caused by the expression of the gene. More particularly, the invention is directed to compositions that contain double stranded RNA (“dsRNA”), and methods for preparing them, that are capable of reducing the expression of target genes in eukaryotic cells. The dsRNA has a first oligonucleotide sequence that is between 25 and about 30 nucleotides in length and a second oligonucleotide sequence that anneals to the first sequence under biological conditions. In addition, a region of one of the sequences of the dsRNA having a sequence length of at least 19 nucleotides is sufficiently complementary to a nucleotide sequence of the RNA produced from the target gene to trigger the destruction of the target RNA by the RNAi machinery.

The invention provides methods for determining the presence of a disease by comparing a sequence from a single target molecule with a predetermined sequence that is associated with a specific disease.

The invention provides a method useful for detection of genetic disorders. The method comprises determining the sequence of alleles of a locus of interest, and quantitating a ratio for the alleles at the locus of interest, wherein the ratio indicates the presence or absence of a chromosomal abnormality. The present invention also provides a non-invasive method for the detection of chromosomal abnormalities in a fetus. The invention is especially useful as a non-invasive method for determining the sequence of fetal DNA. The invention further provides methods of isolation of free DNA from a sample.

The invention provides a method useful for detection of genetic disorders. The method comprises determining the sequence of alleles of a locus of interest, and quantitating a ratio for the alleles at the locus of interest, wherein the ratio indicates the presence or absence of a chromosomal abnormality. The present invention also provides a non-invasive method for the detection of chromosomal abnormalities in a fetus. The invention is especially useful as a non-invasive method for determining the sequence of fetal DNA. The invention further provides methods of isolation of free DNA from a sample.

The present invention relates to nucleoside derivatives for the treatment of Hepatitis C viral infections including compounds of formula I, pharmaceutical compositions comprising these compounds and methods for treatment or prophylaxis of Hepatitis C Virus mediated diseases employing said compounds in monotherapy or in combination therapy. The present invention further provides a process for preparing 1′,3′,4′-triacyl pyrimidine nucleoside from a N, 1′,3′,4′-tetraacylpyrimidine nucleoside

A neurological control system for modulating activity of any component or structure comprising the entirety or portion of the nervous system, or any structure interfaced thereto, generally referred to herein as a “nervous system component.” The neurological control system generates neural modulation signals delivered to a nervous system component through one or more intracranial (IC) stimulating electrodes in accordance with treatment parameters. Such treatment parameters may be derived from a neural response to previously delivered neural modulation signals sensed by one or more sensors, each configured to sense a particular characteristic indicative of a neurological or psychiatric condition.