No matter how hard life may be, always remember that there is something beautiful to be found in every situation. Look for the positives and focus on them. Even if you cannot find anything positive now, keep looking—you will eventually discover something good. When things seem difficult, try to concentrate on the lesson that you are learning from every experience. In the end, everything happens for a reason and will shape your character for the better. Never give up!
Scientists have been developing a new painless way of delivering vaccines – using powdered vaccines and a compressed gas-powered equipment called the “MOF-Jet.” This system could potentially help with cancer treatment and other diseases without using needles or having to keep them refrigerated. The project was first dreamt up by Dr. Jeremiah Gassensmith during the pandemic when he experimented using this type of compressed gas-powered jet injection systems from home.
Nobody likes needles, but they are needed to give lots of different types of vaccines and medicines. But what if these could just be blown through the skin with a small puff, like being hit with a foam toy? Today, researchers explain how this can become reality! They have created a “MOF-Jet” using dried up vaccines which don’t need to be kept cold and pushed by compressed gas. This would make giving treatments for illnesses like cancer or other diseases much easier and less painful.
At the end of March, the American Chemical Society (ACS) is creating a hybrid meeting that will have some parts online and some in-person. The researchers will show their findings during this meeting, which will consist of over 10,000 talks about different science topics.
During the pandemic, Jeremiah Gassensmith Ph.D., who is the principal investigator of a project had an idea to do something funny and bought some cheap components for a compressed gas-powered jet injection system as he was stuck at his home. But later when everyone came back on campus, he gave those parts to Yalani Wijesundara, a student from his lab and asked her “Let see what you can make out of this”.
Dr. Wijesundara from The University of Texas at Dallas had researched different kinds of jet injectors from the 1960s before, which use air to shoot a narrow stream of liquid. She thought that if these jets could be modified, they could deliver cargo inside something called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). MOFs are like cages or enclosures that hold a variety of materials, like proteins and other things. So with the existing research on MOFs and Dr. Gassensmith’s help, Dr. Wijesundara made an “MOF-Jet”. This new kind of jet can shoot powders into cells just by using air!
Years ago, the military used ‘jet injectors’ to give shots, but they hurt and could spread other illnesses like Hepatitis B. Nowadays, there are ‘gene guns’, which cost a lot of money and are usually used by vets. They shoot tiny particles into cells, like gold or tungsten, that can stick around after entering the skin and cause the biological material inside it to break down faster.
We could use a different strategy to store cargo. This type of material is called a MOF (zeolitic-imidazolate framework eight, or ZIF-8). It’s much cheaper than gold and helps protect biological materials like nucleic acids. We can even store vaccine formulations as powders in this material at room temperature, which means we don’t have to freeze them at extreme cold temperatures like most liquid vaccines do.
The scientists encased some biological materials in something called ZIF-8 to make sure they did not deteriorate. They also made their own version of a ‘gene gun’, which they referred to as the MOF-Jet. This device was used to fire pellets filled with the stabilized stuff (ZIF-8) into cells -which is like pointing and shooting with a pellet gun. Lastly, the researchers tested this machine by sending ZIF-8 covered gene material into onion cells and inserting ZIF-8 covered protein inside mice to see if it works -all without needing needles! In fact, it only feels like you got ‘hit’ by a Nerf bullet.
The MOF-Jet created by Wijesundara could be modified so that cargo release could be adjusted. ZIF-8 material can’t stand acidic conditions and when its mixed with carbon dioxide and water, the acid helps apart the MOF-Jet. If we shoot it with Carbon Dioxide, it releases its cargo faster in cells than if you use regular air. This suggests that the same drug could be released over different timescales without changing the medication form. Once this was figured out by Wijesundara, it enabled a lot of new possibilities!
This team is working on a new way of delivering drugs and other treatments to melanoma skin cancer patients. They have invented a special machine called the MOF-Jet which works much better than traditional needles for treating skin cancer. The MOF-Jet can spread out treatments over a wide area which means it can give more even coverage, but also the speed of release can be tailored depending on patient needs. Early tests look hopeful and this technology may be used in lots of other areas from pet care, farming and maybe even human vaccinations or treatments one day.
The researchers were given help and money from the Army Research Laboratory, National Science Foundation, and Welch Foundation.
New Approach for Accurate Drug Delivery
This passage talks about a special way of delivering DNA and protein medicine. Everything works with the help of special “carrier gases” and metal-organic structures, which allow us to control how much of the treatment makes it into our body accurately.
Protiens, DNA and RNA-based drugs are really popular in medical treatment but they need to be given in injections. This means that there needs to be a professional available and it produces lots of waste material. To get around this problem we have created an approach that allows us to control the delivery without changing the formulation. We take these types of drugs and put them inside ZIF-8 which keeps them stable when made into a powder. We can then shoot this powder at animal or plant tissues using MOF-Jets which are fairly cheap! Our research has shown that if carbon dioxide is used with the MOF-Jet, then we get almost instant release from the drug because of its acidic nature whereas normal air will cause slow, progressive release over a much longer period of time. This is super helpful as it makes it easier for us to deliver this type of medication safely and effectively.
1. We’re making progress in using a certain type of protein to treat an eye condition known as retinitis pigmentosa.
2. Scientists are developing a vaccine for humans with an infection called brucellosis, which is tested on guinea pigs first before it can be used.
3. The way drugs dissolve affects how they get into the eye to make them work better.
4. Research teams have studied whether coronavirus vaccines are safe or not and have come up with results from scientific experiments showing that they are safe.
1. Scientists in Uganda are testing a new way to control an infection called cysticercosis, which is caused by a type of worm. They are doing this by combining a special vaccine and a medicine called oxfendazole.
2. Researchers in Southwest China are looking into the reasons why some people do not get their measles vaccinations on time or at all.
3. Scientists are seeing if using micelles made from a chemical called macrogol 15 hydroxystearate can help people better absorb terbinafine hydrochloride, which is used to treat fungal infections.
4. Experts are developing mathematical models and ways to optimize control for cystic echinococcosis, which is caused by a tapeworm-like parasite.
This passage is giving instructions on how experts should use a medicine called “selinexor” to treat certain blood diseases in 2022, as well as providing instructions for diagnosing a disease called “myasthenia gravis.”
