A non-invasive way to treat brain tumours

After treating 300 cancer patients from across the world over the past decade, Bengaluru-based SBF Healthcare & Research Centre (SHRC) has formally announced a treatment based on a new technology called SPMF (Sequentially Programmed Magnetic Field) therapy.

SHRC has received the US Patent and CE as well as ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 13485 certification for this technology.

Pioneered by Wg Cdr (Retd) Dr Vasishta, SHRC was founded in 2006 and claims to be the first in the world to use SPMF therapy in the treatment of cancer.

Based on MRI technology, the therapy is delivered by the AKTIS SOMA device invented by Dr Vasishta, which resembles an MRI machine but, unlike one, allows for a lot more breathing space for the patient without making him or her claustrophobic.

SPMF produces highly complex sequentially programmed magnetic fields, which are computer controlled and can be precisely focused on the cancerous tissues with the help of laser guides.

“The only available mode of treatment today anywhere in the world is surgery followed by radiation and chemotherapy. We have treated GBM (glioblastoma multiforme), a very common form of brain tumour with very little or no chance of survival, very successfully and patients have gone back to their normal routine,” Dr Vasishta told BusinessLine. The patients are evaluated using MRI and the Karnofsky performance score, which are considered gold standards for evaluating the efficacy of a therapy.

No side-effects

SPMF therapy is performed for one hour every day for 28 consecutive days as an outpatient treatment and costs ₹1.5 lakh. The treatment is non-invasive, has no side-effects and asks for no dietary restrictions.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/a-noninvasive-way-to-treat-brain-tumours/article9795713.ece

Endogenous Bioelectric Signaling Networks: Exploiting Voltage Gradients for Control of Growth and Form

Living systems exhibit remarkable abilities to self-assemble, regenerate, and remodel complex shapes. How cellular networks construct and repair specific anatomical outcomes is an open question at the heart of the next-generation science of bioengineering. Developmental bioelectricity is an exciting emerging discipline that exploits endogenous bioelectric signaling among many cell types to regulate pattern formation. We provide a brief overview of this field, review recent data in which bioelectricity is used to control patterning in a range of model systems, and describe the molecular tools being used to probe the role of bioelectrics in the dynamic control of complex anatomy. We suggest that quantitative strategies recently developed to infer semantic content and information processing from ionic activity in the brain might provide important clues to cracking the bioelectric code. Gaining control of the mechanisms by which large-scale shape is regulated in vivo will drive transformative advances in bioengineering, regenerative medicine, and synthetic morphology, and could be used to therapeutically address birth defects, traumatic injury, and cancer.
http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-bioeng-071114-040647

BETSE (BioElectric Tissue Simulation Engine) is an open-source cross-platform finite volume simulator for 2D computational multiphysics problems in the life sciences

BETSE (BioElectric Tissue Simulation Engine) is an open-source cross-platform finite volume simulator for 2D computational multiphysics problems in the life sciences – including electrodiffusion, electro-osmosis, galvanotaxis, voltage-gated ion channels, gene regulatory networks, and biochemical reaction networks (e.g., metabolism). BETSE is associated with the Paul Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University and supported by a Paul Allen Discovery Center award from the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group.
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/betse/0.6.1

Everything you ever wanted to know about Bioelectricity

Wow, great resource with alot of scientific references:
Modern Bioelectricity
http://cassandrapublishing.net/MB/ModernBioelectricity.pdf

For anyone doing research: Fractional Calculus Based FDTD Modeling of Layered Biological Media Exposure to Wideband Electromagnetic Pulses

Fractional Calculus Based FDTD Modeling of Layered Biological Media Exposure to Wideband Electromagnetic Pulses

Contains math to determine the penetration of electromagnetic fields in elements of the body:
PDF Here: file:///E:/Downloads/electronics-06-00106%20(1).pdf

Molecular mechanisms underlying antiproliferative and differentiating responses of hepatocarcinoma cells to subthermal electric stimulation.

Abstract

Capacitive Resistive Electric Transfer (CRET) therapy applies currents of 0.4-0.6 MHz to treatment of inflammatory and musculoskeletal injuries. Previous studies have shown that intermittent exposure to CRET currents at subthermal doses exert cytotoxic or antiproliferative effects in human neuroblastoma or hepatocarcinoma cells, respectively. It has been proposed that such effects would be mediated by cell cycle arrest and by changes in the expression of cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors. The present work focuses on the study of the molecular mechanisms involved in CRET-induced cytostasis and investigates the possibility that the cellular response to the treatment extends to other phenomena, including induction of apoptosis and/or of changes in the differentiation stage of hepatocarcinoma cells. The obtained results show that the reported antiproliferative action of intermittent stimulation (5 m On/4 h Off) with 0.57 MHz, sine wave signal at a current density of 50 µA/mm(2), could be mediated by significant increase of the apoptotic rate as well as significant changes in the expression of proteins p53 and Bcl-2. The results also revealed a significantly decreased expression of alpha-fetoprotein in the treated samples, which, together with an increased concentration of albumin released into the medium by the stimulated cells, can be interpreted as evidence of a transient cytodifferentiating response elicited by the current. The fact that this type of electrical stimulation is capable of promoting both, differentiation and cell cycle arrest in human cancer cells, is of potential interest for a possible extension of the applications of CRET therapy towards the field of oncology.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24416255