1 . A new generation of opioids (阿片类药物) with fewer side effects is being explored by an Australian and Chinese research team.

Professor Maree Smith from the University of Queensland will present research on oliceridine being developed internationally, as well as results of her team’s CYX-6 research project on Saturday at a meeting to be held by Faculty of Pain Medicine (FPM) of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists during October 19-21 in Cairns.

Professor Smith’s laboratory is exploring the new opioid, together with the Chinese researcher, Professor Li Tingyou from Nanjing Medical University. She stressed that while the research project was still in its early stages and would consume much more time and energy, laboratory tests had found that a newly discovered compound (复合物), CYX-6, spared laboratory rats from some of the more common side effects of opioids. Strong opioids that are now used for pain relief can have serious and sometimes deadly side effects, such as breathing problems.

“We’ve seen that in the US there are many people who are dying as a result of taking too many opioids because they stop breathing,” Professor Smith explained. “Though it’s difficult, we are focusing on discovery of new opioid alternatives with a reduced risk of breathing difficulty. It is a hot topic in the research world at present. Our application of the compound would be a very positive step.”

Dr. Meredith Craigie, Dean of FPM, said opioid alternatives with fewer side effects like the one that is being investigated by Professor Smith required thorough study, and research into the possible unknown side effects of new opioids was an especially significant step in the development of potential new treatments for pain.

5 . These days, more people in Denmark are surviving serious heart attacks. Some of that good news is thanks to a smartphone app called Heartrunner.

Many heart attacks happen when people are not near doctors. The most serious type of heart attack is when the heart stops. In Denmark, the survival rate for people whose heart had stopped when they were not near doctors used to be 4%. In the past 20 years, it has risen to 16%. Denmark has seen a dramatic change in survival from heart attacks after it began recruiting (招募) volunteers and arming some of them with smartphone technology.

Denmark’s emergency number is 112. Call center workers can use Heartrunner to contact up to 20 volunteers within 1.1 miles of an emergency. Workers also send out an ambulance. They often tell the caller how to start CPR. Heartrunner sends an alert (警报) to volunteers. It asks, “Can you run?” If a person says yes, the app sends the address. If there is an AED nearby, the app tells volunteers where to find it.

More than 100,000 people in Denmark volunteer for Heartrunner. About 75% of them are not health care workers. That’s OK, said expert Freddy Lippert. “The patient is dead, and if you don’t do anything, nine out of 10 will be dead forever. The faster CPR begins, the better the chance of restarting the heart. In Denmark, everyday people responded faster than professionals to more than four in 10 heart attacks.”

Erik Kaxe, 81, lives in a small Danish town. Recently, his heart stopped. His wife called 112. The ambulance was sent. And the Heartrunner alert went out. Within minutes, 10 strangers who lived nearby showed up at their house. The ambulance came 17 minutes after the call. So many helpers showed up that they were able to do far more than just CPR. When the ambulance showed up, Kaxe was breathing again. He lived and is now back at home.

“Dying wasn’t difficult” he said. “But waking up is.”

6 . Lowe was facing a nightmare. His five-year-old son Tyler ________ from such a severe dental problem that he needed to have a(n)________ immediately. Lowe and his wife brought Tyler to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver.

“As we sat in the waiting room, we felt ________. And the way in which my wife was clinging to her son just made the ________ of the situation heavier. ”Lowe remembered.

When a nurse called the family back, Lowe’s ________ only grew. A young doctor walked into the room and told them that he would be in ________ of the surgery. As the doctor began to explain how it would proceed, Lowe’s mind ________ the worst possible outcome.

But then the doctor did something beyond ________. He looked at both Lowe and his wife in the eye, put a hand on each of their shoulders, and ________ them, “Today, your son is my son.” Lowe said he would never forget what the young doctor said, which was very helpful and meaningful. His ________   fear gave way to calm.

After the surgery was over, the doctor came back out to the family. “He ________ us with a big smile on his face and said our son is just fine, and you can see him here in a few minutes.” Lowe ________.     

After the surgery, Tyler made a quick ________ and led a normal life again. The Whole family felt so lucky to meet such a ________ doctor and Lowe explained that words ________ to express how grateful he and his wife both were for what the doctor said and did that day.

7 . Researchers from ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich, and the University Hospital Zurich have made a significant breakthrough in the field of precision medicine. They have developed a machine learning approach known as CellOT that can predict how individual cells react to specific treatments. This development promises more accurate diagnoses and therapeutics, particularly in the fight against cancer.

Precision medicine, which aims to find the most effective drug combination and dosage (剂量) based on individual patient characteristics, has been a critical goal in the battle against cancer. Central to this is understanding how individual cells respond to treatment, a challenge that the research team from Zurich has tackled head-on with their innovative method.

CellOT is a groundbreaking approach that identifies the distinct reactions individual cells within a larger population can have to a drug. The average response of a cell population often does not capture the full complexity of how certain tumor cells survive or develop resistance to drugs. CellOT addresses this by predicting the effects of perturbations (扰动) on cells, paving the way for more effective and personalized cancer treatments.

Perturbations are changes caused by chemical, physical, or genetic influences, such as the effects of drugs on cancer cells. By understanding which cells respond to a drug and identifying the traits of resistant cells, researchers can develop new treatment strategies that prevent cell growth or cause pathogenic (致病的) cells to die.

For CellOT, the researchers use novel machine learning algorithms and train these with both data from unperturbed cells and data from cells that changed after a perturbation response. In the process, the algorithm learns how cellular perturbation reactions arise, how they progress, and the likely phenotypes (显性类型) of altered cell states.

The study, published in Nature Methods, shows that CellOT is not just effective for cancer cells. It can also be used on other pathogenic cells involved in autoimmune diseases like lupus erythematosus (红斑狼疮), indicating its potential in advancing treatments for various diseases.

A key innovation of CellOT is its predictive ability. By evaluating existing cell measurement data, and thus expanding the knowledge of cellular perturbation reactions, CellOT can predict how individual cells will respond to perturbations that have not been measured in the laboratory. This capability opens up new avenues for targeted and personalized treatments.

While CellOT holds immense promise, comprehensive clinical trials are still required before the approach can be used in a hospital setting. Nevertheless, the development of this method marks a significant step towards a more nuanced (细腻的) understanding of individual cell responses to drugs. It fuels the hope for more effective cancer treatments and advances in precision medicine.

8 . Wisdom teeth won’t make you smarter.    1     These teeth are in the very back of your mouth, two on top and two on the bottom as part of a complete set of 32 adult teeth.

Wisdom teeth often cause problems due to their late eruption and limited space in jaws. As a result, they may become impacted, meaning they are unable to fully emerge from the gums (牙龈). This impaction can give rise to various issues, including pain and crowding of nearby teeth.    2    .

Before the surgery, dentists will carefully evaluate your specific situation to determine the most appropriate approach. During the procedure, dentists will numb (麻醉) your gum to ensure minimal pain.    3    After that, they’ll clean the area and pack it with cotton to stop bleeding.

    4    Everyone responds differently. In general, you can expect mild discomfort, slight bleeding, facial swelling (肿), and other common complications following the surgery, as your mouth needs a few weeks to completely recover.

Here are some tips for proper healing. Leave cotton in place for about 30 minutes and hold a cold pack against your jaw to reduce pain immediately after surgery. For the following days, don’t consume hard spicy food like nuts and peppers.    5    That way, your teeth won’t hurt when you eat and food bits won’t get stuck in your mouth.

10 . “Going wireless is the future for just about everything!” That is a quote from scientist Sreekanth Chalasani, and we can’t help but agree. Realizing this, a team of scientists has made a breakthrough toward wirelessly controlling human cells using sound, in a technique called “sonogenetics (声遗传学).” This concept may seem strange but let us explain.

Basically, the term “sonogenetics” means using ultrasound (超声波) to change the behavior of cells in a non-invasive manner. “We already know that ultrasound is safe, and that it can go through bone, muscle and other tissues, making it the ultimate tool for controlling cells deep in the body,” says Chalasani.

Low-frequency ultrasound waves can target a particular protein that is sensitive to the signal. This research, published in Nature Communications, focused on TRPA1. When this protein is stimulated through the ultrasound waves, it also stimulates the cells which carry it. What type of cell is being stimulated depends on the outcome. For example, a muscle cell may contract with stimulation, or a neuron (神经元) in the brain will fire. In this experiment, scientists genetically marked cells with an increased concentration of TRPA1, making them the key targets of the ultrasound waves.

Currently, treating conditions like Parkinson’s disease requires scientists to implant electrodes (电极) in the brain which stimulate certain disordered cells. Researchers hope that sonogenetics can one day replace these invasive treatments.

In the future, the team wants to adjust the placement and amount of TRPAI around the body using the gene treatment. Gene delivery techniques have already been shown to be successful in humans, such as in treating blindness. Therefore, it’s just a case of adjusting this theory to a different sound-based setting.

“Gene delivery techniques already exist for getting a new gene—such as TRPA1—into the human heart,” Chalasani says. “If we can then use an external ultrasound device to activate those cells, that could really change pacemakers.” There is still a while to go before this treatment can become a reality. The future for sonogenetics, though, looks bright.