Neural Grafts for PD Symptoms

Neural Grafts for PD Symptoms New Neurons for Old The Swedish neuroscientist Patrik Brundin was twelve years old when his father was diagnosed with PD. He resolved to devote his life to finding a cure for the disease and elected to study medicine at Lund University in Sweden. In the late 1990s, he joined Anders Bjà ¶rklund, a pioneer of neural transplantation, to work on a series of neural grafts aimed at reversing the symptoms of PD. A neural graft is an experimental procedure for transplanting neural tissue into the brain. The operations were controversial because the transplanted neural tissue came from aborted fetuses. Research had shown that the optimal time to transplant human fetal-brain tissue from the substantia nigra was from six to eight weeks after fertilization. Because only 10 percent of the fetal cells are likely to survive the entire procedure, the neurosurgeon may need to implant cells from multiple fetuses in one operation. To prepare for the operation, the fetal tissue has to be dissected under the microscope so that only those cells whose destiny is to make dopamine would be transplanted. Attached to the substantia nigra tissue are cells that have different fates to become cartilage, skin, etc. If the surgeon isnt careful and grafts these cells into the brain, theyd grow into big bits of skin and cartilage. It is a delicate process. The entire fetus is only the size of a fingernail; the substantia nigra, the size of a pin. After hours of painstaking dissection, the fetal cells will be mixed with a chemical called trypsin to dissociate the cells into a liquid suspension. Researches with rats had shown that fetal cells grafted in the substantia nigra did not reverse PD-like symptoms, because the grafted nerve fibers could not grow long enough to reach their targets in the striatum. So the neurosurgeon will implant the fetal cells in the striatum. In the 1990s, 18 cases of neural grafting operations were conducted at Lund, and over 300 worldwide, with encouraging results. By 1999, many people believed this method is the only way to cure PD. But for others, the results were uncontrolled trials with a potential for a placebo effect. This led two teams in the United States to propose controlled blind trials of fetal tissue transplantation operations. Patients entering the trial would be assigned to one of two groups: a treatment group and a control group. Patients would not know which group they were in and would continue taking their regular dopaminergic medication. The first study performed the trial separately for people over and under sixty. The doctors held follow-up meetings with the patients for twelve months. In 2001, the team reported the results. The over-sixty treatment group experienced no measurable improvement compared to the control group. The under-sixty treatment group got some improvements, but the researchers found worrying evidence of adverse side effects: facial dystonias and dyskinesias. Unlike L-dopa-induced dyskinesias, which disappear as patients medication wears off, these dyskinesias were coming from the graft, and they were permanent. The second study assigned the patients randomly to two treatment groups one using material from a single fetus, the other using material from four fetuses and a control group. The groups were followed for two years and tested using UPDRS. There was no difference between the three groups, showing that fetal dose didnt matter, and again some patients developed graft-related dyskinesias. These two studies killed the field of neural transplantation. A decade after these studies, Brundin is still a strong supporter of neural grafting. He claims the studies had numerous flaws. Brundin may be correct about neural graftings efficacy. It worked in the cases of two patients in the Lund series. The two patients were diagnosed thirty years ago. Both responded well to L-dopa, but developed severe L-dopa-induced motor complications. In the 1990s, they went to Lund, where the surgeons transplanted dopaminergic fetal tissue into the striatum on both sides of their brains. After four years, both patients could drop all dopaminergic mediations. Their PET scans showed clear signs of new dopamine production in the striatum, and their motor states, as measured by the UPDRS, showed a sustained benefit. These cases showed that this bold strategy can work and serve as a caution against dismissing neural grafts prematurely. The early scientific trials of levodopa failed. But scientists like George Cotzias persisted and worked out the correct dosing regimen, and the failure turned into spectacular success. In Europe, a large trial called TRANSEURO is under way involving some 150 patients. The work might redeem neural grafting. In the last few years, a potential alternative to fetal cells and embryonic stem cells has become available. In 2006, Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka showed in mice that ordinary skin cells could be reprogrammed to become pluripotent capable of becoming any cell. Soon after, Yamanakas technique was achieved with human skin cells. Rather than using fetal cells, researchers can take a patients own skin cells, reprogram them to become so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), then let them develop into dopamine neurons. These neurons can be studied in the lab or grown for neural grafts. Such iPSCs not only bypass the ethical issues plaguing embryonic stem cells, but also have other advantages. Because iPSCs are derived from the patients own cells, there is no need for immunosuppressive drugs. But because there is a risk that such cells might turn cancerous, it may take decades to develop a safe and effective procedure. Key Takeaways In the late 1990s, Patrik Brundin worked on a series of neural grafts aimed at reversing the symptoms of PD. Two controlled blind trials of fetal tissue transplantation operations conducted in the United States in early 2000s showed that the treatment group experience no measurable improvement compared to the control group. It was also worrisome that some patients developed graft-related dyskinesias. In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka showed that ordinary skin cells could be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.

Symbols and Symbolism Essay - Imagery and Symbolism in The Yellow Wallpaper :: Yellow Wallpaper essays

Imagery and Symbolism in The Yellow Wallpaper On my first reading of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", I found the short story extremely well done and the author, successful at getting her idea across.   Gilman's use of imagery and symbolism only adds to the reality of the nameless main character's sheltered life and slow progression into insanity or some might say, out of insanity.   The short story is written in first person and it is from our nameless character's writing's that we are introduced to her world and her life.   It is through this that we see our main characters transition into a world that only she has access to.   She changes dramatically from our first meeting while everyone else stays very flat and unaffected.   This method is very effective in that this story from someone else's perspective would not be as real and understanding.   The outside world would have written about a crazy woman who slowly goes mad for no reason.   Only through her eyes can we see the true reason for her, not madness, epiphany. The story begins when she and her husband have just moved into a colonial mansion to relieve her chronic nervousness.   An ailment her husband has conveniently diagnosed.   The husband is a physician and in the beginning of her writing she has nothing but good things to say about him, which is very obedient of her.   She speaks of her husband as if he is a father figure and nothing like an equal, which is so important in a relationship.   She writes, "He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction."   It is in this manner that she first delicately speaks of his total control over her without meaning to and how she has no choices whatsoever.   This control is perhaps so imbedded in our main character that it is even seen in her secret writing; "John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition...so I will let it alone and talk about the house."   Her husband suggests enormous amounts of bed rest and no hu man interaction at all.   He chooses a "prison-like" room for them to reside in that he anticipates will calm our main character even more into a comma like life but instead awakens her and slowly but surely opens her eyes to a woman tearing the walls down to freedom.

Psychological Conflicts in Literature(1) Essay

We all experience psychological conflicts, knowingly or unknowingly. They involve psychological conflicts among our thoughts, emotions, and rational thinking. It may be the most dangerous conflict of all due to the battleground in which it take place in — our mind. There are many examples of psychological conflicts in the stories we have read. In â€Å"Leiningen Versus the Ants† by Carl Stephenson, Leiningen battled not only on his South American plantation, but in his mind. He struggled with the issue of running away and letting the ants take over his plantation. He wasn’t a quitter and enjoys the mental aspects of things. But when the ants and the reality of death came, he had to resolve the conflict whether to stay or flee. This was especially true when he ran to the dam wheel. He could of fled then or died, but he chose to try to save the plantation and workers. He was faced with the conflict living or, perhaps the greatest psychological conflict, which he resolved when he chose to run to the wheel. In â€Å"The Contents of the Dead Man’s Pockets† by Jack Finney, Tom also faced a psychological conflict. The story was mainly focused on his physical conflict, but near the end he experienced psychological conflict. As with Leiningen, Tom faced the choice to die or to live, and he realized with that conflict how much his wife meant to him. He overcame the conflict when, as we read, the yellow paper flew out the window again, but he left to be with his wife. In â€Å"Blues Ain’t No Mockin’bird† by Toni Cade Bambara, Granny experienced a psychological conflict with her past treatment and her current conflict with Smiley and Camera. She struggled to break and maybe actually kill them or fall into depression, but she was successful in winning the conflict. When she hummed in a high pitch instead of low, it showed that she had finally won. In conclusion, psychological conflicts are important. They can be very dangerous because we are fighting within ourselves and our rational reasoning. And when we fight within ourself it is hard to win. Psychological  conflicts can be won, however, by set priorities and moral standards.

The Child Protective Services ( Cps ) - 1463 Words

The Child protective services (CPS) is formed of social workers who are the forefront of its community’s child protections efforts. In recent years, according to Scanlon et Harding, â€Å"while the profession of social work and the labor movement have moved in different directions since the post-WW2 era, recent events, such as the dominance of managed care and cuts in government financing, have led social workers to rediscover unions as potential political and workplace allies† (Scanlon et Harding, 2004). So, in this paper, we will evaluate the practicality of unions presence in CPS, and made some recommendations. Then, we will evaluate the opportunity of privatization and why the CPS should or should not privatize its services. Also, we will analyses some of the agency policies, procedures and/or plan regarding pensions, assess the agency’s approach to productivity and performance. Lastly, we will make some recommendations on actions the CPS can made to improve its productivity and performance. Child Protective Services and Unions Labor union is a group, or combination of workers who come together to ensure favorable wages, better work hours, enhanced working conditions and to resolve any complaints against employers (Legal-dictionary, n.d). It has become very important for social workers to join unions as those ones have been facing challenges such as understaffing, and unsafe work environment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,Show MoreRelatedMy Service Learning With Child Protective Services ( Cps )1389 Words   |  6 Pagesclass or completing my service learning with Child Protective Services (CPS), I really had not had any experience with CPS. I just made the assumption that the agency was biased and flawed based on the experiences other people had with CPS. I also did not think it would be a place that I would want to work because I did not want to work with children, although now I realize that was a really unfair opinion I had of the agency. I also thought a lot of people abused the service because I had heard aRead MoreChild Protection Service 1393 Words   |  6 Pagesforms of abuse... [including] witnessing abuse of others in the family† (Alberta children and youth services 2008, 1). Since family violence is a concern that our society is facing, we are dealt with the issue of how to deal with children who are in homes where violence is taking place. When children are being abuse or neglected child protective services is the agency who steps in to help the child, when women or men are being victims of family/ domestic violence it is other organisations who stepRead MoreChild Protective Services1477 Words   |  6 PagesCHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES REFORM 1 INTRODUCTION Child Protective Services (CPS) is a complex system of assessments, investigations, and conclusions. CPS is the central agency in each communities child abuse and neglect service system. It is responsible for ensuring that preventative, investigative, and treatment services are available to children and families endangered by child abuse and neglect. As a result, CPS workers must perform a variety of functions when responding to situations of childRead MoreInteroperability: Child Abuse and Child Protective Services Essay664 Words   |  3 Pagesan organization such as Child Protective Services (CPS) wanted to share client information with another Protective Services agency regarding a client both organizations should be able to exchange and translate information amongst coordinating organizations. Child Protective Services Child Protective Services (CPS) is known as major department with the Department of Human Services. CPS supports and maintains the social and economic welfare of children by offering services to children to help protectRead MoreChild Protective Services Essay847 Words   |  4 PagesThe organization under investigation is Child Protective Services, also referred to as CPS, which is an agency within the Department of Family and Protective Services. CPS is a governmental organization that has existed for years. The agency is designed to protect children from abuse and neglect. There are numerous cases that are called in on a daily basis in the state of Texas, and it is the duty of state employees to address all allegations in a timely manner. The positions held as a caseworkerRead MoreThe Failure of Child Protective Services in America Essay1451 Words   |  6 PagesThe controversial issue of whether or not Child Protective Services are doing their jobs properly, has grabbed nation wide attention. Child Protective Services is the name of a government agency in many states of the United States whose mission is to respond to reports of child abuse and neglect. Some of these cases may include physical abuse, sexual abuse, and mental abuse (Wikipedia). The child welfare system is corrupted. The parents and guardians who are accused of abuse are automatically labeledRead MoreInfluence Of Transformational Leadership And Job Burnout On Child Protective Services Essay1029 Words   |  5 Pages Fortunato, V. J. (2016). The Influence of Transformational Leadership and Job Burnout on Child Protective Services Case Managers Commitment and Intent to Quit. Journal Of Social Service Research, 42(3), 372-385. doi 10.1080/01488376.2015.1101047 Introduction According to Rittschof and Fortunato (2016), there has been little research conducted about the correlation between child protective service worker burnout rates and supportive supervisors and leadership personnel. The objective of thisRead MoreChild Abuse Prevention And Treatment Act Analysis1042 Words   |  5 Pagesoften times the perpetrators were kin to the victim’s household. Unfortunately, these are people they know and trust who are usually around the child. There are agencies running programs just for child abuse victims and their families. These programs operated to protect and advocate for those who don’t have a voice. Goals of the policy or program The child abuse prevention and treatment act (CAPTA) is for physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse victims. State must include in their statutory toRead MoreAn Article On Child Abuse Essay1601 Words   |  7 PagesIn August of 2016 journalist Wesley Muller published an article in the Sun Herald regarding a shocking case of child abuse that began to shed light on a potentially broken partnership. Wesley informed the Mississippi Gulf Coast that in June of 2014 a two-year-old female in the custody of The Department of Human Services (Child Protective Services) was brought to the emergency room and there tested positive for the sexually transmitted disease, gonorrhea along with signs of vaginal penetration. ThoughRead MoreThe Involvement Of Child Protective Services968 Words   |  4 Pagesindependent variable is the involvement of Child Protective Services. Child Protective Service’s involvement is measured based on a questionnaire, which ask the participant have they ev er had any previous Child Protective Service involvement, and if so when? The research will include both participants who have answered yes and no to this question. Furthermore, if the participant has answered yes, they will only be included if the Child Protective Service involvement was in the last five years. The