According to Michael Blaber, a researcher at the Florida State University College of Medicine, mutant forms of human protein may help restore blood flow to the damaged areas of the heart. Blaber hopes that these mutant proteins may be used in new treatment methods for those patients with advanced heart disease who had no other options earlier.

Scientists are on their way to developing an effective antidote for botulinum toxin - one of the world’s most feared biological weapons. The researchers have developed a protein that blocks the effects of the toxin by tricking it into not attacking cells in the body. The protein acts on the most powerful of these seven toxins produced by the Clostridium botulinum bacterium, for which there is no medical treatment. The developed protein behaves as a decoy to proteins in the nerve cells, which means that the toxin chooses not to attach itself to the nerve cells when it enters the body, preventing paralysis.

A multi-institutional team, led by John T. McDevitt, reported at a recent meeting of the American Association for Dental Research that it may be possible to diagnose a heart attack in the early stages by using only a few drops of saliva and a new nano-bio-chip. The nano-bio-chip assay could some day be used to analyze a patient’s saliva on board an ambulance, at the dentist’s office or at a neighborhood drugstore, helping save lives and prevent damage from cardiac disease. The tests performed by the device, which is the size of a credit card, promise to dramatically improve the accuracy and speed of cardiac diagnosis.

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