A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
The Canadian team used tiny gas-filled bubbles, injected into the bloodstream of a patient, to punch temporary holes in the blood-brain barrier. A beam of focused ultrasound waves applied to the skull made the bubbles vibrate and push their way through, along with chemotherapy drugs. Six to 10 more patients will undergo the same procedure as part of a trial. Experts said the experimental technique used at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre was exciting because it meant doctors might be able to give cancer patients potent drugs that otherwise would not work.
The same non-invasive method could also be used for other brain diseases, such as dementia and Parkinson's. But many more safety studies are needed, they say. Animal trials have produced some results, but it is not yet clear whether the treatment would work or have side-effects.
Blood-brain barrier
The blood-brain barrier keeps pathogens and toxins away from the
central nervous system. But this tightly packed layer of cells, which separates the brain from its blood vessels, can be a hindrance if you want to deliver drugs into the brain. The Sunnybrook team temporarily ripped holes in the barrier to allow chemotherapy a safe passage through. Lead researcher and neurosurgeon Dr Todd Mainprize said: "The results are preliminary at this point because we don't have the levels of chemotherapy - but based on the gadolinium MRI scan, we were clearly able to open up the blood-brain barrier non-invasively, reversibly and it appears quite safely.
"We are always concerned about possible downsides to any treatment and this is why this phase-one trial is undergoing.
"We are looking at the safety profile." Prof Gail ter Haar, an expert in ultrasound technology at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: "This is an exciting clinical step. "Opening the blood-brain barrier using focused ultrasound beams has been a goal of researchers for about a decade, with the Toronto group being at its forefront, and it is exciting to see this reaching the clinic at last.
"The use of ultrasound for enhancing the local delivery of drugs to a number of different targets in the body is being investigated by a number of centres around the world, including the UK, and shows particular promise in the field of cancer chemotherapy." Egle Solito, a senior lecturer at Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, said it was important not to raise hopes too soon.
"We need lots more research. The blood-brain barrier is a sealed system that protects the brain and when you open it, even temporarily, there are risks."
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