The world's first vaccine against smoking has been developed by the company "Selecta (RUS)." Expected in 2018 they arrived at pharmacies, said the site "newsru."

According to Russian scientists, a subsidiary of the large U.S. holding company, it is a means of stimulating the production of antibodies that block nicotine in the blood. To provoke an immune response against the tobacco.

As a result, a person stops experiencing a pleasant sensation of smoking (nicotine can affect the brain).

Thus no point in smoking and it is easy to grips with the psychological addiction.

According to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) each year smoking kills about 4 million people.

People do not quit smoking despite injury information on nicotine for smoking bans in public places in many countries and tax increases.

Same group of Russian scientists now developing vaccines against diabetes, hepatitis B and skin cancer.

Meanwhile, a new study of New Zealand scientists shows that smokers are switching to electronic cigarettes to quit the habit have the same chance of success as those using nicotine patches , reported the Associated Press and Reuters .

The first-ever study comparing the efficacy of electronic cigarettes with nicotine patches as standard therapy for smoking.

Scientists from the University of Auckland found that the achievement levels are similar, it is more likely that electronic cigarettes to help their users do to reduce the amount of tobacco you smoke. Moreover, people go to much greater willingness of electronic cigarettes than nicotine patches .

The process researchers use to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) -- a special type of stem cell that can be made in the lab from any type of adult cell -- is time consuming and inefficient. To speed things up, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) turned to kinase inhibitors. These chemical compounds block the activity of kinases, enzymes responsible for many aspects of cellular communication, survival, and growth.

As they outline in a paper published September 25 in Nature Communications, the team found several kinase inhibitors that, when added to starter cells, help generate many more iPSCs than the standard method. This new capability will likely speed up research in many fields, better enabling scientists around the world to study human disease and develop new treatments.

"Generating iPSCs depends on the regulation of communication networks within cells," explained Tariq Rana, Ph.D., program director in Sanford-Burnham's Sanford Children's Health Research Center and senior author of the study. "So, when you start manipulating which genes are turned on or off in cells to create pluripotent stem cells, you are probably activating a large number of kinases. Since many of these active kinases are likely inhibiting the conversion to iPSCs, it made sense to us that adding inhibitors might lower the barrier."

According to Tony Hunter, Ph.D., professor in the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and director of the Salk Institute Cancer Center, "The identification of small molecules that improve the efficiency of generating iPSCs is an important step forward in being able to use these cells therapeutically. Tariq Rana's exciting new work has uncovered a class of protein kinase inhibitors that override the normal barriers to efficient iPSC formation, and these inhibitors should prove useful in generating iPSCs from new sources for experimental and ultimately therapeutic purposes." Hunter, a kinase expert, was not involved in this study.

The promise of iPSCs

At the moment, the only treatment option available to many heart failure patients is a heart transplant. Looking for a better alternative, many researchers are coaxing stem cells into new heart muscle. In Alzheimer's disease, researchers are also interested in stem cells, using them to reproduce a person's own malfunctioning brain cells in a dish, where they can be used to test therapeutic drugs. But where do these stem cells come from? Since the advent of iPSC technology, the answer in many cases is the lab. Like their embryonic cousins, iPSCs can be used to generate just about any cell type -- heart, brain, or muscle, to name a few -- that can be used to test new therapies or potentially to replace diseased or damaged tissue.

It sounds simple enough: you start with any type of differentiated cell, such as skin cells, add four molecules that reprogram the cells' genomes, and then try to catch those that successfully revert to unspecialized iPSCs. But the process takes a long time and isn't very efficient -- you can start with thousands of skin cells and end up with just a few iPSCs.

Inhibiting kinases to make more iPSCs

Zhonghan Li, a graduate student in Rana's laboratory, took on the task of finding kinase inhibitors that might speed up the iPSC-generating process. Scientists in the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics, Sanford-Burnham's drug discovery facility, provided Li with a collection of more than 240 chemical compounds that inhibit kinases. Li painstakingly added them one-by-one to his cells and waited to see what happened. Several kinase inhibitors produced many more iPSCs than the untreated cells -- in some cases too many iPSCs for the tiny dish housing them. The most potent inhibitors targeted three kinases in particular: AurkA, P38, and IP3K.

Working with the staff in Sanford-Burnham's genomics, bioinformatics, animal modeling, and histology core facilities -- valuable resources and expertise available to all Sanford-Burnham scientists and the scientific community at large -- Rana and Li further confirmed the specificity of their findings and even nailed down the mechanism behind one inhibitor's beneficial actions.

"We found that manipulating the activity of these kinases can substantially increase cellular reprogramming efficiency," Rana said. "But what's more, we've also provided new insights into the molecular mechanism of reprogramming and revealed new functions for these kinases. We hope these findings will encourage further efforts to screen for small molecules that might prove useful in iPSC-based therapies."

Pluri-EZ™ hESC/iPSC Culture Medium

Cat #: ASM-5014
Product Size: 100 ml
Background: The ability to culture human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and Induced Plurpotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) under chemically defined conditions is a prerequisite not only for the production of hESCs/iPSCs under GMP conditions but, also the development of protocols that will be used for future preclinical/clinical studies (1). Attempts at the formulation of chemically defined tissue culture conditions have included: 1) The replacement of serum in the medium with a chemically defined substitute (2,3) and the replacement of a MEF feeder layer with a defined feeder free culture surface (4-6).

Figure 1: (a) iPSC passage 5 growth curves comparing Pluri-EZ™ to mTeSR™. No statistical difference was found in iPSC growth. Typical iPSC colony grown using Pluri-EZ™(b) and mTeSR™(c).
Product description: Pluri-EZ is chemical based media and highly stable.
Storage conditions: -20˚C; 1 year, 4˚C; 2 months. Minimize exposure to direct light.
Shipping: On dry ice

Notes:
1. Thaw the Pluri-EZ™ medium either overnight at 4˚C or for 20 minutes at RT.
2. Addition of bFGF and Activin A may help cell culture results.

Neuro-Sure™ Neural Crest Stem Cell Culture Media

Cat #: ASM-4021
Product Size: 100 ml
Background: One of the defining characteristics of vertebrate development is the migration of neural crest cells from the neural tube. Neural crest cells give rise to a variety of tissues such as melanocytes, some heart vessels, cephalic neuroendocrine organs, connective tissue of the craniofacial skeleton and the neurons and glia of both the sensory and autonomic ganglia of the peripheral nervous systems 1,2. The study of neural stem cells and their progenitors, Neural Crest Stem Cells (NCSCs), have direct medical implications. Numerous pathologies, such as skeletal and nervous system disorders and peripheral neuropathies, arise from aberrant migration, specification or differentiation of neural crest cells3,4. In order to assist in your neural crest cell studies, our NCSC media has been optimized to contain all the factors required to support NCSCs plated on fibronectin coated tissue culture surfaces.
Product description and usage: Add 2 mL of NCSC medium supplement to 498 mL of
NCSC culture medium to produce 500 mL of NCSC media.

Storage conditions for NCSC medium: -80˚C; 1 year, 4˚C; two weeks. Minimize exposure
to direct light.

Storage condition for NCSC supplement: -80˚C; 1 year, 4˚C; two weeks.

Storage condition for NCSC media: 4˚C; two weeks. Minimize exposure to direct light.

Shipping: On dry ice.

Recommended procedure:
1. Thaw NCSC medium either overnight at 4˚C or for several hours at RT.
2. Thaw the NCSC medium supplement at RT.
3. Using sterile technique, add the NCSC medium supplement to the NSCS medium. Mix thoroughly and store the newly made media at 4˚C for up to two weeks. NOTE: NCSC medium can be filter sterilized if desired. Do NOT filter sterilize the NCSC medium supplement. Add this supplement directly to the NCSC medium.
4. Prior to use, warm the media to RT in the tissue culture hood. Due to the complex composition of the NCSC media, we do not recommend warming the media in a 370C water bath.

ESC-Sure™ Serum-/Feeder- Free hESC/iPSC Culture Medium (SFFM)

Cat #: ASM-5010
Product Size: 100 ml
Our Serum, feeder-free medium formulations are optimized for human ESC and iPSC culture. It contains growth factors and extracellular matrix proteins secreted by MEF cells.

SFFM is ready-to-use.
- Only need to add FGF2
- Culture dish coating: matrigel or similar matrix.

Blastocyst-Sure™ KSOM Embryo Culture Medium, with Phenol Red (with Amino Acid)

Cat #: ASM-5023
Product Size: 1 Pack (8 ml X 3 vials)
Size: 1 Pack (8 mL X 3 vials)

Blastocyst-Sure™ embryo culture medium is designed for in vitro culture of mouse embryos. Our optimized formula ensures that mouse embryos develop to blastocyst stage as close as they do in vivo. Each batch of Blastocyst-Sure™ embryo culture medium passes a stringent embryo culture test before they are released.

Formulation: Frozen liquid
Recommended protocol:
1. After thawing, the Blastocyst-Sure™ embryo culture medium should be used within 2 weeks. If you need to store media for later use, store it at 4C in dark for up to 2 weeks. Avoid repeated freeze/thaw cycles.
2. Prepare drops of Blastocyst-Sure™ embryo culture medium in advance. Cover medium drops with light mineral oil (embryo tested grade) and equilibrate in a 37C, 5% CO2 incubator for a couple of hours before use.
3. Change to fresh medium every 24h during embryo culture.

Blastocyst-Sure™ KSOM Embryo Culture Medium, without Phenol Red (with Amino Acid)

Cat #: ASM-5024
Product Size: 1 Pack (8 ml X 3 vials)
Size: 1 Pack (8 mL X 3 vials)

Blastocyst-Sure™ embryo culture medium is designed for in vitro culture of mouse embryos. Our optimized formula ensures that mouse embryos develop to blastocyst stage as close as they do in vivo. Each batch of Blastocyst-Sure™ embryo culture medium passes a stringent embryo culture test before they are released.

Formulation: Frozen liquid
Recommended protocol:
1. After thawing, the Blastocyst-Sure™ embryo culture medium should be used within 2 weeks. If you need to store media for later use, store it at 4C in dark for up to 2 weeks. Avoid repeated freeze/thaw cycles.
2. Prepare drops of Blastocyst-Sure™ embryo culture medium in advance. Cover medium drops with light mineral oil (embryo tested grade) and equilibrate in a 37C, 5% CO2 incubator for a couple of hours before use.
3. Change to fresh medium every 24h during embryo culture.