A widely-used drug might help treat children with a condition that ages them up to eight times too quickly, Durham University researchers believe.

People with progeria also suffer heart problems, lack of growth and loss of body fat and hair.

Writing in Human Molecular Genetics, scientists said the condition was partly down to DNA damage caused by highly reactive oxygen chemicals.

They said the drug, n-acetylcysteine, could control the damage.

The average life expectancy for someone with the condition is about 13 years.

Their cells show significant defects, which researchers put into two categories: damage to the DNA and physical disruption of the cell’s shape.

Prof Christopher Hutchinson, who led the study, said trials for drugs to correct the shape problems were showing some success.

He has been investigating the cause of, and simple solutions to, the damage to the genetic code.

‘Very exciting’

The team at Durham University found that levels of damaging “reactive oxygen species” were five to 10 times higher in cells of patients with accelerated ageing.

They used n-acetylcysteine, which is already used to prevent liver damage in patients who have overdosed on paracetamol, on cells in the laboratory.

The drug soaked up the reactive oxygen. DNA damage in the cells then returned to “approximately normal levels”.

Prof Hutchinson said: “For us it is very exciting.”

However, it is unknown what the effect would be if the drug was given to children with the illness or how it would work with other drugs.

Prof Hutchinson told the BBC: “I have to say this is one more piece in the jigsaw which will eventually allow us generate treatments, but it is one more piece.”

A full randomised clinical trial of the drug is not possible as the condition is so rare. The Progeria Research Foundation says there are just 78 children known to have the condition.

Its medical director Dr Leslie Gordon said: “[Prof] Hutchison’s study has not only confirmed basic cellular defects in progeria, but has also identified potential ways to improve those defects.

“This type of biological science is how progress towards treatments and a cure for children with progeria will advance.”

The findings might also one day have benefits for ageing in the wider populations.

Prof Hutchinson said: “If you give a child a drug which extends lifespan without adverse affects then you would expect these to be useful in an older population.”

A new multiple sclerosis drug has been found to cut the chance of having a relapse by four-fifths.

The study looked at 218 patients aged 18 to 55, of which a third were randomly assigned a placebo, a third a 600mg dose of the drug, and a third a 2000mg dose.

Writing in The Lancet, the authors of the report concluded that the drug “rapidly suppresses inflammatory activity” around the brain, which cause neurological problems in sufferers.

The drug is still at an explanatory stage, and bigger trials are needed to confirm its effect.

There are also question marks over its safety. Last year Roche, its maker, had to pull clinical trials in rheumatoid arthritis and lupus after some volunteers died of “opportunistic infections”.

A pioneering new treatment that uses DNA to correct a hereditary and incurable form of blindness has been performed for the first time in a British hospital.

A £50,000 NHS grant is being used to help people with learning disabilities to find a partner.

The Ark charity, in Crowthorne, is using the cash to work with community teams in East Berkshire NHS and Wokingham to find volunteer chaperones.

Called the Umbrella project, the initiative provides a matching service to help people make friends.

It also includes sessions on sexual health awareness and relationship skills for those who sign up.

Chaperones will be involved in assisting those who sign up to go on dates by offering encouragement and support.

Scott Waller, from the Ark, said it was difficult for people with learning disabilities to “get out and meet people”.

“We feel that people with learning disabilities should have every opportunity to have the best quality of life that they can and that includes having relationships and going on dates,” he said.

The Umbrella is due to be launched in January once volunteers, who will be trained in-house at the Ark, have been found.

Researchers in Norway believe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), also known as ME, may be caused a wayward immune system attacking the body.

The illness, the cause of which is uncertain and has no known cure, has attracted significant controversy.

A small study, reported in PLoS One, showed a cancer drug, which inhibited the immune system, relieved symptoms in some patients.

The ME Association said the findings were “very encouraging news”.

Doctors in Norway stumbled across their first clue in 2004 when treating a patient with both Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells, and CFS.

When she received cancer treatment, her fatigue symptoms improved for five months.

‘Dramatic’

The latest study, carried out at the Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, built on the previous discovery by testing 30 patients with CFS.

Half were given two doses of Rituximab, a cancer drug which eliminates a type of white blood cell, while the other half were given a fake treatment.

In those patients receiving the drug, 67% reported an improvement in a score of their fatigue levels. Just 13% showed any improvement in the sham group.

Øystein Fluge, an oncology consultant at the hospital, told the BBC: “There was a varied response: none, moderate, dramatic relief of all symptoms.

“Two had no recurrence [of their symptoms], their life was turned completely around very dramatically.”

Their theory is that a type of white blood cell, B lymphocytes, are producing an antibody which attacks the body.

The drug wipes out the lymphocytes which in some cases may “reset the immune system”, however, in other patients the fatigue symptoms would return when more B lymphocytes were made.

Caution

Mr Fluge said: “I think the fact that patients responded to treatment, improved cognitive function, fatigue and pain makes us believe we’re touching one of the central mechanisms.

“But we’re scratching at the surface, I would not characterise this as a major breakthrough.”

The researchers are now investigating the effect of giving more doses over a longer period of time.

If their hunch is right it will throw up more questions, such as what is the immune system actually attacking and whether or not an actual test for CFS/ME be developed.

Dr Charles Shepherd, the UK ME Association’s medical adviser, said: “The results of this clinical trial are very encouraging news for people with ME.

“Firstly, they help to confirm that there is a significant abnormality in immune system function in this disease.

“Secondly, they indicate that altering the immune system response in ME could be an effective form of treatment for at least a subset of patients.

“We now need further clinical trials of such anti-cancer agents to see if other research groups can replicate these findings.”

Prosthetics services for military veterans are to receive funding of up to £15m, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced.

A review of services was carried out after concerns from charities and service personnel that the NHS was under-equipped.

The Department of Health has now said a number of specialist units will be set up across England.

Mr Cameron said the report set out a “clear strategy” for better services.

The £15m, which has been found from the Department of Health’ s contingency fund, is to be invested between April 2012 and 2015.

The government will now work with service charities, including Help for Heroes and The British Limbless Ex-Service Men’s Association (Blesma) as well as NHS specialists, to create new high-quality NHS facilities for prosthetic limb provision and rehabilitation.

The aim is to bring them up to the same standard as the Defence Medical Service at Headley Court. That deals with personnel who are still serving, but once they leave it is the NHS centres which take on their care.

The government is also working with the administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to improve arrangements there.

Feedback from those using and running these facilities will also be applied to services run for patients from all backgrounds who need such care.

‘Confidence’

Dr Andrew Murrison MP, who compiled the report for the government, said: “The rapid rollout of the recommendations I made last year on veterans’ mental health has been impressive and I look forward to these latest proposals being progressed with the same enthusiasm.

“I hope the action points I have offered honour the military covenant and benefit military amputees but I have been clear that they should also help to improve the service available to all limb centre users.”

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “As a country and as a government we have a particular duty to servicemen and women injured on operational duty.

“This report maps out a clear strategy for ensuring that those brave people can be confident they will receive the same levels of access to prosthetic limbs and specialist care from the NHS as they do at Headley Court. They deserve nothing less.”

Jerome Church, general secretary of Blesma, said: “Over the last few years, our young veterans preparing to move on into civilian life have become increasingly concerned about the standard of prosthetic support they will receive from the NHS.

“We are now much more confident that the NHS will be able to provide the prosthetic support veterans need and deserve – for the rest of their lives.

“We are also delighted that this enhanced support will be extended to all veterans who lost limbs in earlier conflicts.!

Bryn Parry, chief executive of Help for Heroes, added: “It’s recognition that military amputees need specialist support not currently available within the NHS.”

A scheme to give disabled people a taste of the countryside could be rolled out around the UK.

Countryside Mobility South West hires all terrain mobility scooters and a wheelchair accessible boat.

More than 500 people have paid £2.50 each to hire a scooter in the first year of the project.

Charity Living Options, which runs the scheme at 20 parks and lakes around the South West, is now looking for other venues around the UK.

James Maben of Countryside Mobility South West said: “The scheme is based on town centre Shopmobility where people hire mobility scooters to do their shopping.

“What we have done is take that principle out into the countryside.

“People are booking their holidays in the South West because of the scheme.”

Wheelchair user Gordon Guest, at Haldon Forest in Devon, said: “When I got into a wheelchair I thought I would be stuck in a city.

“Now I can get out into the countryside in some amazing places.”

A new extension to a centre for children with disabilities in Berkshire and Oxfordshire has opened.

The Chiltern Centre in Henley provides short-break care to children with complex medical health needs.

The extension includes two new bedrooms, a specialist bathroom and increased living and play space.

It was funded through a £268,000 government grant, and was opened by TV presenter Phillip Schofield, who is the charity’s patron.

‘Good news’

Chair of the trustees at the Chiltern Centre, Paul Barrett, said: “Phillip Schofield turned up and did the honours for us in great fashion. He’s our celebrity patron as he lives locally.

“We cater for about 85 families from the Thames Valley, at weekends and holidays we’re full to bursting.

“This extension is very good news.”

It was funded through a grant from the Department of Health’s Social Enterprise Investment Fund.

The centre has been running as an independent charity for eight years.

Schofield announced a fundraising initiative in February, which has so far raised £170,000 for the running costs of the centre.

A team of US researchers has devised a way for people with impaired vision to use the touchscreen of a tablet such as an iPad as a Braille keyboard.

It turns some previously fundamental thinking about how to make technology accessible to blind people on its head.

Instead of using a keyboard or mechanical writer, users type directly onto the flat glass.

The inventors used a novel design for the keyboard to overcome the lack of tactile features.

Smart keyboard

“Instead of having fingers that find the buttons, we built buttons that find the fingers,” said Stanford’s Sohan Dharmaraja, one of the researchers on the project.

Users place eight fingers on the screen and the keyboard appears. Shaking the device activates a menu, and further interaction is achieved by regular touch gestures.

Mr Dharmaraja, alongside team-mates Adam Duran – an undergraduate from New Mexico University – and assistant professor Adrian Lew, came up with the idea during a boffin’s X-Factor-style contest.

The competition, organised each year by Stanford University, challenges students to come up with some innovative future computing ideas over their summer break.

In demonstrations Mr Duran typed out a complicated mathematical formula and the chemical equation for photosynthesis.

But it also offers a solution for more basic problems.

“Imagine being blind in the classroom, how would you take notes? What if you were on the street and needed to copy down a phone number? These are real challenges the blind grapple with every day,” said Prof Lew.

There are some obvious benefits to using touchscreen technology over traditional Braille writers.

“Current physical note takers are big and clunky and range from $3,000 (£2,000) to $6,000 (£4,000). Tablet PCs are available at a fraction of the cost and do so much more,” said Mr Dharmaraja.

Promising development

As part of the project, the students had to learn Braille. The system, originally developed for the French military, is made up of six dots arranged in various patterns. They are read by people’s fingertips.

But the system can seem outdated in a modern era where touchscreens are ubiquitous.

Accessible touch screen devices such as the iPad offer a huge range of possibilities for developers and for blind and partially sighted people,” said Robin Spinks, the Royal National Institute for Blind People’s manager of digital accessibility.

“This prototype Braille keyboard for touch screen devices represents a very promising development, and RNIB look forward to being able to test it with our members in the future,” he added.

It may be some while until the Stanford project is turned into a commercial reality but the team are determined.

“Who knows what we will get because of this device. It is opening a door that wasn’t open before,” said Mr Dharmaraja.

A new £6m centre which brings together treatment and care for children with disabilities under one roof has been called a “lifeline” by parents.

The Serennu Children’s Centre in Newport means young patients can have different specialist appointments scheduled in the same place, and cut down on travelling between hospitals and clinics.

Three-year-old Darcie has Down’s Syndrome.

Her mother Frances Jenkins said: “We would have hearing in Cwmbran, hydrotherapy and physiotherapy in one clinic in Newport, an eye specialist at another clinic in Newport, and would see a paediatrician at the Royal Gwent Hospital.

“Some weeks I would spend 20 hours a week getting to different appointments.”

As well as NHS outpatient and medical treatment rooms, facilities include a sensory garden, hydrotherapy pool, gym, cafe, and a 3D medi-cinema, due to be opened by the end of the year.

‘Social aspect’

Serennu, which means “to sparkle” in Welsh, opened in April after 20 years of planning and fundraising by the South Gwent Children’s Foundation.

Core funding came from the Welsh Government. Volunteers raised the rest and admit it has been a “long slog”.

The foundation’s chairman Dr Sabine Maquire said: “There have been points along the way where I know my co-trustees, and others, have doubted whether we could do it.

“I would say to others ‘you can do it, but you have to be passionate, you have to stick with it, and you will need the support of your volunteers, your parents, and the business community. You need everyone to share your vision’.”

Spending time at the centre allows families the chance to meet and socialise together, as Frances Jenkins explains.

“There’s a social aspect to this centre, not just a medical aspect and I think that is very important, especially when, quite often, you feel cut off.

“It’s almost like the bringing together of one big unit, a family unit, and that’s important because it can be very isolating.”

Centre manager, Donna Wilson, believes Serennu offers something unique.

“It’s not just about medical care and treatment, it’s a family facility.

“It has leisure facilities, we’re hoping to have a youth club for disabled children, there are sports facilities for disabled children. We want this to be a holistic family experience.”

The charity, Children in Wales, welcomes the opening of the centre, but believes people with disabilities should not have to be treated separately.

Development officer Catherine Lewis said: “I think it would be really good if disabled children and young people are able to access mainstream services because it would help show they are people first and that they’ve got a disability second.

“I very much support what’s happened at Serennu, it’s a flagship centre and it’s a wonderful development, but it would be great to see services mainstreamed across all of Wales.”

You don’t have to be a Jedi to make things move with your mind.

Granted, we may not be able to lift a spaceship out of a swamp like Yoda does in The Empire Strikes Back, but it is possible to steer a model car, drive a wheelchair and control a robotic exoskeleton with just your thoughts.

“The first thing is to clear your mind…to think of nothing,” says Ed Jellard; a young man with the quirky title of senior inventor.

We are standing in a testing room at IBM’s Emerging Technologies lab in Winchester, England.

On my head is a strange headset that looks like a black plastic squid. Its 14 tendrils, each capped with a moistened electrode, are supposed to detect specific brain signals.

In front of us is a computer screen, displaying an image of a floating cube.

As I think about pushing it, the cube responds by drifting into the distance.

Admittedly, the system needed a fair bit of pre-training to achieve this single task. But it has, nonetheless, learned to associate a specific thought pattern with a particular movement.

The headset, which was developed by Australian company Emotiv for the games industry, has been around for some time. But it is only now that companies such as IBM are beginning to harness the wealth of data that it can provide.

Using software developed in-house, researchers have linked the Emotiv to devices such as a model car, a light switch and a television.

Control signals come from two main sources; electroencephalography (EEG) measurements of brain activity, and readings of nerve impulses as they travel outwards to the muscles.

Restoring movement

New techniques for processing such information are enabling sophisticated real world applications.

Already the team has used the system to help a patient with locked-in syndrome, whose healthy, active mind became trapped in a motionless body following a stroke.

“We linked the headset to the IBM middleware, and when he pushed the cube on the screen, that behaved like a click of the mouse – so he was able to use the computer,” explained IBM’s Kevin Brown.

Many commercial mind control technologies are designed to restore physical ability to those who have lost it.

At Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), researchers have applied brain-computer interface technology to create thought-controlled wheelchairs and telepresence robots.

“A disabled patient who can’t move can instead navigate such a robot around his house to participate in the social life of the family,” explains the team leader, Professor Jose del Millan.

“To do that, a helmet detects the intention of some physical movement and translates it into action.”

Japanese company Cyberdyne is helping people who cannot walk to regain mobility by dressing them in a full-body robotic suit called Hal.

Just as some of IBM’s readings come from nerve impulses, rather than brain waves, Cyberdyne uses tiny sensors on the limbs to measure the subject’s intention to move, even if the physical act is impossible.

The robot body responds by moving its arms or legs. Webcams and computer screens enabling the user to pilot their machine and communicate with friends and family through their proxy body.

Outside the healthcare field, another implementation, being developed by EPFL in partnership with car maker Nissan, is an intelligent vehicle that can use brainwave data.

Supported by numerous external sensors and cameras, brain wave sensors read what the driver is planning to do next.

Having anticipated their intentions, the car takes over, eliminating the need for tedious and time consuming physical movement.

For those who prefer pedal power, Toyota is working with Saatchi & Saatchi, Parlee Cycles and DeepLocal to develop a bicycle which can shift gear based on its rider’s thoughts.

Suits and microchips

Headsets and helmets offer cheap, easy-to-use ways of tapping into the mind. But there are other, more invasive techniques being developed.

At Brown Institute for Brain Science in the US, scientists are busy inserting chips right into the human brain.

The technology, dubbed BrainGate, sends mental commands directly to a PC.

Subjects still have to be physically “plugged” into a computer via cables coming out of their heads, in a setup reminiscent of the film The Matrix. However, the team is now working on miniaturising the chips and making them wireless.

BrainGate is developing ways of using the output to control a computer cursor, on-screen keyboard, and even manipulate robotic arms.

After testing it on monkeys, the scientists have now started human trials. Lead researcher Prof John Donoghue hopes that one day, his groundbreaking research will help people with spinal cord injuries or locked-in syndrome to walk again just by thinking of moving their limbs.

Robot warriors?

But extracting information from the brain, be it by internal or external sensors, is only part of the story.

Much of the current research effort is looking at how to efficiently process and utilise the vast streams of data that the brain produces.

Turning analogue thoughts into digital information links human beings directly to electronic information networks, such as the internet. The brain becomes becomes yet another sensor to be analysed and interrogated.

And as techniques for crunching that output get more sophisticated, the technology it drives will move beyond simple device control.

“People like data,” said IBM’s Ed Jellard. “So if you can see patterns of data, the geekier people will be very interested to see what is going on in their brain and how it is changing over time.

“I would be interest to know if my brain is getting stronger and if I have more intense thoughts. Things like that could be useful.”

While it is possible to translate brain waves into machine processable data, there remains something unique and special about those signals that rocket around inside our skulls.

They are not the same as lasers in a fibre optic cable or electrons in a microprocessor, and tapping the mind will raise philosophical and ethical questions, according to Prof Noel Sharkey.

“Once the military get a hold of it, they will push it very hard,” he explains.

“At the moment they are filling the airspace in Afghanistan with drones that only one person can control – but if they get the helmets well enough developed, they’ll be able to control a number of planes or robot warriors directly with their thoughts.”

There are also questions about what form cyber crime would take in the age of the wired mind?

“Imagine some kind of a wireless computer device in your head that you’ll use for mind control – what if people hacked into that, what could they do to you and your property?,” continues Prof Sharkey.

“And what if you are forced to wear a device and someone controls you with his thoughts, making you do things?…”

The possibilities, both positive and negative, are literally mind boggling.

Thanks to Society Guardian.

• The first ever World report on disability, produced jointly by the World Health Organisation and the World Bank, which finds that more than a billion people in the world today experience disability. Professor Stephen Hawking, who wrote the report foreword, has also sent a video message of support. It his hoped the report will “make a significant contribution to implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”.

Plans to reform the blue badge disabled parking permit scheme have been criticised by Wiltshire Council.

The government says the current scheme needs to be updated because of fraud and abuse, but that local authorities can now charge up to £10 per permit.

Conservative-controlled Wiltshire Council says each badge currently costs £4.84 to administer and it is able to absorb this cost within its budgets.

Deputy leader John Thomson said the new scheme would see each badge cost £15.

Some 24,000 people in Wiltshire have blue badges and, at present, get them issued for free.

Mr Thomson said: “We’ve been told [by the government] that we can charge £10 for this – but the by the time you’ve taken the cost of making the payment we’re not going to get £10.

“We have an extremely efficient four-page application form that can be filled in over the telephone. What they are proposing is a 22-page form.

“One of the reasons they are introducing the new permit is to cut fraud.

“It’s really fraud in the city they are targeting. This ‘fix all problems’ solution puts up costs and complicates the process.

“Our attitude is that most people in Wiltshire are honest and that not every body is a crook.”

Claire Perry, Conservative MP for Devizes, said she had a great deal of sympathy with the council’s position which operated a “very efficient” service turning the badges around within a week.

But Mrs Perry acknowledged that there was a “huge amount” of fraud and misuse of the badges.

“This means people who genuinely need the [disabled] bays often find them full.

“At [the Conservative Party] conference I will try to talk to the department and say ‘we have an excellent system in Wiltshire – can we have an opt-out clause?’.”

The blue badge scheme enables eligible people to park for up to three hours on double yellow lines for free.

It also allows free on-street parking where there are parking meters or permit schemes – if local authorities agree to waive the cost.

Good.

Guide dogs will be allowed on moving escalators on the Tube for the first time under changes to a bylaw, it has been announced.

Transport for London (TfL) said it had been advised for years that dogs should not be allowed to use moving escalators to prevent injuries.

Passengers had to carry dogs or use lifts or stairs instead.

But recent research has proved that dogs can be trained to use a moving escalator.

The rule banning dogs on escalators dated back to the days of wooden escalators and fears that dogs could get their paws caught.

‘Antiquated bylaw’

Although Tube staff would often provide assistance to visually impaired passengers, including by stopping escalators where possible, the official line was that this may not be possible “at busy times” in case it caused overcrowding.

But research carried out by The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association has shown once guide dog owners are trained, they will be able to safely use escalators.

The charity will now carry out a training course for Guide Dogs users to learn to use the escalators safely.

The change, which comes into effect this week, will also apply to the Docklands Light Railway and London Overground.

A TfL spokesman said: “It was not always practical for disabled passengers with an assistance dog to carry them on escalators, particularly if the person was visually impaired.”

Oliver Barton, client services manager at Guide Dogs for the Blind, said: “Once guide dog owners are trained, they will be able to safely use escalators if they provide the only means of accessing TfL managed stations.”

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: “The modernisation of this antiquated bylaw helps make the Tube more accessible for all.”

A new cell discovery could pave the way to novel treatments for multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and other auto-immune diseases, scientists believe.

Researchers in the US identified a previously unknown molecular interaction that helps programme the immune system to attack the body’s own cells.

The findings explain how and under what conditions a particular enzyme, PKC-theta, activates disease-fighting white blood cells called T-lymphocytes.

Scientists led by Dr Amnon Altman, from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in California, identified a small region of the enzyme that appears to be vital to the process.

British expert Professor Christopher Rudd, from Cambridge University, said the discovery was a “big advance” with clinical implications. “This now means that this region in PKC-theta can be targeted by novel therapeutics, or that protein fragments of the region itself could be used to treat a variety of immune disorders,” he said.

The research is published in the journal Nature Immunology.

Dr Altman said efforts to find ways of blocking the enzyme’s activity have been ongoing at several drug companies.

He added: “Here we have found an alternative way of blocking the function of PKC-theta. Essentially, the enzyme remains fully active, but it can’t trigger T-cell activation because it’s not in the right place in the cell.”

Targeting the interaction between the enzyme and immune cells was likely to be highly selective and have a minimal effect on other cells in the body, he said.

However, he stressed that finding a way to stop PKC-theta binding to its molecular target on T-lymphocytes was not an easy task.