Future Health: A New Antibiotic, Smart Dentures, and Other Discoveries
THE ROLE OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS IN MEDICINE IS DIFFICULT TO REDUCED:even one new medicine can make a revolution and save millions of lives. Over the past hundred years, birth control pills have been created, scientists have deciphered the human genetic code, and doctors have learned to transplant organs and perform operations under a microscope. Summing up the year, we understand what has happened in medical science and how it will affect our lives.
New antibiotics for the first time in thirty years
The resistance of bacteria to antibiotics is a major medical problem, for the solution of which drugs with new mechanisms of action are needed. Last year, for the first time in thirty years, a new antibiotic, teixobactin, was found to be extremely effective, in particular against tuberculosis. It inhibits the synthesis of substances necessary for bacteria to build their own cells. This year, the company Novobiotic received a grant to develop its version for oral administration, in order to begin clinical studies in the near future. In 2016, Rockefeller University, using genetic material, created two more new antibiotics, humicins A and B, with a similar principle of action. It is believed that they can again make the bacteria resistant to antibiotics of previous generations vulnerable. However, so far their effectiveness has been demonstrated only in studies on mice.
New drug against radiation sickness
In 2011, twenty-five years after the disaster at Chernobyl, the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power station again reminded the world of the terrible consequences of radiation. High doses of ionizing radiation lead to the failure of almost all organs and rapid death. The only currently available treatment is a complex and expensive bone marrow transplant. The Israeli company Pluristem created from the cells of the placenta the drug PLX-R18, which in animal tests led to a complete cure for acute radiation sickness. The tool has not yet been tested on a person, and it’s too early to talk about success, but it can be a real breakthrough. It may now be enough to give the victim an intramuscular injection within a couple of days after exposure to radiation - and he will be safe.
Bandage for quick stop bleeding
For the past couple of years, Israeli doctors have been developing the WoundClot smart bandage, which makes it possible to quickly stop even heavy bleeding. Upon contact with blood, the molecules with which the dressing is impregnated form a thick, sticky gel. According to the manufacturers, the bandage allows you to control even arterial bleeding and its actions are enough for the natural blood clotting processes to start. Due to the low cost (about 10 dollars) this tool can help save huge sums on emergency operations. So far, the product has been provided for use by medical personnel only. Perhaps, the home version will soon appear and the next generation of children will not apply to the plantain, but such gel dressings to the broken knees.
Immunotherapy of malignant tumors
The idea of forcing the body's natural defense systems to fight cancer in the air since the days of Hippocrates, but only in the 21st century it was possible to take seriously the development of immune drugs. In October 2016, in the US, the innovative drug Keitrud (pembrolizumab) was registered for the treatment of a highly dangerous disease - non-small cell lung cancer. The drug increases the chances of no development of the disease by 50% compared with chemotherapy. In other studies, pembrolizumab increased the survival rate of patients with melanoma, usually leading to one hundred percent mortality, to 40%. It is necessary to understand that we are talking about means that truly stimulate immune processes, in contrast to immunomodulators that are available without a prescription and lack any effectiveness. In addition to developing an entire army of immunotherapy drugs, scientists went further and engaged in the genetic engineering of immune cells to fight cancer.
Breakthroughs in the treatment of multiple sclerosis
In a large-scale study of thirteen years in twenty-four patients with multiple sclerosis (the most frequent, recurrent form), it was possible to achieve not only stopping the development of the disease, but also make many symptoms reversible. Among the patients there are those who started walking and even skiing again, went back to work and study, started a family. Treatment includes the extraction and freezing of immune cells, the complete destruction of the immune system using chemotherapy, and then building it from scratch with its own stored cells. Unfortunately, this method is fraught with serious risks: in the study, one patient died and several more had to be given emergency help due to liver failure. His perspectives are not yet clear. But for another form of multiple sclerosis (primarily progressive), in February 2016, a drug with proven activity, okrelizumab, was first registered: it significantly reduces the number of relapses and the risk of disability.
Management of prosthetic thoughts
The most important task of those involved in prosthetics is to help the patient feel the prosthesis as naturally as possible and manage it as a real part of the body. There is a technology by which information is sent from an implant implanted in the motor cortex of a brain to a computer, and from there to a robotic prosthesis. But its complexity is that a person has to send information in fragments: for example, “reach out a hand”, “unclench your fingers”, “squeeze your fingers around a cup” - and all this in order to take a cup from the table.
Scientists at Caltech went the other way: they connected the patient's robotic prosthetic arm with the department of the parietal cortex, which was responsible for the intention to do something, not the action itself. As a result, a person who has been paralyzed for more than ten years has become capable of a quick handshake and even the game of "rock, paper, scissors". At the moment, the system has been tested with only one patient, and the creators hope that, over time, it will allow many people without limbs to become independent in such daily activities as brushing their teeth or drinking from a glass.
Metformin anti aging
Metformin has been used in patients with diabetes for more than fifty years. It is a safe drug, significantly reducing the risk of cardiovascular complications, the main cause of death for people around the world. A study has begun in the United States, whose authors believe that metformin can counteract various processes of aging. Among them are chronic low-intensity inflammation, cell breakdown, damage to DNA and protein structures, loss of stem cell functions. This is not about extending life to a conditional hundred and twenty years, but about improving its quality directly related to health. The authors of the study themselves say that it is not necessary to engage in drug prevention of aging, until its effectiveness is proven, and they say that even the presence of such a medicine does not eliminate the need to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Bioprinting tissue of internal organs
The Organovo company managed to create a three-dimensional human liver tissue by printing on a three-dimensional bioprinter, which, as part of the experiment, was even transplanted to animals. Bioprinting can revolutionize the development of new drugs, speeding up the process of their testing, because the toxicity and effectiveness must be studied on living tissues. Perhaps this will reduce the amount of research on animals and to obtain more accurate information about the effects of drugs in the early stages of development. In the future, 3D printing may even become a source of tissue and organs for transplantation. There is talk about the possibility of recreating the destroyed tissues right in the open wound and about the potential application of the method in cosmetology.
Seal that treats caries
British (and what else) scientists have tested a new material for seals. It is a bioactive composite that releases fluorine, calcium and phosphorus atoms. This seal helps to restore the surrounding hard tissues of the teeth (enamel and dentin), and also forms an alkaline environment, interfering with the vital activity of dangerous bacteria. It is not known yet how resistant this material will be and whether the fact that the filling will simply dissolve over time will not become the other side of bioactivity. Be that as it may, no method of treatment can be compared in effectiveness with the prevention of caries. In many countries in Africa and Asia, the prevalence of caries in adults is lower than in developed countries. Experts attribute this to the difference in food habits, namely in the consumption of sugar.
Medicine for baldness
A study was conducted in which twelve patients with moderate or severe baldness caused by focal alopecia received a new drug, ruxolitinib. It inhibits Janus kinase, an important enzyme whose activity grows during autoimmune processes, including focal alopecia. After three to six months of treatment, 75% of patients recovered up to 90% of hair. Unfortunately, after the drug was discontinued, the effect was reversible and hair loss was resumed. A more significant drawback of ruxolitinib is side effects: by weakening the immune system, it increases susceptibility to infections and other diseases. In addition, it is important to understand that against age balding, not associated with autoimmune diseases, ruxolitinib will not be effective.
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