Top 10 Tech
Trends Transforming Humanity! (3)
3. Glimpsing the End of Cancer
& Disease
Though
it may seem hard to believe, the end of cancer and disease is near.
Scientists
and researchers have been working diligently to find novel approaches to
combating these diseases, and 2016 saw some extraordinary progress in this
regard.
Here’s
my top 10 picks that give me great faith about our abilities to cure cancer and
most diseases:
a) Cancer
Immunotherapy Makes Strides (Extraordinary Results): Immunotherapy involves
using a patient’s own immune system (in this case, T cells) to fight cancer.
Doctors remove immune cells from patients, tag them with “receptor” molecules
that target the specific cancer, and then infuse the cells back in the body.
During the study, 94% of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) saw
symptoms vanish completely. Patients with other blood cancers had response
rates greater than 80%, and more than half experienced complete remission.
b) In
China, CRISPR/Cas9 used in First Human Trial: A team of scientists in China
(Sichuan University) became the first to treat a human patient with an
aggressive form of lung cancer with the groundbreaking CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing
technique.
c) NIH
Approves Human Trials Using CRISPR: A team of physicians at the University
of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine had their project of modifying the immune
cells of 18 different cancer patients with the CRISPR-Cas9 system approved by
the National Institute of Health. Results are TBD.
d) Giant
Leap in Treatment of Diabetes from Harvard: For the first time, Harvard
stem cell researchers created “insulin producing” islet cells to cure diabetes
in mice. This offers a promising cure in humans as well.
e) HIV
Genes Cut Out of Live Animals Using CRISPR: Scientists at the Comprehensive
NeuroAIDS Center at Temple University were able to successfully cut out the HIV
genes from live animals, and they had over a 50% success rate.
f) New
Treatment Causes HIV Infected Cells to Vanish: A team of scientists in the
U.K. discovered a new treatment for HIV. The patient was treated with vaccines
that helped the body recognize the HIV-infected cells. Then, the drug
Vorinostat was administered to activate the dormant cells so they could be
spotted by the immune system.
g) CRISPR
Cures Mice of Sickle Cell Disease: CRISPR was used to completely cure
sickle cell by editing the errant DNA sequence in mice. The treatment may soon
be used to cure this disease, which affects about 100,000 Americans.
h) Eradicating
Measles (in the U.S.): The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that
after 50 years, they have successfully eradicated measles in the U.S. This is
one of the most contagious diseases around the world.
i) New
Ebola Vaccine Proved to be 100% Effective: None of the nearly 6,000
individuals vaccinated with rVSV-ZEBOV in Guinea, a country with more than
3,000 confirmed cases of Ebola, showed any signs of contracting the disease.
j) Eradicating
Polio: The World Health Organization has announced that it expects to fully
eradicate polio worldwide by Early 2017.
No comments:
Post a Comment