HIV
HIV/AIDS kills around 1.8 million people a year, and ranks as the third leading cause of death in low-income countries. But a recent study in journmain.phpal Blood presents a potentially new way to combat the disease: instead of killing the virus, make the body resistant to it. When a person is infected, the body's innate immune system provides an immediate but flawed defense; HIV takes its membrane or "skin" from the cell that it infects.
Researchers led by scientists at Imperial College London and Johns Hopkins University exposed HIV by removing cholesterol from this cellular wall, producing a large hole in the virus's membrane and making it permeable, which in turn led to a stronger adaptive response, orchestrated by immune cells. While researchers have lengths to go before they can even think to announce a cure for HIV, this breakthrough could drastically reduce the amount of resources devoted to treating and combating the disease and provide insight into fighting similarly complex diseases in the future.
Researchers led by scientists at Imperial College London and Johns Hopkins University exposed HIV by removing cholesterol from this cellular wall, producing a large hole in the virus's membrane and making it permeable, which in turn led to a stronger adaptive response, orchestrated by immune cells. While researchers have lengths to go before they can even think to announce a cure for HIV, this breakthrough could drastically reduce the amount of resources devoted to treating and combating the disease and provide insight into fighting similarly complex diseases in the future.
BREAKTHROUGH IN STEM CELL RESEARCH
Probably no area of research has fired the public imagination and ignited the fires of public controversy as much as stem cell research. But the clinical advances--even when they have come from pilot studies--have been tantalizing. In 2009, European researchers genetically manipulated bone marrow cells taken from two 7-year-old boys and then transplanted the altered cells back into the boys and apparently arrested the progress of a fatal brain disease.
Now, scientists can make embryonic-like stem cells directly from skin cells, which makes it possible to model a multitude of human diseases. New drugs based on stem cells are being developed, and the first human clinical trial based on products of human embryonic stem cells is expected in 2011. With the cheap and efficient means of manipulating stem cells within reach (regardless of the legal barriers), new options are opening up for researchers looking to generate new tissue in a lab setting, which could radically change the way America’s organ donor system functions.
Now, scientists can make embryonic-like stem cells directly from skin cells, which makes it possible to model a multitude of human diseases. New drugs based on stem cells are being developed, and the first human clinical trial based on products of human embryonic stem cells is expected in 2011. With the cheap and efficient means of manipulating stem cells within reach (regardless of the legal barriers), new options are opening up for researchers looking to generate new tissue in a lab setting, which could radically change the way America’s organ donor system functions.
MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
One of the unseen burdens of modern health care is the sheer wealth of data. Charts, blood cultures, past history--all of this information is increasingly essential in diagnosing and preventing deadly diseases, and modern medical institutions are struggling to find ways to manage and efficiently utilize available data. Doctors say the internet and new information technology--and yes, even the iPad--has actually changed the way they practice medicine for the better.
Gone are the days wasted in a medical library, looking for topics, writing down the references, going to the stacks and pulling the volumes of journals. Now, medical records, case files, and volumes upon volumes of crucial medical information and references are available at the swipe of a finger.
Gone are the days wasted in a medical library, looking for topics, writing down the references, going to the stacks and pulling the volumes of journals. Now, medical records, case files, and volumes upon volumes of crucial medical information and references are available at the swipe of a finger.