These Medical Breakthroughs Will Help Save Countless Lives
As the world continues to battle the
coronavirus pandemic, the biggest hope in getting rid of the threat is
the development of an effective vaccine. At the time of writing, more
than 165 vaccines against the coronavirus are under development with 30
vaccines already in human trials. Whenever we do get the coveted
vaccine, we would once again have science to thank.
Every year, scientific advancements help
change little aspects of our daily lives for the better. Today, we will
look at some of the significant advances made by contemporary science in
the field of medicine and health. From a needle that can detect cancer
to a head device that helps Alzheimer’s patients, these major
developments can help save or improve the lives of millions of people
across the globe.
1. Cancer-detecting ‘smart needles’
Scientists in the UK have developed a
“smart needle” which could revolutionize cancer diagnosis. This
pioneering new procedure can pinpoint cancerous tissues or cells within
seconds with the help of light. The device uses a technique known as
Raman spectroscopy to shine a low-power laser into the part of the body
being examined. Light is scattered differently from healthy or diseased
tissues, which means that health professionals would get the chance to
detect whether there are concerns with this device quickly.
Researchers believe that this new technology could significantly improve
the rate of detection and diagnosis of cancers, particularly lymphoma
(a cancer of the immune system). This will also reduce patient anxiety
as they await their results.
Professor Nick Stone, from the University of Exeter and project lead,
said: "The Raman smart needle can measure the molecular changes
associated with disease in tissues and cells at the end of the needle.
Provided we can reach a lump or bump of interest with the needle tip, we
should be able to assess if it is healthy or not."
The ''smart needle" probe is made up of fiber-optics enclosed within a
fine needle that can search for cancer under the skin's surface. A
prototype was built late last year by Dr. John Day of the University of
Bristol and the team is now working on improving the design which would
hopefully work well in clinical trials in the future.
2. A definitive cure for Ebola
While we are in the middle of the
coronavirus pandemic right now, a lot of us might have forgotten that
not too long back the world also feared an Ebola pandemic. The Ebola
virus is extremely dangerous and kills by shutting down the body’s
organs and draining victims of the fluids that keep them alive. In past
Ebola outbreaks, the virus has claimed as many as 9 in 10 patients.
While scientists have been researching the fatal disease for years, it
appears that we may have finally made a significant breakthrough in
tackling it. In 2019, a clinical trial, conducted by an international
coalition of doctors and researchers in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo recognized two new drugs that reduced the death rate from the
disease from 75 percent without treatment to 29 percent.
Of the two treatments, one is a monoclonal antibody drug made by
Regeneron that has shown the lowest overall death rate, at 29%. The
second one is monoclonal antibody 114 made by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics
and has a mortality rate of 34%. The next phase would now reveal which
of the two drugs works best in certain settings.
Regeneron contains a mixture of antibodies that are made by our immune
cells to get rid of infections from the body. These antibodies
specifically attack the Ebola virus (which can quickly evolve) and hence
there is a lot of hope from this new drug in curing the Ebola
infection.
“From now on, we will no longer say that Ebola is incurable,” said Prof
Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the director-general of the Institut National de
Recherche Biomédicale in DRC, which has overseen the trial. “These
advances will help save thousands of lives.”
3. Universal flu vaccines
According to the latest reports, scientists may be 'on the cusp' of a
universal flu vaccine. A study that was published in March this year
noted that researchers found that a single dose of the vaccine, called
Flu-v, caused greater immune responses than placebo in a trial involving
175 volunteers. The results indicate that the vaccine is safe and most
likely to be effective as well.
"We're on the cusp of a universal flu vaccine," said Dr. Amesh Adalja,
an infectious-diseases specialist and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins
Center for Health Security in Baltimore, who was not involved in the new
study. "It's long been a joke that a universal flu vaccine is always
five years away. But I think, this time, it really is coming within the
next five years."
The seasonal flu vaccine definitely helps save lives but it is still
suboptimal, according to experts. During each flu season, predicting the
characteristics of the growing flu strains and developing vaccines that
will prevent widespread infection becomes a major challenge. It’s a
lengthy and expensive process and often results in frequent vaccine
shortages as well.
Hence, a universal flu vaccine like Flu-v is a promising alternative,
primarily because it is made to target areas of the virus that are
common to numerous strains of the flu virus and unlikely to mutate.
"Flu-v can be manufactured all year round," said study co-author Olga
Pleguezuelos, chief scientific officer at Seek, the drug discovery
company that's developing Flu-v. "The manufacturing is synthetic, so
there are no limitations on the scale of production," which there are
for flu vaccines that are grown using eggs or cell cultures, she said.
In four previous trails so far, it has been demonstrated that Flu-v is
safe. The new study (called a "Phase 2" study) was the first human trial
to indicate that Flu-v enhances the body's production of antibodies
that prevent flu infection. A final round of "Phase 3" clinical trials
will now determine if the universal flu vaccine can indeed prevent flu
in humans safely and effectively.
4. A Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease
There is finally some encouraging news for millions of people suffering
from Alzheimer’s disease (AD). NeuroEM Therapeutics, a clinical-stage
medical device company focused on neurodegenerative diseases, announced
their findings from an open-label clinical trial last year showing
reversal of cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease patients after
just two months of treatment using a wearable head device developed by
the company.
The first clinical study of eight patients found that seven experienced a
return of some cognitive function. Extensive studies are currently
underway to determine the authenticity of these results.
“Perhaps the best indication that the two months of treatment was having
a clinically-important effect on the AD patients in this study is that
none of the patients wanted to return their head device to the
University of South Florida/Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute after the study
was completed”, said Dr.Gary Arendash, CEO of NeuroEM Therapeutics. One
patient even exclaimed, “I’ve come back.”
Previously, similar experiments had been conducted on mice with
electromagnetic waves in the radiofrequency range and it was discovered
that they provided protection against memory damage in young AD mice and
reversal of memory impairment in aged AD mice. While these are still
early days in this novel treatment, it still presents a rare ray of hope
to the countless people suffering from Alzheimer’s as medicines have
only helped to mildly slow down the disease’s progression.
5. Mind-Controlled prosthetics
In a major advance for amputees,
brain-controlled prosthetics have now become a reality. University of
Michigan researchers have used faint, latent signals from arm nerves and
expanded them to enable real-time, perceptive, finger-level control of a
robotic hand.
For this, the researchers prepared a way to subdue volatile nerve
endings, separate thick nerve bundles into smaller fibers that allow for
a more specific control, and increase the signals coming through those
nerves. The method includes tiny muscle grafts and machine learning
algorithms taken from the brain-machine interface field.
We have developed a technique to provide
individual finger control of prosthetic devices using the nerves in a
patient’s residual limb. With it, we have been able to provide some of
the most advanced prosthetic control that the world has seen,” says Paul
Cederna, who is the Robert Oneal Collegiate Professor of Plastic
Surgery at the U-M Medical School, as well as a professor of biomedical
engineering.
This is easily the biggest advance in motor control for people with
amputations in many years. “It’s like you have a hand again,” said study
participant Joe Hamilton, who lost his arm in a fireworks accident in
2013. “You can pretty much do anything you can do with a real hand with
that hand. It brings you back to a sense of normalcy.”
Other researchers, too, have been
developing similar brain-controlled prosthetics. For instance, Swedish
researchers created a new type of prosthetic arm that could drastically
improve the lives of people who’ve lost a limb. A few users have already
received the brain-controlled prosthetic that was surgically attached
to the bone, muscles, and nerves of their severed arms. It has allowed
them to not only grip objects intuitively with their hand but feel the
sensation of touching them. “The socket prosthesis I previously had is a
tool you can use for help in your daily life, but this … this is a part
of you,” says Rickard Normark who lost his left arm after an electric
shock at work in 2011 and is using this new brain-controlled prosthetic.
Hopefully, more researchers will continue to develop and improve upon
these prosthetics and make the life of amputees much easier.