Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2011

Courtesy of TIME Specials

1. Scientists use cloning to create stem cells

Not exactly human cloning but not too shabby either. A variation of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) was used on human cells; the same technique that created Dolly except from ewe skin cells. SCNT replaces the egg cell’s genetic material with a mature cell’s DNA. The egg cell then is stimulated to divide and if it develops fully, it produces a genetically identical clone of the animal from which the mature cell was taken.

At the New York Stem Cell Foundation, they modified the technique recently and instead of replacing the egg’s DNA, they combined it with the mature cell’s genetic material. Something about this seemed to click and appeared to facilitate cell division and allow stem cell generation. However, the stem cells weren’t quite normal since they contained an extra set of chromosomes (the ones from the original egg).

The researchers hope to find a way to silence or eliminate the extra set of DNA. But there seems to be a lot of promise as potentially yielding stem cells means that we could, one day, treat diseases such as Parkinson’s and spinal cord injuries that match their donor but also erase the need for an embryo.

 

2. First ever Malaria vaccine

A vaccine tested in children in sub-Saharan Africa cut the risk of infection with malaria by about half. Considering there has never bee a vaccine against a human parasite before, or against malaria (which infects millions of children each year), this is a remarkable achievement. Scientists reported that the experimental vaccine known as RTS,S was 56% effective in protecting children aged 5 to 17 months from infection with malaria a year after immunisation and also 47% effective in preventing severe case of the disease. Although the trial is not complete, the infants (aged 6 to 12 weeks) who have been vaccinated are going to be followed. This age group would be the target population (if it proves effective). Clinical trials are a long and laboured process and the age groups would be followed for three years to determine how long protection lasts and to track malarial infections, if any.

While encouraging, public health officials are still on the fence as whether to warrant widespread immunisation in malaria-endemic areas. Vaccines against childhood infections such as measles usually reach efficacy rates of 70% to more than 90%.

 

3. HIV Prevention as Treatment

HIV treatment has come a long way, thanks to anti-retroviral drugs (ARV) than can lower the virus levels in the body, keeping people healthy and reducing the risk of HIV transmission. Recently, studies are showing that the same treatment drugs can also help protect HIV-free people from becoming infected in the first place. Inn 2011, two ground-breaking trials (the first with heterosexual men and women) showed that HIV free people were significantly less likely to become infected if they took ARV drug Truvada every day.

In the developing world, where most new infections occur in heterosexual couples, using ARVs could help curb the AIDs epidemic. Public health officials face significant challenges to make ARVs widely available but if they can, beating AIDs is a real possibility.

4. Food pyramid becomes a plate

Every five years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services update its Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). This year's update, released in June, unveiled MyPlate, its new symbol for healthy eating to replace the well-meaning but confusing food pyramid. The circular MyPlate departs from the original triangular shape and better represents the average person’s place. Health officials hope that the symbols’s clear and simple visual cues will prompt healthier eating choices.

5. Body Parts grown in the Lab

Mary Shelley may have been on to something as the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine recently created real functioning body parts like the urethra.The urethra is the thin tube responsible for transporting urine out of the body. In men, it can become damaged or narrowed by disease. To build a new one, Atala first created a biodegradable scaffold in the shape of a tube, then seeded it with patients' own bladder cells, and watched them grow. When the man-made organs were transferred into patients, remarkably they started working to eliminate waste.At the moment, the technique is too expensive to be of much help to most patients — it requires a $5,000 investment in materials and equipment. But it's a promising step toward a new world of regenerative medicine where creating healthy body tissues to replace diseased ones isn't such a mad idea.

 

6. Link between Colon Cancer and Bacteria

Two research groups reported similar findings about a type of bacteria called Fusobacteria which are rarely among the usual bugs that live in our guts but seem to flourish in colon cancer cells and are linked to higher rates of the disease. In some samples, they found hundreds of times more fusobacteria in cancerous as opposed to healthy cells. Earlier studies have also shown that the microbes are associated with a higher risk of ulcerative colitis, a condition in which inflammation destroys the colon’s epithelial cells (a risk factor for colon cancer). But is this a matter of cause and effect?

 

7. Weight-loss Miracle

If there's one constant in the world of weight loss, it's that there's no magic pill to melt off your excess pounds. At least, not yet.

But in the latest study of an experimental drug called Qnexa, researchers said obese patients taking the drug lost 10% of their body weight in a year. The pill combines two existing drugs — the weight-loss drug phentermine and the anti-epilepsy medication topiramate. The idea is to tackle the problem of weight gain on two different levels: phentermine (a distant cousin of amphetamines) can decrease appetite (although its long-term safety is still a question mark), while topiramate, which controls epileptic seizures by regulating electrical connections between nerves in the brain, also affects appetite and the body's ability to burn calories by modulating the same brain activity.

In other obesity-drug news year, scientists at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston tested an injectable compound called adipotide, a drug based on cancer research, and found that it slimmed fat monkeys by 11% in just a month.

 

8. Dogs than can sniff out Lung Cancer

Man's best friend might also be a doctor's newest weapon in detecting cancer. Dogs are known to have a keen sense of smell — sharp enough, according to a new study, to detect the presence of cancer on a person's breath. German researchers trained dogs over nine months to distinguish between breath samples from lung cancer patients and from healthy people; the animals were able to identify 71 out of 100 cancer samples accurately, and also picked out 93% of the cancer-free samples.What were they sniffing out? The scientists think the dogs were picking up on very subtle changes in certain volatile organic compounds in the breath, which may change when cancer is present. It may be possible to analyze cancer patients' breath for whatever compounds the dogs were identifying, but it's not clear what that is. "It is unfortunate that dogs cannot communicate the biochemistry of the scent of cancer!" the study's author noted.

 

9. Your spit can give away your age

Despite many medical advancements, something that science cannot do till now is accurately establish the age of a body at the time of death. DNA doesn't give away age (AN - and it shouldn't since it should be constant throughout life and if it’s changing, you’re in trouble, my friend!)

Thanks to some sophisticated analysis of saliva, UCLA researchers reported that scientists can now glean the age of a dead body from genetic material. These are not fundamental changes to the DNA, but epigenetic changes caused by environmental influences like diet, stress, exposure to sunlight, carcinogens or toxins even. These don’t change the DNA but are layered on top of the genome, affecting how genes are on or off. At specific area of the genome, these changes build up or decrease in an almost chronological way, serving as a timeing to predict a person’s age within five years accuracy. While this needs more studies to confirm and validate, every clue will definitely help!

 

10. A death risk predictor?

Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden reported in August that a simple blood test may be able to predict who is most likely to die of heart disease or cancer. In a 12-year study of nearly 2,000 people, the researchers found that those with higher levels of an enzyme called cathepsin S were more likely to die than those with lower levels. The enzyme, which helps break up certain proteins, tends to be higher in people with heart troubles or tumors, and may contribute to atherosclerosis, so people with higher levels of the enzyme are more likely to die of these diseases, the researchers found. Cathepsin S is also abundant in fat tissue, which isn't surprising since being overweight is a major risk factor for heart events.

It's not clear yet exactly how cathepsin S contributes to either heart disease or cancer, but drug companies are already busy working on compounds that might block its effects.

(AN – Not to put a damper on things, but something that has such widespread effects on the body probably shouldn't be blocked as it will definitely have too many side effects but be my guest!)