Ever since the dawn of time when shamans would dispense herbs to alleviate ailments, humans have had to put up with side effects. To complicate matters, people would react differently to the same medication.
More worrying is that some people are allergic to particular drugs. And a more dangerous situation arises when people have allergies to drugs used to combat diseases caused by bacteria. This is how genetic resistance occurs, and the multi drug-resistant and extensive drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis that currently plague South Africa are testament to this.
But, thanks to research that is being hailed as one of the most exciting and important breakthroughs in modern medicine, all this could be a thing of the past.
Individual DNA profiling, although still at a theoretical stage, is likely to predict how each individual will react to and interact with drugs. Using genetic tests, doctors may be able to predict how a person will respond to a specific prescription and how he or she metabolises that drug. The upshot is that people who cannot metabolise a drug may require a much lower dose than is recommended. Alternatively, those who metabolise the drug quickly may require a higher dose. This will mean a huge boost in the efficacy of all kinds of drugs.
And as spectacular medical breakthroughs go, it’s not alone. Successful clinical trials have been conducted by scientists at Johns Hopkins University and Duke University in the United States for a vaccine for brain cancer. The treatment targets the microscopic cancer cells left behind in the brain after a tumour has been surgically removed. This means that these cancerous cells are eliminated so they cannot regenerate and multiply and cause more destruction.
As for those aggressive brain tumours that are too difficult to remove surgically, Israeli scientists have discovered that a protein in the venom of a scorpion’s sting binds itself to the cancerous cells and destroys them. Studies are ongoing and the results look promising.
Researchers in Japan have developed artificial lymph nodes, the organs that produce immune cells for fighting infections. The thinking behind this is to have customised immune boosters that doctors can use to fill the nodes with cells geared to treat conditions such as HIV and cancer.
Another vaccine that has been developed by researchers at the Harvard Medical School (and already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration) targets prostate cancer, the third most common cause of death in males worldwide.
As for the third biggest killer of females, great strides have been made towards producing a vaccine against cervical cancer. Prescribed to girls and women from the ages of 11 years to 26 years, it prevents infections from four strains of human papillomavirus, the main cause of the disease.
Pushing the boundaries are microchips implanted in the body that are preloaded with up to 100 doses of medicine that can be administered directly into the blood using wireless signals.
Developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, these microchips are also being used as biochemical sensors that will monitor such things as blood glucose levels to help type 1 diabetes sufferers. Studies are also being conducted in the treatment of conditions such as cancer, infertility and osteoporosis.
Finally, adult stem cell treatments will change the face of medicine. Being able to treat damaged tissue caused by disease or injury with self-renewing cells will assist body tissue to regenerate itself, without the risk of rejection or side effects. Soon stem cell treatments will cure everything from cancers to spinal cord injuries, from baldness to diabetes, from heart damage to deafness.
Medical breakthroughs will be the topic of Bonitas Health Talk on September 24 on SABC2 at 9am