Future Medicine

There are so many diseases and cancers and numerous other maladies that can be fatal and so many others that cause us lots of discomfort. What if one day we no longer had to deal with being sick again? No more colds, no more cancers, no more infections of any type! This might all be possible one day and perhaps sooner than we think.

Draco

First we have Draco which is a revolutionary way to rid ourselves of viruses.

Who likes getting a cold? I know your sitting there thinking, that its a silly question because no one likes getting sick. Well your probably right, I don't like getting sick, so why would others. That is where a newly developed treatment will one day help. Draco is an experimental protein developed to fight viruses. So far in medicine there isn't a lot your doctor can do to help you against a virus other than help ease the symptoms.

 

Picture by: George Hodan

First you need to know basically how a virus works. A virus infects a cell with the intention to reproduce, it does this by essentially using its DNA to rewrite the cells DNA which effectively turns the cell into a virus factory. So the cell goes along now building more and more of the virus, until it dies, while all the virus that it produced go and infect surrounding cells. The symptoms that we feel when infected by a virus is often due to our immune system trying to expel the virus. Another reason is that the virus has disrupted the natural function of enough cells that now cause that particular body part to no longer do its job properly. Sounds bad, time for some new medicine.

Now that you basically know what a virus does I can tell you how Draco will solve the problem. Draco basically works by detecting the DNA of a virus and then telling the cell that it has infected to die. When the cell dies the Virus that has already split to turn the cell into a virus factory dies with it. This effectively eliminates the virus and stops it from reproducing. You can learn more about Draco at Amazing New Medicine. An end to viruses is near, we just have to wait a few more years so it can go through further testing. Then we can enjoy not ever having a cold and numerous other illnesses ever again.

http://www.squidoo.com/new-medicine

My source for this was Science Illustrated Magazine and backed up by MIT News.

There also seems to be some serious campaigning to organise futher funding by a group of people that have resulted from an interview of Dr Rider back in 2011.

The Naked Mole Rat

Research on the longevity and amazing health of the Naked Mole Rat is also very promising.

The naked mole rat might hold the key to the fountain of youth so to speak. This ugly little creature although looking old and wrinkly is actually one of the healthiest known animals on the planet. Scientists have discovered that naked mole rats maintain a perfectly healthy body right up until the point they die. In fact scientists don't even know why they die, when there are is no physiological reason for their death, everything in their body still works just fine. Scientists are trying to figure out what keeps a naked mole rat so healthy. We could one day find a treatment being developed that could increase our lifespans by stopping our bodies from ageing and breaking down. Another great thing about this little creature is the lack of cancer found, It is really unusual to find animals that don't die from cancer. So do these little creatures actually fight off cancer too, It is being heavily researched as well.

A great source of information on the subject for further reading. Biologist determine how blind mole rats fight cancer.

Crocodile Immune Systems

Crocodiles have extremely powerful immune systems that save them from all sorts of infections. Crocodiles are frequently getting hurt usually in battles between themselves, often coming out of a fight with deep gashes and missing limbs. With all this bodily damage and also living in bacteria filled water it is a wonder they don't die soon after from serious infection.  Yet almost all crocodiles survive wounds such as this. 

Close-Up of an...

Buy This at Allposters.com

This is due to their strong immune system which literally destroys bacteria as soon as it enters the body. Crocodile blood has been seen to completely destroy golden staff and other antibiotic resistant super bacteria.

Learn more about this here at Wired Science.

So let's all look forward to a very healthy future.