1.
Young blood recharges ‘old brain’ new
mouse study shows
In May 2014 Stanford shared the results of their mouse study
test. What they have done is they injected 18 month old mice with the blood of
3 month old mice. What they found out was that this increased the brainpower in
the older 18 month old mice. That mouse then made new blood vessels that made
him better on memory.
After these results have been announced, scientists have
been wondering if this could also work on humans, but no one yet knows, the
experiments would start maybe in 2 to 3
years from now. (Figure 1)
Figure 1: Could injecting older people with ‘young blood’ reverse the
effects of aging?
Quote: "There are factors present in blood from young
mice that can recharge an old mouse's brain so that it functions more like a
younger one," said Dr Tony Wyss-Coray of Stanford University School of
Medicine.
2.
Scientists hope that this could also lead to discovering
new treatments for Alzheimer’s.
Harvard University scientists also discovered that the new
blood could also be used to keep the brain and muscles young and strong. They
discovered something called a ‘youth protein’ known as GDF11 which is in blood in
large amounts and as we get older that increases slowly. Last year they discovered that the protein
could repair damaged and unhealthy hearts. However, the new study showed that
in mice the protein could repair the whole body not just the heart.
Alzheimer’s is a very heart-breaking and difficult disease
that goes for older people. It is said according to the Alzheimer’s Click here that around 36 million
people in the world have this disease. A person with Alzheimer’s has memory
problems, first they start forgetting small things like where they left the
keys and later as the disease goes on the person can forget family members and
even who they are.
It is known that our
brain works by sending signals like chemical messengers to let the brain cells talk
to each other but people that have Alzheimer’s have less of these chemical
messengers. Over time brain cells also begin to get smaller to size and slowly die.
There is an example in figure 2. Click here
Figure 2: A scan of a healthy brain compared to a brain
affected with Alzheimer.
This is very difficult for the
person suffering from the disease because they will usually have moments when
they realize and are aware of their horrible condition. It is also very
difficult for the family members that have to watch someone they love suffer
and not recognize his/her own children.
Even though medicine has allowed
us to live longer, but diseases like Alzheimer’s are becoming more common in
people over the age of 65. What makes this disease so cruel is that people can’t
have also a proper goodbye.
So far they have only made medicine that slows
down the disease but there has never been a cure. This would be a very
important discovery that would affect millions of people around the world.
3. Stem Cells Could Hold a Cure to Type 1 Diabetes
In October a
huge discovery was made by the Harvard researchers. Their team tried to use
stem cells as to cure the awful disease diabetes type 1. Of course, it has been
announced that this is one of the most important and successful discoveries
by now.
The researchers used the stem cells to create
beta cells. Beta cells are cells which produce something called insulin; the
insulin protects the organism from getting a disease. But those beta cells
would be made in much bigger quantities.
Stem cells are cells in the body that have the
ability to turn into anything, such as a skin cell, a liver cell, a brain cell,
or a blood cell. Which means stem cells may also turn into beta cells. (Figure
1)
Beta cells
are cells that make insulin, they are found in the pancreas that helps keep the
blood sugar levels equal and in balance. People that have diabetes type 1 their
beta cells get destroyed by the immune system.
People then
used human Embryonic stem cells (Embryonic stem cells are cells that are made
when a fertilized egg starts to divide itself) to create beta cells that work just
like the normal beta cells in our human bodies. At the moment animal trials are
taking place and hopefully human trials can begin in the next couple of years.
Figure 1 above:
human-stem-cell derived beta cells.
People or
victims with this kind of disease can have serious problems. They might get
heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and early death. What people
do is they inject insulin for the people that have diabetes type 1 to survive
and live. And I found out that according to the statistics there are currently
around 384 million people in the world suffering from diabetes.
By 2035 they are expecting that another 205 million people will be
affected with diabetes. This is a huge problem for the whole world and it would
be an incredible discovery to find a way to cure this horrible disease by then.
Figure 2- cell
transplantation for diabetics
Your blog is very concise and to the point, without adding in any unnecessary details. I also think that your topics are really interesting! Good Job!
ReplyDelete