The contribution of doctors to the development of physics. Great physicists and their discoveries

Scientific breakthroughs have created many useful medicines, which will certainly soon be freely available. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the ten most amazing medical breakthroughs of 2015, which are sure to make a serious contribution to the development of medical services in the very near future.

Discovery of teixobactin

In 2014, the World Health Organization warned everyone that humanity was entering a so-called post-antibiotic era. And she turned out to be right. Science and medicine have not produced truly new types of antibiotics since 1987. However, diseases do not stand still. Every year new infections appear that are more resistant to existing medications. This has become a real world problem. However, in 2015, scientists made a discovery that they believe will bring dramatic changes.

Scientists have discovered a new class of antibiotics from 25 antimicrobial drugs, including a very important one, called teixobactin. This antibiotic kills germs by blocking their ability to produce new cells. In other words, microbes under the influence of this drug cannot develop and develop resistance to the drug over time. Teixobactin has now proven highly effective in the fight against resistant Staphylococcus aureus and several bacteria that cause tuberculosis.

Laboratory tests of teixobactin were carried out on mice. The vast majority of experiments showed the effectiveness of the drug. Human trials are due to begin in 2017.

One of the most interesting and promising areas in medicine is tissue regeneration. In 2015, the list of organs recreated artificially was supplemented with a new item. Doctors from the University of Wisconsin have learned to grow human vocal cords from virtually nothing.

A team of scientists led by Dr. Nathan Welhan has bioengineered tissue that can mimic the functioning of the mucous membrane of the vocal cords, namely the tissue that appears as two lobes of the cords that vibrate to create human speech. The donor cells from which new ligaments were subsequently grown were taken from five volunteer patients. In laboratory conditions, scientists grew the necessary tissue over two weeks, and then added it to an artificial model of the larynx.

The sound created by the resulting vocal cords is described by scientists as metallic and compared to the sound of a robotic kazoo (a toy wind musical instrument). However, scientists are confident that the vocal cords they created in real conditions (that is, when implanted into a living organism) will sound almost like real ones.

In one of the latest experiments on laboratory mice with human immunity, researchers decided to test whether the rodents' body would reject the new tissue. Fortunately, this did not happen. Dr. Welham is confident that the tissue will not be rejected by the human body.

Cancer drug could help patients with Parkinson's disease

Tisinga (or nilotinib) is a tested and approved medicine that is commonly used to treat people with symptoms of leukemia. However, new research from Georgetown University Medical Center shows that the drug Tasinga may be a very powerful treatment for controlling motor symptoms in people with Parkinson's disease, improving their motor function and controlling non-motor symptoms of the disease.

Fernando Pagan, one of the doctors who led the study, believes that nilotinib therapy may be a first-of-its-kind effective treatment for reducing cognitive and motor function decline in patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease.

Scientists gave increased doses of nilotinib to 12 volunteer patients over a six-month period. All 12 patients who completed this drug trial experienced improvement in motor function. 10 of them showed significant improvement.

The main objective of this study was to test the safety and harmlessness of nilotinib in humans. The dose of the drug used was much less than what is usually given to patients with leukemia. Despite the fact that the drug showed its effectiveness, the study was still conducted on a small group of people without the involvement of control groups. Therefore, before Tasinga is used as a therapy for Parkinson's disease, several more trials and scientific studies will have to be conducted.

World's first 3D printed ribcage

The man suffered from a rare type of sarcoma, and doctors had no other choice. To prevent the tumor from spreading further throughout the body, specialists removed almost the entire sternum from the person and replaced the bones with a titanium implant.

As a rule, implants for large parts of the skeleton are made from a variety of materials, which can wear out over time. In addition, replacing bones as complex as the sternum, which are typically unique to each individual case, required doctors to carefully scan a person's sternum to design the correct size implant.

It was decided to use titanium alloy as the material for the new sternum. After conducting high-precision 3D CT scans, the scientists used a $1.3 million Arcam printer to create a new titanium rib cage. The operation to install a new sternum in the patient was successful, and the person has already completed a full course of rehabilitation.

From skin cells to brain cells

Scientists from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, have spent the past year studying the human brain. They have developed a method for transforming skin cells into brain cells and have already found several useful applications for the new technology.

It should be noted that scientists have found a way to turn skin cells into old brain cells, which makes them easier to further use, for example, in research into Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and their relationship with the effects of aging. Historically, animal brain cells have been used for such research, but scientists have been limited in what they can do.

Relatively recently, scientists have been able to turn stem cells into brain cells that can be used for research. However, this is a rather labor-intensive process, and the resulting cells are not capable of imitating the functioning of the brain of an elderly person.

Once researchers developed a way to artificially create brain cells, they turned their efforts to creating neurons that would have the ability to produce serotonin. And although the resulting cells have only a tiny fraction of the capabilities of the human brain, they actively help scientists research and find cures for diseases and disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and depression.

Birth control pills for men

Japanese scientists from the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases in Osaka have published a new scientific paper, according to which in the near future we will be able to produce actually working contraceptive pills for men. In their work, scientists describe studies of the drugs Tacrolimus and Cixlosporin A.

These medications are typically used after organ transplant surgery to suppress the body's immune system so it does not reject new tissue. The blockade occurs by inhibiting the production of the enzyme calcineurin, which contains the PPP3R2 and PPP3CC proteins normally found in male semen.

In their study on laboratory mice, scientists found that as soon as rodents do not produce enough PPP3CC protein, their reproductive functions are sharply reduced. This led researchers to the conclusion that insufficient amounts of this protein could lead to sterility. After more careful study, experts concluded that this protein gives sperm cells the flexibility and the necessary strength and energy to penetrate the egg membrane.

Testing on healthy mice only confirmed their discovery. Just five days of using the drugs Tacrolimus and Ciclosporin A led to complete infertility in mice. However, their reproductive function was fully restored just a week after they stopped receiving these drugs. It is important to note that calcineurin is not a hormone, so the use of drugs in no way reduces libido or excitability of the body.

Despite the promising results, it will take several years to create a real male birth control pill. About 80 percent of mouse studies are not applicable to human cases. However, scientists still hope for success, since the effectiveness of the drugs has been proven. In addition, similar drugs have already passed human clinical trials and are widely used.

DNA stamp

3D printing technologies have led to the emergence of a unique new industry - the printing and sale of DNA. True, the term “printing” here is rather used specifically for commercial purposes, and does not necessarily describe what is actually happening in this area.

The executive director of Cambrian Genomics explains that the process is best described by the phrase “error checking” rather than “printing.” Millions of pieces of DNA are placed on tiny metal substrates and scanned by a computer, which selects those strands that will eventually make up the entire sequence of the DNA strand. After this, the necessary connections are carefully cut out with a laser and placed in a new chain, pre-ordered by the client.

Companies like Cambrian believe that in the future, people will be able to use special computer hardware and software to create new organisms just for fun. Of course, such assumptions will immediately cause the righteous anger of people who doubt the ethical correctness and practical benefits of these studies and opportunities, but sooner or later, no matter how much we want it or not, we will come to this.

Currently, DNA printing is showing some promising potential in the medical field. Drug manufacturers and research companies are among the early clients of companies like Cambrian.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden went even further and began to create various figures from DNA chains. DNA origami, as they call it, may at first glance seem like simple pampering, but this technology also has practical potential for use. For example, it can be used in the delivery of drugs into the body.

Nanobots in a living organism

The robotics field scored a big win in early 2015 when a team of researchers from the University of California, San Diego announced that they had completed their task while inside a living organism.

The living organism in this case was laboratory mice. After placing the nanobots inside the animals, the micromachines went to the rodents’ stomachs and delivered the cargo placed on them, which were microscopic particles of gold. By the end of the procedure, the scientists did not note any damage to the internal organs of the mice and thereby confirmed the usefulness, safety and effectiveness of the nanobots.

Further tests showed that more gold particles delivered by nanobots remained in the stomachs than those that were simply introduced there with food. This has led scientists to believe that nanobots in the future will be able to deliver needed drugs into the body much more efficiently than with more traditional methods of administering them.

The motor chain of the tiny robots is made of zinc. When it comes into contact with the acid-base environment of the body, a chemical reaction occurs, resulting in the production of hydrogen bubbles, which propel the nanobots inside. After some time, the nanobots simply dissolve in the acidic environment of the stomach.

Although the technology has been in development for almost a decade, it wasn't until 2015 that scientists were able to actually test it in a living environment rather than in regular petri dishes, as has been done many times before. In the future, nanobots could be used to identify and even treat various diseases of internal organs by exposing individual cells to the desired drugs.

Injectable brain nanoimplant

A team of Harvard scientists has developed an implant that promises to treat a range of neurodegenerative disorders that lead to paralysis. The implant is an electronic device consisting of a universal frame (mesh), to which various nanodevices can later be connected after it is inserted into the patient’s brain. Thanks to the implant, it will be possible to monitor the neural activity of the brain, stimulate the functioning of certain tissues, and also accelerate the regeneration of neurons.

The electronic mesh consists of conductive polymer filaments, transistors or nanoelectrodes that interconnect intersections. Almost the entire area of ​​the mesh is made up of holes, allowing living cells to form new connections around it.

By early 2016, a team of Harvard scientists was still testing the safety of using such an implant. For example, two mice were implanted into the brain with a device consisting of 16 electrical components. The devices have been successfully used to monitor and stimulate specific neurons.

Artificial production of tetrahydrocannabinol

For many years, marijuana has been used in medicine as a pain reliever and, in particular, to improve the conditions of cancer and AIDS patients. A synthetic substitute for marijuana, or more precisely its main psychoactive component tetrahydrocannabinol (or THC), is also actively used in medicine.

However, biochemists from the Technical University of Dortmund have announced the creation of a new type of yeast that produces THC. Moreover, unpublished data shows that these same scientists have created another type of yeast that produces cannabidiol, another psychoactive component of marijuana.

Marijuana contains several molecular compounds that interest researchers. Therefore, the discovery of an effective artificial way to create these components in large quantities could bring enormous benefits to medicine. However, the method of conventionally growing plants and then extracting the necessary molecular compounds is currently the most effective method. Up to 30 percent of the dry mass of modern marijuana varieties may contain the desired THC component.

Despite this, Dortmund scientists are confident that they will be able to find a more efficient and faster way to extract THC in the future. By now, the created yeast is re-grown on molecules of the same fungus instead of the preferred alternative of simple saccharides. All this leads to the fact that with each new batch of yeast the amount of free THC component decreases.

In the future, scientists promise to optimize the process, maximize THC production and scale up to industrial scale, ultimately satisfying the needs of medical research and European regulators who are looking for new ways to produce THC without growing marijuana itself.

HISTORY OF MEDICINE:
MILESTONES AND GREAT DISCOVERIES

Based on materials from Discovery Channel
("Discovery Channel")

Medical discoveries have transformed the world. They changed the course of history, saving countless lives, pushing the boundaries of our knowledge to the boundaries where we stand today, ready for new great discoveries.

human anatomy

In ancient Greece, treatment of disease was based more on philosophy than on a true understanding of human anatomy. Surgery was rare, and dissection of corpses was not yet practiced. As a result, doctors had virtually no information about the internal structure of a person. Only during the Renaissance did anatomy emerge as a science.

Belgian physician Andreas Vesalius shocked many when he decided to study anatomy by dissecting corpses. Material for research had to be obtained under the cover of darkness. Scientists like Vesalius had to resort to not entirely legal methods. When Vesalius became a professor in Padua, he became friends with the director of executions. Vesalius decided to pass on the experience gained from years of skillful dissections by writing a book on human anatomy. This is how the book “On the Structure of the Human Body” appeared. Published in 1538, the book is considered one of the greatest works in the field of medicine, as well as one of the greatest discoveries, since it was the first to accurately describe the structure of the human body. This was the first serious challenge to the authority of ancient Greek doctors. The book sold out in huge numbers. It was bought by educated people, even those far from medicine. The entire text is very meticulously illustrated. Thus, information about human anatomy has become much more accessible. Thanks to Vesalius, the study of human anatomy through dissection became an integral part of the training of doctors. And this brings us to the next great discovery.

Circulation

The human heart is a muscle the size of a fist. It beats more than a hundred thousand times a day, over seventy years - that’s more than two billion heartbeats. The heart pumps 23 liters of blood per minute. Blood flows through the body, passing through a complex system of arteries and veins. If all the blood vessels in the human body are stretched out in one line, you get 96 thousand kilometers, which is more than two times the circumference of the Earth. Until the beginning of the 17th century, the process of blood circulation was misunderstood. The prevailing theory was that blood flowed to the heart through pores in the soft tissues of the body. Among the adherents of this theory was the English doctor William Harvey. The workings of the heart fascinated him, but the more he observed heartbeats in animals, the more he realized that the generally accepted theory of blood circulation was simply wrong. He writes unequivocally: “...I wondered if the blood could move as if in a circle?” And the very first phrase in the next paragraph: “Subsequently I found out that this is so...”. While performing autopsies, Harvey discovered that the heart had unidirectional valves, allowing blood to flow in only one direction. Some valves let blood in, others let blood out. And it was a great discovery. Harvey realized that the heart pumps blood into the arteries, then it passes through the veins and, completing the circle, returns to the heart to then begin the cycle all over again. Today this seems like a truism, but for the 17th century, William Harvey's discovery was revolutionary. It was a crushing blow to established ideas in medicine. At the end of his treatise, Harvey writes: “When I think of the countless consequences this will have for medicine, I see a field of almost limitless possibilities.”
Harvey's discovery greatly advanced anatomy and surgery, and simply saved the lives of many. All over the world, surgical clamps are used in operating rooms to block the flow of blood and keep the patient's circulatory system intact. And each of them is a reminder of the great discovery of William Harvey.

Blood groups

Another great discovery related to blood was made in Vienna in 1900. All of Europe was filled with enthusiasm for blood transfusions. First there were statements that the therapeutic effect was amazing, and then, after a few months, reports of deaths. Why was the transfusion sometimes successful and sometimes not? Austrian physician Karl Landsteiner was determined to find the answer. He mixed blood samples from different donors and studied the results.
In some cases, the blood mixed successfully, but in others it coagulated and became viscous. Upon closer inspection, Landsteiner discovered that blood clots when special proteins in the recipient's blood, called antibodies, react with other proteins in the donor's red blood cells, called antigens. For Landsteiner this was a turning point. He realized that not all human blood is the same. It turned out that blood can be clearly divided into 4 groups, to which he gave designations: A, B, AB and zero. It turned out that blood transfusion is successful only if the person is transfused with blood of the same group. Landsteiner's discovery immediately affected medical practice. A few years later, blood transfusions were performed all over the world, saving many lives. Thanks to the accurate determination of blood type, organ transplantation became possible by the 50s. Today, in the United States alone, a blood transfusion is performed every 3 seconds. Without it, about 4.5 million Americans would die each year.

Anesthesia

Although the first great discoveries in the field of anatomy allowed doctors to save many lives, they could not alleviate the pain. Without anesthesia, operations were a living nightmare. Patients were held or strapped to the table, and surgeons tried to work as quickly as possible. In 1811, one woman wrote: “When the terrible steel plunged into me, cutting veins, arteries, flesh, nerves, I no longer needed to be asked not to interfere. I let out a scream and screamed until it was over. The torment was so unbearable.” Surgery was the last resort; many preferred to die rather than go under the surgeon's knife. For centuries, improvised means were used to relieve pain during operations; some of them, such as opium or mandrake extract, were drugs. By the 40s of the 19th century, several people were simultaneously searching for a more effective anesthetic: two Boston dentists, William Morton and Horost Wells, known to each other, and a doctor named Crawford Long from Georgia.
They experimented with two substances that were thought to relieve pain - nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, and also a liquid mixture of alcohol and sulfuric acid. The question of who exactly discovered anesthesia remains controversial; all three claimed it. One of the first public demonstrations of anesthesia took place on October 16, 1846. V. Morton experimented with ether for months, trying to find a dosage that would allow the patient to undergo surgery without pain. He presented the device of his invention to the general public, consisting of Boston surgeons and medical students.
A patient who was about to have a tumor removed from his neck was given ether. Morton waited as the surgeon made the first incision. Amazingly, the patient did not scream. After the operation, the patient reported that he did not feel anything during this time. The news of the discovery spread throughout the world. You can operate without pain, now you have anesthesia. But despite the discovery, many refused to use anesthesia. According to some beliefs, pain should be endured rather than alleviated, especially the pangs of childbirth. But here Queen Victoria had her say. In 1853 she gave birth to Prince Leopold. At her request, she was given chloroform. It turned out that it eases the pain of childbirth. After this, the women began to say: “I will also take chloroform, because if the queen does not disdain it, then I am not ashamed.”

X-rays

It is impossible to imagine life without the next great discovery. Imagine that we do not know where to operate on a patient, or which bone is broken, where the bullet is stuck, or what the pathology may be. The ability to see inside a person without cutting them open was a turning point in the history of medicine. At the end of the 19th century, people used electricity without really understanding what it was. In 1895, German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen experimented with a cathode ray tube, a glass cylinder with highly rarefied air inside. X-ray was interested in the glow created by the rays emanating from the tube. For one experiment, Roentgen surrounded the tube with black cardboard and darkened the room. Then he turned on the phone. And then one thing struck him - the photographic plate in his laboratory was glowing. X-ray realized that something very unusual was happening. And that the ray emanating from the tube is not a cathode ray at all; he also found that it did not respond to magnets. And it could not be deflected by a magnet, like cathode rays. This was a completely unknown phenomenon, and Roentgen called it “X-rays.” Quite by accident, Roentgen discovered radiation unknown to science, which we call X-ray. He behaved very mysteriously for several weeks, and then he called his wife into the office and said: “Bertha, let me show you what I’m doing here, because no one will believe it.” He put her hand under the beam and took a photo.
The wife is said to have said: “I saw my death.” After all, in those days it was impossible to see the skeleton of a person unless he died. The very idea of ​​filming the internal structure of a living person simply did not fit into my head. It was as if a secret door had opened, and a whole universe opened behind it. X-ray discovered a new, powerful technology that revolutionized the field of diagnostics. The discovery of X-ray radiation is the only discovery in the history of science that was made unintentionally, completely by accident. As soon as it was made, the world immediately adopted it without any debate. In a week or two, our world has changed. The discovery of X-rays underlies many of the most modern and powerful technologies, from computed tomography to the X-ray telescope, which captures X-rays from the depths of space. And all this is due to a discovery made by accident.

Theory of microbial origin of diseases

Some discoveries, for example, X-rays, are made by chance, while others are worked on long and hard by various scientists. This was the case in 1846. Vein. The epitome of beauty and culture, but the specter of death hovers in the Vienna City Hospital. Many of the women giving birth here died. The cause is childbed fever, infection of the uterus. When Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis began working at the hospital, he was alarmed by the scale of the disaster and puzzled by a strange incongruity: there were two departments.
In one, doctors delivered babies, and in the other, midwives delivered mothers. Semmelweis discovered that in the department where doctors delivered babies, 7% of women in labor died from so-called puerperal fever. And in the department where midwives worked, only 2% died from childbirth fever. This surprised him, because doctors have much better training. Semmelweis decided to find out what the reason was. He noticed that one of the main differences in the work of doctors and midwives was that doctors performed autopsies on deceased mothers. They then went to deliver babies or examine mothers without even washing their hands. Semmelweis wondered whether doctors were carrying some invisible particles on their hands, which were then transmitted to their patients and caused death. To find out this, he conducted an experiment. He decided to make sure that all medical students were required to wash their hands in a bleach solution. And the death rate immediately dropped to 1%, lower than that of midwives. Thanks to this experiment, Semmelweis realized that infectious diseases, in this case, puerperal fever, have only one cause and if it is excluded, the disease will not arise. But in 1846, no one saw the connection between bacteria and infection. Semmelweis's ideas were not taken seriously.

Another 10 years passed before another scientist paid attention to microorganisms. His name was Louis Pasteur. Three of Pasteur's five children died of typhoid fever, which partly explains why he was so persistent in searching for the cause of infectious diseases. Pasteur was put on the right track by his work for the wine and brewing industries. Pasteur tried to find out why only a small part of the wine produced in his country spoiled. He discovered that sour wine contains special microorganisms, microbes, and it is they that cause the wine to sour. But by simple heating, as Pasteur showed, microbes can be killed and the wine will be saved. Thus pasteurization was born. Therefore, when it was necessary to find the cause of infectious diseases, Pasteur knew where to look for it. It is microbes, he said, that cause certain diseases, and he proved this by conducting a series of experiments from which a great discovery was born - the theory of microbial development of organisms. Its essence is that certain microorganisms cause a certain disease in anyone.

Vaccination

The next great discovery was made in the 18th century, when about 40 million people worldwide died from smallpox. Doctors could not find either the cause of the disease or a cure for it. But in one English village, talk that some local residents were not susceptible to smallpox attracted the attention of a local doctor named Edward Jenner.

It was rumored that dairy farm workers did not get smallpox because they had already had cowpox, a related but milder disease that affected livestock. Patients with cowpox developed a fever and developed sores on their hands. Jenner studied this phenomenon and wondered if perhaps the pus from these ulcers somehow protected the body from smallpox? On May 14, 1796, during an outbreak of smallpox, he decided to test his theory. Jenner took the liquid from a sore on the arm of a milkmaid who had cowpox. Then, he visited another family; there he injected a healthy eight-year-old boy with the cowpox virus. In the following days, the boy had a slight fever and several smallpox blisters appeared. Then he got better. Six weeks later, Jenner returned. This time he inoculated the boy with smallpox and waited to see how the experiment would turn out - victory or failure. A few days later, Jenner received an answer - the boy was completely healthy and immune to smallpox.
The invention of smallpox vaccination revolutionized medicine. This was the first attempt to intervene in the course of the disease, preventing it in advance. For the first time, man-made products were actively used to prevent the disease before it appears.
50 years after Jenner's discovery, Louis Pasteur developed the idea of ​​vaccination, developing a vaccine against rabies in humans and anthrax in sheep. And in the 20th century, Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, independently of each other, created a vaccine against polio.

Vitamins

The next discovery took place through the efforts of scientists who had been struggling independently with the same problem for many years.
Throughout history, scurvy was a serious disease that caused skin lesions and bleeding in sailors. Finally, in 1747, the Scotsman ship surgeon James Lind found a cure for it. He discovered that scurvy could be prevented by including citrus fruits in the diet of sailors.

Another common illness among sailors was beriberi, a disease that affected the nerves, heart, and digestive tract. At the end of the 19th century, the Dutch physician Christian Eijkman determined that the disease was caused by eating white polished rice instead of brown unpolished rice.

Although both of these discoveries pointed to the connection of diseases with nutrition and its deficiencies, only the English biochemist Frederick Hopkins could find out what this connection was. He suggested that the body needs substances that are found only in certain foods. To prove his hypothesis, Hopkins conducted a series of experiments. He gave the mice artificial nutrition consisting exclusively of pure proteins, fats, carbohydrates and salts. The mice became weak and stopped growing. But after a little milk, the mice got better again. Hopkins discovered what he called the “essential nutritional factor,” which was later called vitamins.
It turned out that beriberi is associated with a lack of thiamine, vitamin B1, which is not found in polished rice, but is abundant in natural rice. Citrus fruits prevent scurvy because they contain ascorbic acid and vitamin C.
Hopkins' discovery was a defining step in understanding the importance of proper nutrition. Many body functions depend on vitamins, from fighting infections to regulating metabolism. It is difficult to imagine life without them, as well as without the next great discovery.

Penicillin

After the First World War, which claimed over 10 million lives, the search for safe methods of repelling bacterial aggression intensified. After all, many died not on the battlefields, but from infected wounds. Scottish physician Alexander Fleming also participated in the research. While studying staphylococcus bacteria, Fleming noticed that something unusual was growing in the center of the laboratory dish - mold. He saw that the bacteria around the mold had died. This led him to assume that it secretes a substance that is harmful to bacteria. He called this substance penicillin. Fleming spent the next few years trying to isolate penicillin and use it to treat infections, but was unsuccessful and eventually gave up. However, the results of his labors turned out to be invaluable.

In 1935, Oxford University employees Howard Florey and Ernst Chain came across a report on Fleming's curious but unfinished experiments and decided to try their luck. These scientists managed to isolate penicillin in its pure form. And in 1940 they tested it. Eight mice were injected with a lethal dose of streptococcal bacteria. Then, four of them were injected with penicillin. After a few hours, the results were clear. All four mice that did not receive penicillin died, but three of the four that received it survived.

So, thanks to Fleming, Flory and Cheyne, the world received the first antibiotic. This medicine was a real miracle. It treated so many ailments that caused a lot of pain and suffering: acute pharyngitis, rheumatism, scarlet fever, syphilis and gonorrhea... Today we have completely forgotten that you can die from these diseases.

Sulfide preparations

The next great discovery came during the Second World War. It cured dysentery among American soldiers fighting in the Pacific. And then led to a revolution in chemotherapy treatment of bacterial infections.
All this happened thanks to a pathologist named Gerhard Domagk. In 1932, he studied the possibilities of using certain new chemical dyes in medicine. Working with a newly synthesized dye called prontosil, Domagk injected it into several laboratory mice infected with streptococcus bacteria. As Domagk expected, the dye enveloped the bacteria, but the bacteria survived. It seemed that the dye was not toxic enough. Then something amazing happened: although the dye did not kill the bacteria, it stopped their growth, the infection stopped spreading and the mice recovered. It is unknown when Domagk first tested Prontosil in humans. However, the new drug gained fame after it saved the life of a boy seriously ill with staphylococcus. The patient was Franklin Roosevelt Jr., son of the President of the United States. Domagk's discovery instantly became a sensation. Because Prontosil contained a sulfamide molecular structure, it was called a sulfamide drug. It became the first in this group of synthetic chemicals that can treat and prevent bacterial infections. Domagk opened a new revolutionary direction in the treatment of diseases, the use of chemotherapy drugs. It will save tens of thousands of human lives.

Insulin

The next great discovery helped save the lives of millions of diabetics around the world. Diabetes is a disease that interferes with the body's ability to process sugar, which can lead to blindness, kidney failure, heart disease and even death. For centuries, doctors have studied diabetes, searching for a cure without success. Finally, at the end of the 19th century, a breakthrough occurred. It was found that diabetic patients have a common feature - a group of cells in the pancreas is invariably affected - these cells secrete a hormone that controls blood sugar. The hormone was called insulin. And in 1920 there was a new breakthrough. Canadian surgeon Frederick Banting and student Charles Best studied pancreatic insulin secretion in dogs. Acting on intuition, Banting injected an extract from a healthy dog's insulin-producing cells into a diabetic dog. The results were stunning. After a few hours, the blood sugar level of the sick animal dropped significantly. Now the attention of Banting and his assistants focused on finding an animal whose insulin would be similar to human. They found a close match in insulin taken from cow fetuses, purified it for experimental safety, and conducted the first clinical trial in January 1922. Banting administered insulin to a 14-year-old boy who was dying of diabetes. And he quickly began to recover. How important is Banting's discovery? Just ask the 15 million Americans who rely on the insulin they depend on every day for their lives.

Genetic nature of cancer

Cancer is the second most lethal disease in America. Intensive research into its origins and development has led to remarkable scientific achievements, but perhaps the most important of them was the following discovery. Nobel laureates cancer researchers Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus joined forces in cancer research in the 1970s. At that time, several theories about the cause of this disease dominated. A malignant cell is very complex. She is capable not only of sharing, but also of invading. This is a cell with highly developed capabilities. One theory involved the Rous sarcoma virus causing cancer in chickens. When a virus attacks a chicken cell, it injects its genetic material into the host's DNA. According to the hypothesis, the DNA of the virus subsequently becomes the agent that causes the disease. According to another theory, when a virus introduces its genetic material into a host cell, the genes that cause cancer are not activated, but wait until they are triggered by external influences, for example, harmful chemicals, radiation or a common viral infection. These cancer-causing genes, called oncogenes, became the focus of Varmus and Bishop's research. The main question is: does the human genome contain genes that are or have the potential to become oncogenes, like those contained in a virus that causes tumors? Is there such a gene in chickens, other birds, mammals, or humans? Bishop and Varmus took a radioactively labeled molecule and used it as a probe to see if the Rous Sarcoma Virus oncogene was similar to any normal gene on chicken chromosomes. The answer is yes. It was a real revelation. Varmus and Bishop found that the cancer-causing gene is already contained in the DNA of healthy chicken cells and, more importantly, they found it in human DNA, proving that the germ of cancer can appear in any of us at the cellular level and wait to be activated.

How can our own gene, which we have lived with all our lives, cause cancer? Errors occur during cell division, and they happen more often if the cell is oppressed by cosmic radiation or tobacco smoke. It is also important to remember that when a cell divides, it needs to copy 3 billion complementary pairs of DNA. Anyone who has ever tried to type knows how difficult it is. We have mechanisms to notice and correct mistakes, and yet, at high volumes, our fingers miss the mark.
What is the importance of the discovery? Previously, they tried to understand cancer based on the differences between the virus gene and the cell gene, but now we know that a very small change in certain genes of our cells can turn a healthy cell that grows, divides normally, etc., into a malignant one. And this became the first clear illustration of the true state of affairs.

The search for this gene is a defining moment in modern diagnosis and prediction of the further behavior of a cancer tumor. The discovery provided clear targets for specific therapies that simply did not exist before.
The population of Chicago is about 3 million people.

HIV

The same number die each year from AIDS, one of the worst epidemics in modern history. The first signs of this disease appeared in the early 80s of the last century. In America, the number of patients dying from rare types of infections and cancer began to increase. Blood tests on the victims revealed extremely low levels of leukocytes, white blood cells vital to the human immune system. In 1982, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention gave the disease the name AIDS - acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Two researchers took up the case, Luc Montagnier from the Pasteur Institute in Paris and Robert Gallo from the National Cancer Institute in Washington. They both managed to make a major discovery that identified the causative agent of AIDS - HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus. How is the human immunodeficiency virus different from other viruses, such as influenza? Firstly, this virus does not reveal the presence of the disease for years, on average 7 years. The second problem is very unique: for example, AIDS has finally appeared, people understand that they are sick and go to the clinic, and they have a myriad of other infections, which exactly caused the disease. How to determine this? In most cases, the virus exists for a single purpose: to penetrate the acceptor cell and multiply. Typically, it attaches itself to a cell and releases its genetic information into it. This allows the virus to subjugate the functions of the cell, redirecting them to the production of new individuals of viruses. These individuals then attack other cells. But HIV is not an ordinary virus. It belongs to a category of viruses that scientists call retroviruses. What's unusual about them? Like the classes of viruses that include polio and influenza, retroviruses are special categories. They are unique in that their genetic information in the form of ribonucleic acid is converted into deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and this is what happens to DNA that is our problem: DNA is integrated into our genes, viral DNA becomes part of us, and then cells, designed to protect us, begin to reproduce the DNA of the virus. There are cells containing a virus, sometimes they reproduce it, sometimes they don’t. They are silent. They hide...But only in order to reproduce the virus again. Those. Once an infection becomes apparent, it is likely to be ingrained for life. This is the main problem. A cure for AIDS has not yet been found. But the discovery that HIV is a retrovirus and that it is the causative agent of AIDS has led to significant advances in the fight against this disease. What has changed in medicine since the discovery of retroviruses, especially HIV? For example, we learned from AIDS that drug therapy is possible. Previously, it was believed that since the virus usurps our cells to reproduce, it is almost impossible to influence it without severely poisoning the patient himself. Nobody invested in antivirus programs. AIDS opened the door to antiviral research in pharmaceutical companies and universities around the world. In addition, AIDS has had a positive social effect. Ironically, this terrible disease brings people together.

And so, day after day, century after century, with tiny steps or grandiose breakthroughs, great and small discoveries in medicine were made. They give hope that humanity will defeat cancer and AIDS, autoimmune and genetic diseases, and achieve excellence in prevention, diagnosis and treatment, alleviating the suffering of sick people and preventing the progression of diseases.

Discoveries do not happen suddenly. Each development, before the media found out about it, is preceded by long and painstaking work. And before tests and pills appear in pharmacies, and new diagnostic methods appear in laboratories, time must pass. Over the past 30 years, the number of medical studies has almost quadrupled and is being incorporated into medical practice.

Biochemical blood test at home
Soon a biochemical blood test, like a pregnancy test, will take a couple of minutes. MIPT nanobiotechnologists have integrated a highly accurate blood test into a regular test strip.

A biosensor system based on the use of magnetic nanoparticles makes it possible to accurately measure the concentration of protein molecules (markers indicating the development of various diseases) and simplify the biochemical analysis procedure as much as possible.

“Traditionally, tests, which can be carried out not only in the laboratory, but also in the field, are based on the use of fluorescent or colored tags, and the results are determined “by eye” or using a video camera. We use magnetic particles, which have the advantage of: with their help, you can carry out an analysis, even by dipping a test strip into a completely opaque liquid, say, to determine substances directly in whole blood,” explains Alexey Orlov, a researcher at the Institute of General Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the lead author of the study.

While a typical pregnancy test reports either “yes” or “no,” this development allows you to accurately determine the protein concentration (that is, what stage of development it is at).

“Numerical measurement is carried out only electronically using a portable device. “Yes or no” situations are excluded,” says Alexey Orlov. According to a study published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics, the system has successfully proven itself in the diagnosis of prostate cancer, and in some respects even surpassed the “gold standard” for determining PSA - enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

The developers are keeping silent about when the test will appear in pharmacies. It is planned that the biosensor, among other things, will be able to carry out environmental monitoring, analysis of products and drugs, and all this - right on the spot, without unnecessary instruments and costs.

Trainable bionic limbs
Today's bionic hands are not much different in functionality from real ones - they can move their fingers and grasp objects, but they are still far from the "original". To “synchronize” a person with a machine, scientists implant electrodes into the brain and pick up electrical signals from muscles and nerves, but the process is labor-intensive and takes several months.

The GalvaniBionix team, consisting of MIPT undergraduate and graduate students, has found a way to facilitate learning and make it so that not a person adapts to the robot, but a limb adapts to the person. A program written by scientists uses special algorithms to recognize the “muscle commands” of each patient.

“Most of my classmates, who have very good knowledge, go into solving financial problems - they go to work in corporations, create mobile applications. This is not bad or good, it’s just different. I personally wanted to do something global, in the end , so that the children would have something to talk about. And at Phystech I found like-minded people: they were all from different fields - physiologists, mathematicians, programmers, engineers - and we found such a task for ourselves,” Alexey Tsyganov, a member of the GalvaniBionix team, shared his personal motive.

Diagnosis of cancer by DNA
An ultra-precise test system for early diagnosis of cancer has been developed in Novosibirsk. According to Vitaly Kuznetsov, a researcher at the Vector Center for Virology and Biotechnology, his team managed to create a certain tumor marker - an enzyme that can detect cancer at the initial stage using DNA isolated from saliva (blood or urine).

Now a similar test is carried out by analyzing specific proteins that the tumor produces. The Novosibirsk approach suggests looking at the modified DNA of a cancer cell, which appears long before the proteins. Accordingly, diagnostics makes it possible to detect the disease at an early stage.

A similar system is already used abroad, but it is not certified in Russia. Scientists managed to “reduce the cost” of the existing technology (1.5 rubles versus 150 euros - 12 million rubles). Vector employees expect that their analysis will soon be included in the mandatory list for medical examinations.

Electronic nose
An “electronic nose” has been created at the Siberian Institute of Physics and Technology. The gas analyzer evaluates the quality of food, cosmetic and medical products, and is also capable of diagnosing a number of diseases using exhaled air.

“We examined the apples: the control part was put in the refrigerator, and the rest were left in the room at room temperature,” says the creator of the device, Timur Muksunov, a research engineer at the Methods, Systems and Safety Technologies laboratory at the Siberian Institute of Physics and Technology.

“After 12 hours, using the installation, it was possible to reveal that the second part emits gases more intensely than the control. Now at vegetable warehouses, products are accepted according to organoleptic indicators, and with the help of the device being created, it will be possible to more accurately determine the shelf life of products, which will affect its quality.” , - he said. Muksunov pins his hopes on the startup support program - the “nose” is completely ready for mass production and is waiting for funding.

Depression pill
Scientists from, together with colleagues from. N.N. Vorozhtsova developed a new drug for the treatment of depression. The tablet increases the concentration of serotonin in the blood, thereby helping to cope with the blues.

Currently, the antidepressant under the working name TS-2153 is undergoing preclinical trials. Researchers hope that “it will successfully pass all the others and help achieve progress in the treatment of a number of serious psychopathologies,” writes Interfax.

Incredible facts

Human health directly concerns each of us.

The media is replete with stories about our health and body, from the creation of new drugs to the discovery of unique surgical techniques that give hope to people with disabilities.

Below we will talk about the latest achievements modern medicine.

Latest advances in medicine

10. Scientists have identified a new body part

Back in 1879, a French surgeon named Paul Segond described in one of his studies the “pearly, resistant fibrous tissue” running along the ligaments in the human knee.

This study was conveniently forgotten until 2013, when scientists discovered the anterolateral ligament, knee ligament, which is often damaged when injuries and other problems occur.

Considering how often a person's knee is scanned, the discovery came very late. It is described in the journal Anatomy and published online in August 2013.

9. Brain-computer interface

Scientists working at Korea University and the German University of Technology have developed a new interface that allows the user control the exoskeleton of the lower extremities.

It works by decoding specific brain signals. The results of the study were published in August 2015 in the journal Neural Engineering.

Participants in the experiment wore an electroencephalogram headgear and controlled the exoskeleton by simply looking at one of five LEDs mounted on the interface. This caused the exoskeleton to move forward, turn right or left, and sit or stand.

So far the system has only been tested on healthy volunteers, but it is hoped that it could eventually be used to help people with disabilities.

Study co-author Klaus Muller explained that "people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or spinal cord injuries often have difficulty communicating and controlling their limbs; deciphering their brain signals by such a system offers a solution to both problems."

Achievements of science in medicine

8. A device that can move a paralyzed limb with the power of thought

In 2010, Ian Burkhart was left paralyzed when he broke his neck in a swimming pool accident. In 2013, thanks to the joint efforts of specialists from Ohio State University and Battelle, a man became the first person in the world who can now bypass his spinal cord and move a limb using only the power of thought.

The breakthrough came thanks to the use of a new type of electronic nerve bypass, a pea-sized device that implanted in the motor cortex of the human brain.

The chip interprets brain signals and transmits them to the computer. The computer reads the signals and sends them to a special sleeve worn by the patient. Thus, the necessary muscles are brought into action.

The whole process takes a split second. However, to achieve such a result, the team had to work hard. The team of technologists first figured out the exact sequence of electrodes that allowed Burkhart to move his arm.

Then the man had to undergo several months of therapy to restore atrophied muscles. The end result is that he is now can rotate his hand, clench it into a fist, and also determine by touch what is in front of him.

7. A bacterium that feeds on nicotine and helps smokers quit the habit.

Quitting smoking is an extremely difficult task. Anyone who has tried to do this will confirm what was said. Almost 80 percent of those who tried to do this with the help of pharmaceutical drugs failed.

In 2015, scientists from the Scripps Research Institute are giving new hope to those who want to quit. They were able to identify a bacterial enzyme that eats nicotine before it can reach the brain.

The enzyme belongs to the bacterium Pseudomonas putida. This enzyme is not a new discovery, however, it has only recently been developed in the laboratory.

Researchers plan to use this enzyme to create new methods of smoking cessation. By blocking nicotine before it reaches the brain and triggers dopamine production, they hope they can discourage smokers from putting their mouths on a cigarette.

To be effective, any therapy must be sufficiently stable, without causing additional problems during activity. Currently a laboratory-produced enzyme behaves stably for more than three weeks while in a buffer solution.

Tests involving laboratory mice showed no side effects. The scientists published the results of their research in the online version of the August issue of the journal American Chemical Society.

6. Universal flu vaccine

Peptides are short chains of amino acids that exist in the cellular structure. They act as the main building block for proteins. In 2012, scientists working at the University of Southampton, the University of Oxford and the Retroskin Virology Laboratory, succeeded in identifying a new set of peptides found in the influenza virus.

This could lead to the creation of a universal vaccine against all strains of the virus. The results were published in the journal Nature Medicine.

In the case of influenza, the peptides on the outer surface of the virus mutate very quickly, making them almost inaccessible to vaccines and drugs. The newly discovered peptides live in the internal structure of the cell and mutate quite slowly.

Moreover, these internal structures can be found in every strain of influenza, from classical to avian. The current flu vaccine takes about six months to develop, but does not provide long-term immunity.

However, it is possible, by focusing efforts on the work of internal peptides, to create a universal vaccine that will give long-term protection.

Influenza is a viral upper respiratory tract disease that affects the nose, throat and lungs. It can be deadly, especially if a child or elderly person becomes infected.

Influenza strains have been responsible for several pandemics throughout history, the worst of which was the 1918 pandemic. No one knows for sure how many people have died from the disease, but some estimates suggest 30-50 million people worldwide.

The latest medical advances

5. Possible treatment for Parkinson's disease

In 2014, scientists took artificial but fully functioning human neurons and successfully grafted them into the brains of mice. Neurons have the potential to treating and even curing diseases such as Parkinson's disease.

The neurons were created by a team of specialists from the Max Planck Institute, the University Hospital Münster and the University of Bielefeld. Scientists managed to create stable nervous tissue from neurons reprogrammed from skin cells.

In other words, they induced neural stem cells. This is a method that increases the compatibility of new neurons. After six months, the mice did not develop any side effects, and the implanted neurons integrated perfectly with their brains.

The rodents showed normal brain activity, resulting in the formation of new synapses.

The new technique has the potential to give neuroscientists the ability to replace diseased, damaged neurons with healthy cells that could one day fight Parkinson's disease. Because of it, the neurons that supply dopamine die.

There is currently no cure for this disease, but the symptoms are treatable. The disease usually develops in people aged 50-60 years. At the same time, the muscles become stiff, changes occur in speech, gait changes and tremors appear.

4. The world's first bionic eye

Retinitis pigmentosa is the most common hereditary eye disease. It leads to partial loss of vision, and often to complete blindness. Early symptoms include loss of night vision and difficulty with peripheral vision.

In 2013, the Argus II retinal prosthetic system was created, the world's first bionic eye designed to treat advanced retinitis pigmentosa.

The Argus II system is a pair of external glasses equipped with a camera. The images are converted into electrical impulses that are transmitted to electrodes implanted in the patient's retina.

These images are perceived by the brain as light patterns. The person learns to interpret these patterns, gradually restoring visual perception.

Currently, the Argus II system is only available in the United States and Canada, but there are plans to implement it worldwide.

New advances in medicine

3. Painkiller that works only due to light

Severe pain is traditionally treated with opioid medications. The main disadvantage is that many of these drugs can be addictive, so their potential for abuse is enormous.

What if scientists could stop pain using nothing but light?

In April 2015, neurologists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis announced that they had succeeded.

By combining a light-sensitive protein with opioid receptors in a test tube, they were able to activate opioid receptors the same way opiates do, but only with light.

It is hoped that experts can develop ways to use light to relieve pain while using drugs with fewer side effects.

According to research by Edward R. Siuda, it is likely that with more experimentation, light could completely replace drugs. To test the new receptor, an LED chip about the size of a human hair was implanted into the brain of a mouse, which was then linked to the receptor.

Mice were placed in a chamber where their receptors were stimulated to produce dopamine.

If the mice left the special designated area, the lights were turned off and the stimulation stopped. The rodents quickly returned to their place.

2. Artificial ribosomes

A ribosome is a molecular machine made up of two subunits that use amino acids from cells to make proteins.

Each of the ribosomal subunits is synthesized in the cell nucleus and then exported to the cytoplasm. In 2015, researchers Alexander Mankin and Michael Jewett were able to create the world's first artificial ribosome.