Precision Medicine as a Paramount Modification in Healthcare

Medicine has always been an important sector for humans as it assists in providing a cure for every kind of illness. Over the past few decades, there has been a surge in the number of advancements within the field of medicine. The various technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and virtual reality are in the works to be implemented into the healthcare stream. Today, humans also have a vast array of treatments and medicines available as well, to help them heal and live a healthier life. One among such treatments that is still in its testing stages is Precision Medicine. This aims at targeting very specific areas affected within the person’s body and ensuring a cure for the same. It also aims at eliminating the disease from the roots. Although it is yet to be brought into full scale production, it is touted to be a game changer for the field of medicine.

Formulation of a Pragmatic Concept

For as long as science exists, there is always room for new discoveries and more medical advancements as well. The fields of bioinformatics and scalable gene sequencing have shown tremendous progress with regard to how medicine can be individualized. For this concept to be a success, it will require a lot of patience and for the researchers, providers and patients to work in unison. It is also a wonderful kick start where the potential for components such as genomics and digital imaging, combined with brain power of a pathologist and the abilities of IT have created an ideal environment to work on this advancement. The human genome comes with its own complexities and cracking the code for each of the 7 billion plus people in the world maybe a challenge but nonetheless, the mapping technology of the same has brought forth a surge of development in the field of targeted therapies.

When an individual falls ill, they go to a doctor to find a proper diagnosis and an effective cure. So far, generalized medicine has been finding the cure for a majority of the population. This way, the person is suggested a common medicine that others also have given for the same condition. But, there are various factors that may not allow a person’s body to heal from the illness. It maybe an allergic reaction to the components of the medicine suggested along with the dosage.

Precision medicine on the other hand will attempt to prevent the sickness before the person can be affected by it. This also results in earlier diagnosis for the patients and hence helps in giving them the required treatments. This uses family history to track down if an individual is susceptible to catching a particular illness. It acts as a time –saver and thus allows for the time to be utilized in developing even more potent drugs while also cutting costs. Apart from creating effective drugs, doctors may also be able to use this technology to find a diet that is exclusive to one individual and also test out the bacterial content in the digestive system in order track down any harmful ones. They will also be able to have on the spot tracking of blood sugar levels and heartbeat to detect any irregularities. Traditional medicine usually sees everyone as an equal when it comes to illnesses but precision medicine digs deeper to find the root cause. This tailors it according to the requirements of the people and hence allows them the potential to think of ways maintain people’s health.

Read more...

Best Healthcare Magazine | Healthcare Industry News & Journals

Tissue Engineering For Heart Repair

The more you feel relaxed with issues around, the better you become at handling disruption in the state of the heart. Imagine losing control over the major unit of the metabolic sequence of the body? What will you do? The engineering department is no longer just about the technicalities of hardware, but can influence the living sense in humans and the animals. For example; Just like the Biomedical Engineering, we have Tissue Engineering; look into the body and you discover the unit diversification that came all together to form the whole system. The subject or course that specializes in taking care of the second state of the human formation is the so called, “Tissue Engineering”.

According to the third annual Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering Symposium meeting, this took place at the University of Alabama at Birmingham last month. It was a gathering of reputed physicians and scientists who have the common goal of creating new tissues and new knowledge that can elevate the prevention or repair of heart attacks, and heart disease.

One of the discussion opened the door to generating heart chamber-specific cardiomyocytes gotten from the human induced pluripotent stem cells. These elements act similar to embryonic stem cells and have the potential of differentiating into any type of cell. The engineered heart tissue, which was derived from embryonic stem cell-derived of cardiac cells are placed into the hearts of heart attack patients to ensure the possibility of a successful tissue engineering approach. They also use single-cell RNA sequencing, which will show about 18 categories of cardiomyocytes in the heart, giving a clear difference in cell type and anatomical location. Not minding that these cells are derived from the same place.

The study of the cells of the tissue and in-depth knowledge of its component is simply focused on improving the life of the society. The patients in this category are expected to take a new relieving turn after a successful sequence of studies in their distinct issues.

In 2003 Cardiac progenitor cells were discovered. These cells can contribute to growth or repair injury in the heart. There is also the possibility of transforming adult cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. This enhances the field of tissue engineering possibly by using either pluripotent cells or specified progenitor cells for certain tissue lineages. The growth in this field provided the opportunity of discovering that cardiomyocytes that were gotten from induced pluripotent stem cells have few similarities with the normal adult cardiomyocytes, both in shape, size and function.

According to the researchers, they went through some improved steps like culturing of the derived cardiomyocytes in a Matrigel mattress by giving them hormone treatment which lasted for 14 days. This led to derived cardiomyocytes with greatly improved cell morphology, volume, and function. Through the research, they were able to remove the differences between normal adult cardiomyocytes and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes.

They also highlighted the outcome of subjecting the engineered heart valve tissue to cyclic flexure while growing it in a bioreactor. This lead to improved quality, quantity and distribution of collagen, making a clear difference from the tissue that is not mechanically stressed.

The immune cells in heart failure and cardiac remodeling plays an important role in denoting the distinct phases after a heart attack which includes dead tissue degradation and an acute inflammation. The healing or repair of the heart after an attack takes place between four to 14 days, but chronic ischemic heart failure can occur in weeks to months duration. In an experiment which detailed how specialized spleen macrophages from specifically marginal-zone metallophilic macrophages migrate to the heart after a certain period of heart attack and are very much required for heart repair to commence.

According to Bursa on giving a better understanding of how to grow the tissue from heart tissue progenitor cells, stated that this process allowed the formation of mature “Giga”. The growth takes up to 4 centimeters square and possibly have better propagation of heartbeat contractions, and also a spontaneous generation or formation of capillaries from smooth muscle cells and derived vascular endothelial. The experiment is carried out in pigs.

In 2003, researchers discovered that applying mesenchymal stem cells can lead to improvement in heart attack area and results in a better heart functioning, for which, the positive response starts as early as from 72 hours down the days of the complete cycle. Though, they’re experiencing a little engraftment and low survival of the stem cells. This record gave birth to the idea that has lingered from then till today, that revealed that stem cells work to biologically active factors that act on other cells, just like the way paracrine hormones have their effect, and limited to the vicinity of the gland secreting.

According to Joseph Wu, M.D., Ph.D., of Stanford University School of Medicine, professor of radiology, further explained that the heart cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells have extended possibilities such as being used to develop personalized medicine for cancer patients. He explained that some cancer patients are susceptible to a deadly cardiotoxicity if treated with the potent drug doxorubicin. Because of the black box warning on the drug, which is a high concern of the Food and Drug Administration. It was also possible to use a library of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes while associating specific phenotypes and genotypes with doxorubicin sensitivity, called as a “clinical trial in a dish.” This knowledge made it possible to look at the transcriptome profile of some patient-specific cardiomyocytes gotten from induced pluripotent stem cells which will add the ability to predict patient-specific drug safety and efficacy. This satisfies the definition of precision medicine, meaning; the right treatment at the right time for the right person.

Tissue Engineering For Heart Repair