The miracle cure: the world ’ s first successful bone marrow transplant for aplastic anemia
An excerpt from Living Medicine: Don Thomas, Marrow Transplantation, and the Cell Therapy Revolution. Late in the summer of 1960, Dr. Clem Finch invited Dr. Don Thomas to Seattle to give a talk about his early experience with transplantation. Clem, who had been Thomas’s hematology fellowship instructor at the Brigham in Boston, had since moved
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The miracle cure: the world’s first successful bone marrow transplant for aplastic anemia originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 6, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Fred Appelbaum, MD Tags: Conditions Oncology/Hematology Source Type: blogs
From cancer survivor to thriving mind: a journey to true healing and purpose
“I own the world!” was my exact thought when my doctors entered my bone-marrow transplant unit and said I was cancer-free! That joyous moment lasted a few seconds because they immediately declared, “Be careful, you have a 30 percent chance of recurrence from the same cancer and X percent chance of XYZ …” I don’t
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From cancer survivor to thriving mind: a journey to true healing and purpose originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 5, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Samone Zarabi, MD Tags: Physician Oncology/Hematology Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 16th 2023
Conclusions
Implanted Hair Follicle Cells Produce Remodeling of Scar Tissue
Assessment of Somatic Mosaicism as a Biomarker of Aging
The Gut Microbiome of Centenarians
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2023/01/the-gut-microbiome-of-centenarians/
The state of the gut microbiome is arguably as influential on health as exercise. Various microbial species present in the gut produce beneficial metabolites, such as butyrate, or harmful metabolites, such as isoamylamine, or can provoke chronic inflammation in a variety of ways. An individual can have a better or worse microbiome, assessing these and other...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 15, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A High Level View of Efforts to Modulate Inflammaging and Immunosenescence of the Aged Immune System
Change and disruption in the immune system is an important component of degenerative aging. Broadly, the immune system becomes ever more inflammatory (inflammaging) while also becoming ever less effective (immunosenescence). The immune system is not only responsible for defending against invasive pathogens and destroying errant cells, but it is also tightly integrated into the normal processes of tissue maintenance and operation. When immune cells become inflammatory, they abandon the range of tasks needed to keep tissues functional. Short-term inflammation is necessary in response to injury and infection, but unresolved, ...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 11, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Mirage of Health
My personal update is that I ' m recovering day by day, but it ' s taking a while. I get a little stronger, a little more stamina each day and I expect to get back to my previous full strength in time to put in a solid week of work starting Monday. Meanwhile a little down time isn ' t the worse thing that could have happened.I ' ve gotten some very odd comments which show that some people harbor very basic misunderstandings about heath, illness and medicine. As I have noted here many times, medical intervention was largely ineffective until the 20th Century. It has grown more effective over the past 100+ years, but you nee...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 17, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Cancer
I just finished reading The Emperor of All Maladies: A biography of cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee. I have a quibble with the title -- it should be history, not biography. By personifying cancer, he plays into just the mythologizing he is trying to dispel. But that aside, I found the book very informative. I knew the general outline of the story, but not a lot of the details. What I want to comment on here, which I believe is the key takeaway, is that medical practice is subject to ideological capture, even in the modern era of " scientific " medicine. In the center of the book is the horror story of radical mastecto...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 29, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The connection between sickle cell disease and socioeconomics
Two new treatments have emerged for sickle cell disease. One curative treatment is a bone marrow transplant, and the second treatment is a gene-based therapy undergoing clinical trials. While this is much-welcomed news for patients battling the disease, the medical profession still needs to address sickle cell disease’s socioeconomic and racial health care inequities. SickleRead more …The connection between sickle cell disease and socioeconomics originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 8, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/ramandeep-kaur" rel="tag" > Ramandeep Kaur, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Physician Oncology/Hematology Public Health & Policy Source Type: blogs
First Woman Cured of HIV Using Cord Blood Stem Cells
A woman of mixed race becomes the third patient in the world to be cured of HIV, and the first one to do it using a cord blood stem cell transplant.
On Tuesday February 15th, the case was presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. She received a combination of adult bone marrow and umbilical cord stem cells that contained a CCR5 gene mutation, which has been known to provide immunity against HIV. Using cord blood in this case meant that the patient only needed to be a partial genetic match, which means that it will be a treatment that can be made available to a more genetically diverse patien...
Source: Cord Blood News - February 22, 2022 Category: Perinatology & Neonatology Authors: Chaya Rothschild, Andrologist Tags: Cord Blood medical research stem cells HIV stem cell transplant treatment Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 18th 2021
In this study, we therefore analysed the influence of lithium treatment on lifespan and parameters of health during ageing in mice.
To determine the concentration of lithium suitable to be administered in a longitudinal ageing study, we first tested the effects of lithium chloride (LiCl) in doses from 0.01 to 2.79 g LiCl per kg chow. C57Bl/6J mice fed with 1.05-2.79 g/kg LiCL in the diet showed lithium plasma levels between 0.4 and 0.8 mM/l. While plasma levels to 0.4 and 0.8 mM/l are well tolerated by human patients, at doses above 1.44 g LiCl/kg, we observed an obvious dose-dependent polydipsia combined with a dis...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 17, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Towards a Small Molecule Approach to Thymic Regeneration
The thymus is vital to a sustained and functional immune system. Thymocytes generated in the bone marrow migrate to the thymus, where a complex process of maturation and selection takes place, turning the thymocytes into T cells of the adaptive immune system. T cells must be capable of recognizing and reacting to pathogens and cancerous cells, without mistakenly attacking any of the normal systems of the body and its diverse cell population. That risk of self-immunity is the price of an adaptive immune system. The wide range of autoimmune conditions observed in the human population demonstrates that evolution does not prod...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 15, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Sickle cell disease in newborns and children: What families should know and do
If you’ve learned that your newborn or young child has sickle cell disease, you — and other family members and friends — may have many questions.
These days, most cases of sickle cell disease in the US are diagnosed through newborn screening. It’s important to make the diagnosis early, so that babies can be started on penicillin (or another antibiotic) to prevent infection. Getting connected early to a pediatrician for primary care — and to specialists in blood disorders who can work closely with the child as they grow, and with their families — can help prevent complications of the disease.
The basics
Hemoglob...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 6, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Children's Health Genes Health care disparities Parenting Source Type: blogs
Flowers, chocolates, organ donation — are you in?
Chocolates and flowers are great gifts for Valentine’s Day. But what if the gifts we give this year could be truly life-changing? A gift that could save someone’s life, or free them from dialysis?
You can do this. For people in need of organ, tissue, or blood donation, a donor can give them a gift that exceeds the value of anything that you can buy. That’s why February 14th is not only Valentine’s Day — it’s also National Donor Day, a time when health organizations nationwide sponsor blood drives and sign-ups for organ and tissue donation. Read on if you’ve ever wondered what can be donated, had reservations ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 11, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Health Heart Health Kidney and urinary tract Lung disease Source Type: blogs
Q & A With Nobel Laureate and CRISPR Scientist Jennifer Doudna
Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D. Credit: University of California, Berkeley.
The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., and Emmanuelle Charpentier, Ph.D., for the development of the gene-editing tool CRISPR. Dr. Doudna shared her thoughts on the award and answered questions about CRISPR in a live chat with NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. Here are a few highlights from the interview.
Q: How did you find out that you won the Nobel Prize?
A: It’s a little bit of an embarrassing story. I slept through a very important phone call and finally woke up when a reporter called me. I was just comin...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - November 18, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Genes Tools and Techniques Cool Tools/Techniques CRISPR DNA Gene Editing Nobel Prize Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 31st 2020
Fight Aging! publishes news and commentary relevant to the goal of ending all age-related disease, to be achieved by bringing the mechanisms of aging under the control of modern medicine. This weekly newsletter is sent to thousands of interested subscribers. To subscribe or unsubscribe from the newsletter,
please visit:
https://www.fightaging.org/newsletter/
Longevity Industry Consulting Services
Reason, the founder of Fight Aging! and Repair Biotechnologies, offers strategic consulting services to investors, entrepreneurs, and others interested in the longevity industry and its complexities. To find out m...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 30, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Destroying Existing Microglia is Necessary for Replacement Strategies to Work
Today's open access research is a demonstration in mice of approaches to replace near all microglia in the central nervous system. Microglia are innate immune cells of the brain, involved not just in destroying pathogens and errant cells, but also in ensuring the correct function of neural connections. With the progression of aging, their behavior shifts to become more harmful and inflammatory, and their numbers include ever more senescent cells. Senescent cells generate tissue dysfunction and chronic inflammation via the senescence-associated secretory phenotype, but beyond that microglia tend to adopt a more aggressive a...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 24, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
