What is the most difficult disease to cure?

2024-03-22 13:48:15
For those who suffer from a long illness, theirs will always be the most difficult to cure. Although in reality there are some diseases that are objectively incurable: we can only treat their symptoms so that they stop causing suffering and progress as slowly as possible. Within this catalog, cancer or some of the so-called autoimmune diseases may come to mind – when the cells of the immune system mistakenly attack the cells of our own body – such as multiple sclerosis, lupus or diabetes. type 1. However, in recent years, scientists have learned a lot about the origins of these fearsome enemies of our health and how they are related to certain biological mechanisms. There is light at the end of the tunnel! Cancer: a terrible disease but increasingly cornered First good news: during the last decades, many types of cancer have stopped being lethal. In fact, almost all of them could be cured if we detected them early enough to be able to eliminate the cancer cells before they spread and invade many organs. Today, the treatments that are allowing many patients to be cured of this group of diseases that we know as cancer are: -Targeted radiotherapy. It consists of launching powerful beams of energy – usually X-rays – at the tumor, trying not to cause damage to the healthy cells that are around it. -Chemotherapy. The patient receives a cocktail of drugs that kill malignant cells. Drug combinations and their use for each type of cancer have been greatly improved. -Immunotherapy. They are the techniques that the immune system – our body’s defensive system – uses to attack cancer cells. In any case, the best therapy is prevention. A great advance in this field has been to create vaccines that put the papillomavirus, responsible for cancers such as the cervix and other mucous membranes, against the ropes. Vaccines are also being developed that allow very specific proteins of malignant cells to be recognized and, as if they were targets, direct the immune system’s attack against them. For example, research is being done on how to signal Her-2, a protein highly abundant in breast cancer cells, so that the immune system destroys the cells that contain it. But the most promising therapy consists of ‘recruiting’ T lymphocytes – a type of white blood cell – as elite soldiers in the war against tumor cells. Researchers extract the lymphocytes, select the most active ones, grow them in the laboratory and reintroduce them into the patient. They are currently testing this technique with a cancer called TIL (tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes). A similar tactic is to genetically modify these lymphocytes so that they specifically detect cancer cells and attack them in a devastating manner. This is the ‘superpower’ of CAR-T cells. Scientists have already created five generations of CAR-T, increasingly effective, which are giving very positive results against leukemias and lymphomas. Possibly soon they will be able to be used successfully against other types of cancer. Autoimmune diseases: when our defensive system attacks us Another group of diseases that are very difficult to cure are autoimmune diseases, which we have already mentioned before. Especially those whose origin is still a mystery, such as systemic lupus erythematosus or multiple sclerosis. These ailments appear when the immune system generates defensive cells that, instead of protecting us from viruses, bacteria and other external pathogens, end up identifying our own cells as dangerous. In recent years, scientists are devising therapies that attempt to restore order or at least mitigate the damage. The use of antibodies – the proteins that recognize and neutralize ‘intruders’ – or molecules that regulate the functioning of the immune system is giving some results, still few but promising. Knowing the ins and outs of the immune system can allow us to find therapies to treat and, who knows, permanently eliminate these diseases. Although discovering your Achilles heel requires more research. Diseases of the central nervous system: the greatest challenge In my opinion, the most difficult diseases to cure are those that affect the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord). They range from autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis to others that may or may not have an autoimmune component such as the famous amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), passing through imbalances that can disrupt personality and neurodegenerative diseases. The latter are the worst: when we discover their symptoms, the damage has already been done. Neurodegenerative diseases have their origin in the loss of neurons that perform certain functions. These are the most important: -Mitochondrial diseases. They appear when there are defective mitochondria – the ‘power plants’ of our cells. Among them we find MERRF or MELAS syndrome. They produce ataxia, that is, a lack of coordination of movements, among other problems. -Huntington’s disease. The patient loses control of movements, becomes clumsy and has balance problems. And when the disease progresses, he can no longer walk, talk or swallow. Both this disease and the mitochondrial diseases are genetic and their effects are irreversible, since the problem is within the genome of the cells. -Parkinson’s disease. It is due to the loss of neurons in a very specific area of ​​the nervous system: the substantia nigra, responsible for controlling our movements. Although there are drugs that help regain this control and movement can be regulated with electrical stimuli, these remedies only serve to allow the disease to run its course more or less quickly. Desktop Code Image for mobile, amp and app Mobile code AMP Code APP Code – Senile dementia and Alzheimer’s. The nervous system is a very complicated system of connections between neurons, which form circuits that we do not know how they work. For this reason, there is no medicine that is valid against the natural loss of neurons throughout life or due to ailments such as Alzheimer’s, which erases the memory of those who suffer from it. Today, neurodegenerative ailments cannot be cured, but by knowing the causes and avoiding the dangers we can ensure that the deterioration of neurons occurs very late and progresses slowly. Little by little we are closer to understanding how these types of diseases are triggered and – let’s trust in science – perhaps finding the definitive weapon to defeat them. This article was originally published on The Conversation. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Guillermo lópez Lluch Professor in the area of ​​Cellular Biology. Associate researcher at the Andalusian Center for Developmental Biology. Researcher in metabolism, aging and immune and antioxidant systems, Pablo de Olavide University.
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