3D bioprinting technology for human organs or parts
Modern transplantation is very good at transplanting various human organs, but the problem is that any country lacks them. There are several areas under development seeking the ways how to solve this problem.
One of them is 3D bioprinting technology, using which the parts of the human body are literally printed with living cells, just as the parts of the car are printed. But printing complex human organs, which can replace the affected ones, is yet unavailable. Last year, for example, Israeli researchers presented the heart, “composed” of human cells. However, it is rabbit-size and cannot beat, but there is definitely a room for improvement.But today company Organovo, for example, using 3D printing technology, created a three-dimensional model of liver tissue ExVive™. It is much more suitable for various biomedical researchers than conventional cell culture.
In 2018, James Allison and Tasuku Honjo received the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine for the understanding how to “unblock” the human immune system and make it fight against cancer. Owing to their discovery the drugs which effect using this principle have been developed – Ipilimumab, Pembrolizumab and Nivolumab.
Clinical trials have shown that they much more effectively treat melanoma (skin cancer known for its aggressiveness) and some other varieties of cancer. For example, it was found that after the treatment with the combination of Nivolumab and Ipilimumab, more than half of the patients with late stage melanoma lived at least 5 years. Previously only 5% of such patients lived to this period.
The first drug for spinal muscular atrophy treatment
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a rare disease, but it is also the leading cause of infant death among all genetic diseases. In the case of SMA, special nerve cells, motor neurons, suffer due to certain genetic breaks, causing weakness and muscle wasting. The disease can have varying degrees of severity, and the ultimate degree is fatal.
The disease has still been incurable, but in 2016 the FDA approved the first drug capable of curbing its progress named Nusinersen. And the following year it was approved by the EMA (European Medicines Agency).
Under the brand name Spinraza, the drug is manufactured by Biogen. The cost of one injection in the United States is $125 thousand. In Ukraine, where the patient community estimates that there are approximately 200 patients with SMA, the drug is not officially registered.
