What we can expect from medical research: Part 1
Medicine has decided on the tasks for a decade
Alexander Starikov, Science Illustrated
The new decade promises us many discoveries. In a thematic series of articles prepared for BFM.ru the journal Science Illustrated, – the main scientific challenges of our time and the most promising answers to them.
Scientific research in the field of medicine sometimes resembles wandering in the desert. As soon as scientists develop new methods of treating a serious disease, a completely unfamiliar ailment appears that threatens people's lives and health. Smallpox, which claimed millions of human lives, was declared completely eliminated in 1980. But the following year, AIDS began to gain strength, which accounted for more than 25 million deaths. It seems that the struggle of scientists with diseases is endless, although not meaningless. If 100 years ago the average life expectancy in Scandinavia was about 40 years, today this figure has almost doubled.
In addition to quite visible successes in the fight against diseases, another obvious consequence of research in the field of medicine is the growth of profits of pharmaceutical companies. According to the forecast of IMS Health, the world's largest pharmaceutical consulting company, the turnover of the global pharmaceutical market in 2014 will reach $ 1.1 trillion – plus $ 300 billion compared to its current size. The projected average annual growth of the market will be 5-8%. In 2010, according to IMS Health, the pharmaceutical market will grow by 4-6%, which is generally comparable to 2008 (+4.8%). 2009 turned out to be a more "fruitful" year – 7% growth in the global market was provided mainly by developing economies. Until 2014, IMS Health predicts, pharmaceutical markets in developing countries will annually add 14-17%. In Russia, according to the analysts of the agency "Pharmexpert", the drug market in 2011 may increase by another 14-16%. The likely growth in 2010 will be 11-13%.
Metabolism for money
Many complex functions of the body are the result of biochemical reactions that continuously occur inside cells and in intercellular structures. The code contained in the genes is corrected due to the constant formation and cleavage of proteins and other molecules. A detailed study of these processes is the key to understanding and treating many diseases, especially when the mechanisms of metabolic processes have been disrupted.
Solving the riddle of aging. The cause of cancer and many other diseases is the aging and dying of cells or a malfunction, as a result of which cells begin to behave inappropriately. Understanding the causes of this phenomenon will help prevent many diseases and even prolong a person's life.
It is necessary to find out why not only individual cells, but also the body as a whole wears out as a result of the main processes of vital activity that provoke the formation of free radicals, harmful forms of cholesterol, as well as cytokines that overload the immune system. It is known that hunger and cold prolong life: for example, a mouse lives to an age equivalent to 162 years of human life. People seem to react in a similar way to critical conditions, but it is better to find more pleasant ways to achieve the same goal.
Drugs against cancer. Chemo and radiation therapy are effective in the fight against cancer, but such treatment kills not only cancer, but also healthy cells of the body. That is why it is necessary to find methods of targeted treatment, the target of which will be exclusively cancerous tumors.
To obtain a drug that affects cancer cells, but does not affect healthy cells, scientists combine it with antibodies that can recognize tumor cells and attach to them. To do this, it is necessary to decipher proteins located on the surface of cancer cells, as well as the development of new cellular poisons that affect a cancerous tumor in direct contact.
Attempts to create a cure for cancer are the best illustration, on the one hand, of people's unwillingness to put up with the incurable disease, and on the other, of the effectiveness of marketing moves by pharmacists. In 2008, the FDA, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, despite the objections of many experts, recommended the use of avastin for the treatment of breast cancer. In December 2010, the FDA revised the decision: the drug was deemed undesirable for use. As a result of three large-scale studies, no confirmation was found that the drug prolongs the life of patients with breast cancer. Such a flexible position of the FDA angered many Americans: how did it happen that avastin, which at first was called almost a medical breakthrough, was later found ineffective?
The turnover of the anti–cancer drugs market in the United States in 2009 amounted to $ 52 billion - this is the sixth part of the volume of the American pharmaceutical market. 6 billion of this amount went to Roche, which launched avastin on the market. Americans, Forbes magazine states, do not want to understand one simple thought in any way: progress in medicine cannot be as rapid as in the computer industry. Prices for cancer drugs are rising (on average, the course for a year costs from 50 thousand dollars), and clinical trials of medicines are becoming less and less joyful. For example, another drug produced by the same company Roche prolongs the life of patients with pancreatic cancer by only 2 weeks.
The inexhaustible optimism and belief in a miracle that Americans generate reports about the appearance of a new cancer drug ("well, now it's definitely a reliable drug!") are explained by several reasons. Firstly, the unwillingness of representatives of the "baby boomer" generation to accept that they are mortal. Secondly, the commercial interests and lobbying capabilities of pharmaceutical companies interested in selling expensive products. The third reason is the desire of scientific journalists for good news.
Treatment of obesity. We simplistically perceive fat deposits as passive energy reserves, and muscles, respectively, in the form of dynamic mechanisms. But modern research shows that fat and muscle tissue cells play a central role not only in the regulation of metabolism, but also in the development and prevention of obesity. Fat helps regulate appetite, but if we eat too much, it becomes a trigger for inflammatory processes, resulting in impaired metabolism. Active muscles prevent inflammatory processes, which is why exercise helps maintain the right weight.
Inflammatory processes in fat deposits and a violation of the biochemical balance of the body are probably the cause of obesity. Understanding these relationships opens up new perspectives for the prevention and treatment of excessive fullness. The first step in this direction was taken in 2008 by American scientists, who found out that the negative effects of obesity are controlled with the help of an aspirin-like anti-inflammatory substance salsalate, the active component of headache pills. The development of drugs that can counteract the negative effects of obesity is not far off.
Proteomics. It has already been possible to identify 30 thousand genes of the human genome, but the role of individual genes is still unclear. In cells, genes determine the amino acid sequence of proteins, which in turn form biochemical metabolic products. But only after the deployment of the protein and the beginning of the impact on the body, its functions become obvious and understandable.
With the help of complex automated processes – the method of antibodies, chromatography and mass spectrometry - it is planned to study half a million proteins and a huge number of metabolic products. It is necessary to determine the significance of each of the body's molecules for our health. This colossal analytical work is possible only with international cooperation. The reward will be an understanding of the causes of many diseases, as well as the creation of new methods of their treatment.
(For the end of the topic, see the article "Deeper into the brain and further into the genes.")
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru06.01.2011