Medical science has made dramatic progress in all areas since the turn of the last century, and the rate of discovery seems only to increase with time. Physicians become more specialized in order to focus more clearly. Curing and treating diseases has long been a primary focus, and to that end many new processes and tools have been developed, among them the use of antibody conjugation.
Modern medicine has steadily increased the pool of information and the repertoire of treatment options, yet it has become less accessible to the average person. Cost is a limiting factor, but the real crisis is that patients do not understand the treatments. The use of a vaccine or an antibiotic is comprehensible, but medicine has become more complex than that.
Unfortunately, just as science begins to understand how important patient involvement is, the treatments have become more complex. From the basic notion that one is sick and goes to the physician to get well, science has made the process difficult. Scared patients worry that the new chemical their doctor wants to try may do as much damage as good, yet see no choice.
When it came to many serious illnesses, especially cancers, the treatments the lay person was aware of was largely one of two methods. The victim could be given chemotherapy or radiation therapy, or both. While the exact means of conducting these treatments were complicated, the basic idea was not hard to understand for either the patient or the care giving family.
The problem is that not all cancers are the same, not all were as susceptible to treatment and the treatment itself was devastatingly hard on the patient. In some cases people did not survive the treatment, as it weakened their bodies and immune systems, yet there was no real alternative. Innovations in medicine are changing that situation, and many more cancer patients are surviving.
The understanding of how to get chemicals to the cancer cells has increased dramatically, with the chemical and physical layouts of the cells revealed. The challenge for the researchers then is to find unique surface characteristics that they can then exploit to deliver drugs that will kill the cell. Creating a type of designer molecule that uniquely fits the surface of the target cell ensures a great specificity for the drug.
The means to make it bigger is to attach a lager molecule, usually a protein to it, so that it will then be able to trigger the proper response in the targeted cell. The added protein s then modified to the exact cell it is aiming for. Designing this key and lock treatment is accomplished essentially by cooking the protein with the right chemicals so the surface is modified.
By creating a combination that allows the chemicals to attach to the right molecules and in a specific place allows for laser-like specificity. Like a smart bomb, the medicine is then applied exactly where it is needed. The introduction of antibody conjugation is relatively new, but it has shown great promise in the laboratory and may be the beginning of a new generation of treatments.
Modern medicine has steadily increased the pool of information and the repertoire of treatment options, yet it has become less accessible to the average person. Cost is a limiting factor, but the real crisis is that patients do not understand the treatments. The use of a vaccine or an antibiotic is comprehensible, but medicine has become more complex than that.
Unfortunately, just as science begins to understand how important patient involvement is, the treatments have become more complex. From the basic notion that one is sick and goes to the physician to get well, science has made the process difficult. Scared patients worry that the new chemical their doctor wants to try may do as much damage as good, yet see no choice.
When it came to many serious illnesses, especially cancers, the treatments the lay person was aware of was largely one of two methods. The victim could be given chemotherapy or radiation therapy, or both. While the exact means of conducting these treatments were complicated, the basic idea was not hard to understand for either the patient or the care giving family.
The problem is that not all cancers are the same, not all were as susceptible to treatment and the treatment itself was devastatingly hard on the patient. In some cases people did not survive the treatment, as it weakened their bodies and immune systems, yet there was no real alternative. Innovations in medicine are changing that situation, and many more cancer patients are surviving.
The understanding of how to get chemicals to the cancer cells has increased dramatically, with the chemical and physical layouts of the cells revealed. The challenge for the researchers then is to find unique surface characteristics that they can then exploit to deliver drugs that will kill the cell. Creating a type of designer molecule that uniquely fits the surface of the target cell ensures a great specificity for the drug.
The means to make it bigger is to attach a lager molecule, usually a protein to it, so that it will then be able to trigger the proper response in the targeted cell. The added protein s then modified to the exact cell it is aiming for. Designing this key and lock treatment is accomplished essentially by cooking the protein with the right chemicals so the surface is modified.
By creating a combination that allows the chemicals to attach to the right molecules and in a specific place allows for laser-like specificity. Like a smart bomb, the medicine is then applied exactly where it is needed. The introduction of antibody conjugation is relatively new, but it has shown great promise in the laboratory and may be the beginning of a new generation of treatments.
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