What I Learnt This Week 11: Our cell phones and disease outbreak, A new type of botox, Adenovirus, a treatment for cancer, Vitiligo, and the healing of wounds.
I sincerely apologize for the irregularities in my blog this week it's for the betterment of the steem blockchain. I'm on a journey to the Southern part of Nigeria to preach the gospel of steem to the people around and that's the reason. From here, I'll be going to Benin for another preaching and that might also affect my work so please bear with me, only for a few days. Ok, so this week... errm.. I packaged the best 5 topics for the series. So, let's see what we have for us.
Monday: Your cell phones can stop a disease outbreak.
[1] I think we humans have a way we see things and the way we decide to see things is left for us to choose. Most of us see social media as something nice which is true while some just see it as something bad. My fellow Africans or Nigerians can attest to it that if you press your phone too much, you'll have your parents complain about your addiction to phone, social media and all. Even I myself had the experience but that stopped when I started earning from it. At first, it was a regular blog and now, it's steemit.
[2] Social media may be seen as something bad but not to me because all my penny comes from the social media except for the music that I do. It brings me so much happiness that at least someone finally found something good enough to stop all the criticism of the social media. Sune Lehmann, a Professor at Cognitive Systems has revealed that our facebook account and our phone records can help us find out people that need vaccinations against a disease outbreak. How? Read On!
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[3] Seriously, it wasn't easy to come by. Apart from using "sensibleDTU project data collection", scientists had to monitor all the physical and digital activities of about one thousand students and that wasn't easy in any way because they had to give the students smartphones as a gift for allowing them carry out the research.
Tuesday: Scientists accidentally discovered a new type of botox.
[4] I think it literally makes no sense talking about a new type of botox without you having a full knowledge or at least the basic knowledge of it. Botox also known as Botulinum toxin, is a neurotoxic protein usually produced by bacteria (Clostridium botulinum). Botox especially A and B are used clinically to prevent contracting muscles, problems related to wrinkles in cosmetology, leaky bladders, excessive sweating, migraines, and any problem related to muscles as a whole.
[5] So the new type of botox discovered is a very funny one. Scientists discovered that cow dung has a bacteria called Enterococcus faecium, although this bacteria is not in any way related to the botulinum, there is a gene in the bacteria that links it with the botulinum toxin. Of course, you know scientists don't just come and give us false information, they actually extracted E. faecium from a sample of cow dung and sequenced the genome. It was until then they knew a gene in the E. faecium is related to botulinum. They naturally knew there was a mix-up somewhere because the two bacteria are not related in any way and that means there is a possibility the mix-up happened in the cow's stomach.
[6] Finding a new type of Botox is good news as it would give a higher chance for the optimization of the toxin, it would now be able to cover many more areas in the medical field and any other fields it appears to be useful.
Check the video beneath for more info.
Wednesday: Adenovirus as a treatment for cancer.
A redesigned virus Viruses are non-living creatures that become living when they get into a living cell. This simply means, viruses don't have a life of their own and they depend on others to live, reproduce and carry out other life activities. They actually infect human cells with their own genetic material and that's the reason they are good for genetic diseases and cancer.
[7] The idea of using a designed virus to infect cancers is developed by making a new proteinous shield around the virus that can protect the virus from being hunted and eliminated by the body's immune system and then when the virus gets to the cancerous cells, it infects it and we all know what happens to cells infected by viruses, they die.
[8] Adenoviruses have not been used by scientists to treat cancer in a while because it's pointless and is as good as not treating the cancer at all. Reason being that, once you inject the virus into the body, the T-cells of the immune system start tracing down the virus to kill it and just after that, the liver thrashes it with its detoxication abilities and the cancer cells still remain.
Thursday: Yale dermatologists successfully restore skin in vitiligo patients.
[9] Vitiligo itself is a skin condition characterized by the loss of skin pigment or color. Vitiligo happens to be a long-term skin disorder of which patches of the skin lose their coloration, become white and having sharp margins. Vitiligo is also known as an autoimmune disease of the skin that destroys skin pigment.
[10] From time, arthritis treatment has always been to work out or treat vitiligo until now that dermatologists at Yale found a novel treatment which is a therapy that combines medication and light. The therapy helps the patients get back the skin color lost to vitiligo.
[11] The two people that preceded over this work were King and Dr. Harris. They were able to prove that tofacitinib can keep our immune system from attacking the melanin-producing skin cells, and the light can stimulate the melanin-producing cells to produce more melanin to restore colors to the places where it has been lost.
People with vitiligo now have hope that at least something can be done about their condition and they can get well soon. The picture attached to this post is a patient of Dr. King after above 3 months and six months of treatment. After the sixth month, a lot has happened it would only take a little more time for the pigments to be totally restored.
Friday: Nerve cells are important for healing wounds
A wound in its healing phase[12] I believe we all know what it means for a wound to heal, what happens when we get injured, and at least the physical actions that take place during the healing of wounds. Blood first fills up the wound and seal the vacuum, the cells try to replace the lost ones by rebuilding another one - this was what we knew but scientists discovered a vacuum filled by the nerve cells.
[13] The rate at which our wounds heal is determined by our own degree of cleanliness. Although the healing process starts immediately after the injury, how fast it goes is determined by us. One of the oldest phenomena on the earth should include pain, injuries, and the likes but still, we haven't been able to explore every part of it especially the process of wound healing.
[14] Scientists have now found out that the major role players are even the nerve cells and nothing more. Some doctors and even people at the hospitals might know the nerve (glial) cells do something in the healing of wounds but what it does might not be known to them. Here is how it goes, the fine nerve bundles or glial cells change to a somewhat bad structure when they get damaged as a result of an injury. After that, they become repair cells and go into the wound beds where they work to heal the wounds. On getting to the wound beds, the nerve bundles, and the glial cells separate. Then, the glial cells try to act as the healer by doing a lot of work and providing factors needed for the healing and even give support to ensure the closure of the wound by supporting dermis to rebuild - these were not known until they used an animal as an experiment.
Thank you for coming around!!
That little boy, @pearlumie.
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Image Sources
References
[1] Our different views on life issues
[2] The new use for our facebook accounts
[3] The sensibleDT
[4] Botox A and B are ued in clinic
[6] The essence of a new botox
[7] The idea of designing a virus
[8] Adenoviruses have not been used to treat ancer in a long time
[9] Vitiligo
[10] The discovery of Yale's dermatologists
[11] The Proof
[12] The healing of wound
[13] The rate at which wounds heal
[14] Nerve cells are the majority players in the healing of wounds
Being A SteemStem Member
Awesome stuff sir @pearlumie.
You really did your research. What I want to know is, are we going to be seeing these updates doled out the way you have itemized them? And what happens on Saturdays?
It was a joy having you around for the STEEMIT CAMPUS INVASION in Otefe. I like your cool and calm demeanor. I had to come look for you online. Wish you all safe journey back.
Oh... Thank you Penauthor. It's a weekly challenge I post on Saturday but I couldn't post it yesterday because the invasion took my time. As for Saturdays, I use Saturdays for the compilation of what I learnt during the week and you know Saturday is part of the weekend.
Anything for the community. I just came to support a brother..
Wow. God bless your hard work even bigger sir.
Amen!
Also personal cleanliness has huge impact on a patient's health in his/her environment.
This is amazing, never knew our phones had this much ability, I'm a Biochemist and I'm so much interested in science and cancer related Topics, I actually made a post on something related on my blog some days ago. Thanks for educating us. Great job @pearlumie
Did you really read it? I just posted it now...
Ok, anyway you quoted a wrong place for your comments.
Thank you for coming around
This is awesome. .
I love article relating to Science.. It's always awesome...
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hi friend, welcome to steemit. We are creating a special group for Nigerians....where we can support ourselves by upvoting and commenting on each other's blog and therefore get currator rewards. Please ensure you make upbuilding posts. Join/follow my page to get more updates....It will cost you nothing...Thanks