Research was conducted in many fields that opened new doors of hope. As the year comes to an end, we're taking a look at some of the biggest successes.
Second Malaria Vaccine
After more than a century of scientific efforts, the world has finally found an affordable vaccine to fight malaria. This new malaria vaccine has been developed by Oxford University, which is only the second malaria vaccine in the world. Two years before this, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) had developed a malaria vaccine, RTS-S.
The World Health Organization said both vaccines are 'equally effective' in fighting malaria and there is no evidence that one vaccine is better than the other. However, the big difference between the two vaccines is that Oxford University's vaccine, R21, can be manufactured on a large scale.
Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, has also made preparations to produce 100 million doses of this new malaria vaccine annually.
The company plans to increase it to 20 crore doses in a year. Whereas, only 1.8 crore doses of GlaxoSmithKline's malaria vaccine RTS,S are ready so far. The World Health Organization has said that the new malaria vaccine R21 will prove to be an 'important additional tool' in fighting the disease.
One dose of this vaccine will be prepared for two to four dollars and every person will have to take four doses of it. The price of this vaccine is almost half as compared to RTS, S. Similar technologies have been used to prepare both the vaccines. And, both of them target the same stage of the life cycle of the malaria parasite.
However, the new vaccine is easier to make because it requires smaller doses and uses a simple adjuvant (a chemical added to a vaccine that triggers the body's immune response.
Malaria is the most deadly among mosquito-borne diseases and 95 percent of its cases are found in the African continent alone. In the year 2021, 24.7 crore cases of malaria were reported, and out of these, 6 lakh 19 thousand people lost their lives. Most of the patients who died of malaria were children under five years of age.
World's first eye transplant
In 2021, the face of Aaron James, a resident of America, was almost completely burnt due to a strong electric shock when he accidentally touched a bare 7200 volt electric wire. Aaron James was a lineman in a power company. Aaron James underwent a partial face transplant in May 2023.
Apart from this, his eye was also transplanted. 140 health workers were involved in this very rare transplant. This very complex transplant of Aaron James was done by the surgeons of NYU Langone Health, New York. He gave an update on this surgery in the month of November.
He told that after this double transplant, 46 year old Aaron James's health is better and he is recovering well. The health of the eye donated to him is also good. Aaron's right eye still works.
Doctors say that Aaron James' surgery has given scientists an unprecedented opportunity to understand how wounds in the human eye heal. Doctors also said that the blood flow in the retina is absolutely straight. Retina is the part of our eye that sends an image to our brain. However, it is not yet certain whether Aaron James's damaged eye will regain his vision. But, doctors have not ruled out this possibility.
The person from whom Aaron James donated his face and eyes was in his fourth decade. During surgery, doctors injected adult stem cells from a donor's bone marrow into the nerve of Aaron James' eye to encourage it to repair.
After the accident, Aaron James had to have his left eye removed due to pain. After this, many operations were done on him. After a surgery, he was fitted with a prosthetic hand. Aaron James is only the 19th person in America to have a face transplant.
Investigating heart health with Artificial Intelligence (AI)
A new tool of artificial intelligence has revealed how much alcohol, smoking, poor eating habits and lack of exercise can cause a person's heart to age prematurely. The purpose of this discovery is to reverse the pace of aging of the heart, so that the risk of many age-related diseases such as heart attack or any other disease can be reduced.
This system of Artificial Intelligence has been developed by a team led by Professor Declan O'Regan of the London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS) of the Medical Research Council (MRC).
Professor Declan O'Regan, leader of the team, says: "When we look at someone's face, we are experts at calculating whether that person looks younger or older than their age. We all have the same body parts. Are." There are many ways to assess heart health. These include scan, electrocardiogram (ECG) and blood pressure.
But, all this only shows how the heart's health is now and how it is going to be in the future on a daily basis or in the coming months. At the same time, the analysis of Artificial Intelligence tells how much garbage has accumulated inside the heart over time.
Professor O'Regan says that AI tells how many shocks a person's heart has received during his lifetime. During this procedure, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of a person's heart is done after exercise. Since the earliest signs of aging of the heart are very mild and minor. Therefore, even experienced heart doctors are sometimes unable to catch them.
But, this work can be done by a tool with artificial intelligence. Because, pictures of the hearts of about 40 thousand people with different types of health and information about their results are put in this tool.
Then this AI system examines the minute details of the MRI scan done in 3D motion. And then compares them with the heart health of five thousand people of different ages who lead healthy lifestyles.
Professor Declan O'Regan says, "We don't know whether premature aging of the heart is a result of our genes and whether we are born with a destiny of premature aging of the heart. Or whether it is related to our lifestyle. "It's more than I can bear." He says, With genetics, we can slow down or stop the aging of the heart. And, through these MRI scans, we can also find out how a new treatment affects the heart damage." It's having an impact.
Artificial knee made from 3D printing
Scientists have prepared such an implant using 3D printing technology, which can be helpful to patients suffering from knee pain. Through a special surgery called osteotomy, a person's knee bone is either cut or bent in such a way that his real knee remains safe.
This artificial knee has been developed by scientists of the University of Bath. With this technology, knee operations can be done quickly and safely.
3D High Tibial Osteotomy (HTO) plates are used to realign a patient's knee, making it more stable, more comfortable, and more weight-bearing than previously available plates. To find out what kind of operation a patient will need, doctors conduct X-rays and CT scans of the patient's knee and shin bone.
After this, with the help of a 3D printer, a surgical guide plate is prepared to stabilize the knees. After this, it is temporarily fixed in the patient's calf with the help of a pin. After this, the pins used to fix the plate are removed and two screws are inserted, creating a small space between the patient's bones and straightening them.
On top of this, a stabilizing plate is placed, so that this digitally created plate is actually fixed to the patient's leg. Following an initial safety trial on five patients, 50 more people in England and Wales are now being added to trial this new technique instead of traditional knee surgery.
Live worm found in the brain
For the first time in the world, scientists extracted a live worm 8 centimeters (3 inches) long from the brain of an Australian woman. The 'thread-like worm' was removed from a patient's injured frontal lobe during surgery in Canberra last year. But, the full report of this surgery has been published this year.
Dr. Hari Priya Bundy, who performed the woman's surgery, said, It was not even in our imagination that we would find such a big worm inside the brain. This 64 year old woman was suffering from problems like stomach ache, cough and night sweats for several months. Gradually she became a victim of depression and amnesia.
In the year 2021, he was admitted to the hospital in the last days of January. The scan revealed a strange lesion within the right frontal lobe of his brain. But the real reason why the patient suffered this injury to his brain came to light only in June 2022, when Dr. Bundy did his biopsy.
Doctors told that this red colored parasite was probably growing in the woman's brain for the last two months.
Researchers of Emerging Infectious Diseases magazine, which gave information about this case to the world, said that this woman's disease is probably the first such case in the world, when infiltration of larvae inside the brain of a person has been detected. Researchers have warned that this case points to the increasing risk of diseases and infections being transmitted from animals to humans.
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About the Author:
Vipin Kumar