A health team has spent the year covering ALS treatment, historic transplants, medical breakthroughs, and improvements in illness prevention. In 2022, researchers had time to pick up the projects they had to put on hold.
There was a full-court press when COVID-19 arrived in the country. The nation’s top scientists put everything on hold to join the fight against SARS-CoV-2 and quickly created breakthrough vaccinations and therapies.
Historic Heart Transplant
Some highlights include: The map of our DNA has been finished by scientists. In five years, the FDA has finally authorized a brand-new ALS treatment. As for organ transplantation, the team made significant advancements.
The first recipient of a heart transplant utilizing a pig heart was 57-year-old David Bennett Sr. in January. His heart was replaced during the nine-hour procedure by one taken from a 240-pound pig that had been gene-edited and developed especially for this use.
Although Bennett passed away two months after the treatment, it was initially deemed a success. The pig cytomegalovirus, or CMV, which he acquired from the pig heart, was thought by doctors to have contributed to some of his demises.
The transplantation of organs or tissues from an animal into a person is known as xenotransplantation. However, medical professionals are optimistic about this procedure. In need of organ transplants are more than 100,000 patients, many of whom will never be eligible.
Read more: Crematoriums in China are ‘packed’ as the number of COVID-19 cases rises
Israeli Man First To Receive ALS Medication
Israeli patients are among the first in the world to start taking a brand-new ALS medication designed to halt the progression of the degenerative disease.
At Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tofersen, which is administered as an epidural injection into the spine, is giving two patients new hope. One of them, Narkis Moshe of Nahariya, who lost a brother to the disease, received an ALS diagnosis six months ago.
She claimed that after beginning the medicine, she is less afraid of what would happen to her. While just a tiny percentage of ALS cases are brought on by the SOD1 gene, Dror stated that she is confident that the fundamental technology behind Tofersen will be modified for people who experience ALS due to other genes.
Read more: GRP78: New medicine can soon treat COVID-19 and cancer at the same time
