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Importance of Red Biotechnology
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Technology in Color Red!

Red biotechnology is dedicated to the medical field improvements. It uses living organisms while designing novel therapeutics. Antibiotics are the best example, but vaccine and genetic engineering are also typical examples of red technology.

Antibiotic is any compound or substance that is killing or slowing down growth of microbial cells. Penicillin, discovered by Alexander Fleming, is first and probably best known antibiotic. New era in therapeutic research began once superior effect of Penicillin was recognized. Today, market is flooded with antibiotics and most people use them on a regular basis for treatment of different infections. Antibiotics can be divided in a couple of categories. Bacteria killing ones are known as bactericidal while those that disturb bacterial replication without killing the cells are known as bacteriostatic. Both groups are targeting different part of the bacterial cell and have different mechanism of action. Bactericidal antibiotic will affect synthesis of the cell wall or cell membrane, while bacteriostatic will disrupt enzymes necessary for the cell replication. Antibiotics have narrow or wide spectrum of action. Those with narrow spectrum will be effective either with Gram positive of with Gram negative bacteria, while those with wide spectrum could successfully combat both Gram positive and Gram negative bacterial infections. Mass production and uncontrolled use of antibiotic led to resistant bacteria development. Every year spectrum of bacteria that are becoming resistant to the marketed antibiotics is getting wider. Mutation that enables bacteria to survive high doses of antibiotic is passing to the next generation via mitosis or by horizontal gene transfer (if newly created gene is on the plasmid). That way bacterium could become resistant to more than one antibiotic. If a bacterium is carrying more than one resistance gene it's called superbug. Alternatives to antibiotic therapies include viruses that could infect bacteria (phage therapy), bacteriocins (engineered peptide with narrow spectrum of action), chelation technique (where micro nutrients necessary for bacterial growth are restricted), vaccines that are modulating immune response, biotherapy (using protozoa feeding on infectious agents), probiotics (that will compete with pathogens)....

Idea of developing resistance to disease by learning immune system to recognize and instantly fight the illness came from Edward Jenner in 18th century. Arm-to-arm inoculation (taking a sample from infected skin and inoculating it into healthy person's skin) was the first attempt to vaccinate the human and protect him against smallpox. It was successful technique but vaccination wasn't medically recognized and popular until Luis Pasteur created a rabies vaccine in 19th century. That's when vaccination became routine procedure. I was immunized with vaccines against diphtheria, measles, tetanus, tumps, pertussis, pubella and polio during my childhood. Now, list is expanded and all people born after 2000th year are getting seven more (Hib, Hepatitis B, Varicella, Hepatitis A, Pneumococcal, Influenza, Rotavirus). Vaccines are made out of the dead or attenuated virus, or just proteins and toxins that are inducing illness. If some parts of the virus are poorly immunogenic – then conjugates are made (viral particles attached to large proteins stimulate immune response). Vaccines could be mono or polyvalent, protecting against one or more agents, respectively.

I couldn’t finish the story of immune system and associated therapeutics without mentioning latest innovations in that field. Understanding of immune system and its complex molecular cascade led to monoclonal antibody (MAb) therapy development. Using the antigen of choice, monoclonal antibody is easily created. It could be used for treatment of all kind of illnesses (from arthritis to cancer). 13% of all deaths in the world are cancer related. There are over 200 different types of tumor that could be detected in human population. Beside chemotherapy and surgical procedures, MAb therapy is one of the solutions. There are couple of ways MAb could defeat the cancer. Radioimmunotherapy (using murine derived antibodies) is effective when applied to radioactive sensitive tumors such as lymphoma. Antibodies are tailored to target cancer cellular antigens specifically (without radiating the rest of the body). Antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (ADEPT) is still under investigation (with promising results). ADEPT combine cancer targeted antibody with drug activating enzyme that will convert non-toxic agent into toxic (after drug ingestion) and act directly on cancer cells. Immunoliposomes are combinations of antibodies and liposomes. Liposomes could be a drug or therapeutic nucleotide carriers. Idea is to deliver tumor suppressing genes into tumor or to destroy tumor directly with attached drug. This method is still under investigation.

Field of medicine changed drastically in the recent couple of decades. Just like we found a way to defeat the bacterial and viral diseases, we’ll find the way to solve current medical issues. Cancer will be “smallpox” one day; it’s just a matter of time.
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