#1 Asthma 1)Describe the cause of the disorder: Airborne allergens, cold air, physical activity (exercise-induced), strong emotions, and stress can cause asthma. Asthma is an inflammatory disease of the lung. This inflammatory process can occur along the entire airway from the nose to the lung. Once the airway becomes swollen and inflamed, it becomes narrower, and less air gets through to the lung tissue. This causes symptoms like wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and trouble breathing. During an asthma attack, the muscles around the airways tighten up and the asthma symptoms become even worse than usual. 2) Describe the problem with current therapy: There is no long term solutionInhalers are short-time. 3) Describe a possible biotech product which you could make to solve the problem:Vaccine or gene therapy, biologics, something to help against airway becoming inflamed and swollen, which causes less air to be able to go through the lung tissue.
#2 Alzheimer’s 1)Describe the cause of the disorder: Alzheimer's disease results from a combination of genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors that affect the brain over time. 2) Describe the problem with current therapy: There isn’t a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. 3) Describe a possible biotech product which you could make to solve the problem: Genetic therapy
#3 (Rheumatoid) Arthritis 1)Describe the cause of the disorder: Faulty immune system- starts attacking healthy joint tissues. 2) Describe the problem with current therapy: No cure, but medicines that helps the arthritis (can have severe side effects). 3) Describe a possible biotech product which you could make to solve the problem: Vaccine, Pill, Injection, gene therapy-- something that can cure the immune system and not have negative side effects.
#4 HIV 1)Describe the cause of the disorder: It destroys CD4 cells. Your immune system weakens. 2) Describe the problem with current therapy: There is no cure 3) Describe a possible biotech product which you could make to solve the problem: Vaccine 4) What therapeutic approaches (i.e. solutions) have been developed/attempted so far? None that we have seen while researching.
Product Proposal
ASTHMA What is asthma? What causes asthma? Asthma is a disease affecting the airways that carry air to and from your lungs. People who suffer from this chronic condition (long-lasting or recurrent) are said to be asthmatic. The inside walls of an asthmatic airways are swollen or inflamed. This swelling or inflammation makes the airways extremely sensitive to irritations and increases your susceptibility to an allergic reaction. As inflammation causes the airways to become narrower, less air can pass through them, both to and from the lungs. Symptoms of the narrowing include wheezing (a hissing sound while breathing), chest tightness, breathing problems, and coughing. Asthmatics usually experience these symptoms most frequently during the night and the early morning.
Asthma Attacks: Asthma attacks can be mild, moderate, severe and very severe. At onset, an asthma attack does allow enough air to get into the lungs, but it does not let the carbon dioxide leave the lungs at a fast enough rate. Carbon dioxide - poisonous if not expelled - can build up in the lungs during a prolonged attack, lowering the amount of oxygen getting into your bloodstream.
Treatment for Asthma: Asthma is not so much "treated" as it is "controlled". As a chronic, long-term disease, there is no cure. However, there are tools and medicines to help you control asthma.
Possible solutions: -Don’t run in cold air -Coating in airway -Don’t exercise at all--Avoiding things that worsen your asthma (asthma triggers). However, one trigger you should not avoid is physical activity. Physical activity is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Talk with your doctor about medicines that can help you stay active.
Problem: Asthma is a disease affecting the airways that carry air to and from your lungs. People who suffer from this chronic condition (long-lasting or recurrent) are said to be asthmatic.The inside walls of an asthmatic airways are swollen or inflamed. This swelling or inflammation makes the airways extremely sensitive to irritations and increases your susceptibility to an allergic reaction. Asthma attacks can be mild, moderate, severe and very severe. At onset, an asthma attack does allow enough air to get into the lungs, but it does not let the carbon dioxide leave the lungs at a fast enough rate. Carbon dioxide - poisonous if not expelled - can build up in the lungs during a prolonged attack, lowering the amount of oxygen getting into your bloodstream.
Current Limitations/Present need: The current limitations are that there are no long term solutions. Currently, there are inhalers, but inhalers are short-time. People who have asthma are in need of a long term solution. Asthma is not so much "treated" as it is "controlled". As a chronic, long-term disease, there is no cure. However, there are tools and medicines to help you control asthma. Inhalers do cure the pain short term, or about twelve hours, but it’s a pain for patients to have to redo the medicine daily.
Your proposed solution/product: Once the airway becomes swollen and inflamed, it becomes narrower, and less air gets through to the lung tissue. We want to create a product to help the airway from becoming inflamed and/or swollen, which causes less air to be able to go through the lung tissue. This would help asthma because it would theoretically cure all of the pain involved with asthma. We would achieve this by making a medicine that we could put in liposomes. A liposome is a tiny bubble (vesicle), made out of the same material as a cell membrane (phospholipids and proteins). Liposomes can be filled with drugs, and used to deliver drugs for cancer and other diseases. Membranes are usually made of phospholipids, which are molecules that have a head group and a tail group. Because the cell membrane and the liposome are made of the same things, the liposome can insert the medicine into the cell. We could put the medicine filled liposomes into the throat, and soak into the cells, curing it for a longer period of time. The problems with this cure is that we aren’t sure if we can solve it permanently, or the medicine would have to be reapplied in the future. This will be used with a drug delivery system, which refers to approaches, formulations, technologies, and systems for transporting a pharmaceutical compound in the body as needed to safely achieve its desired therapeutic effect.
PDF: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/asthma/treatment Virtual Mentor and Credentials: Nejat Duzgunes is our virtual mentor. He has a Ph.D. in biophysics from the state university of New York at Buffalo, he was a research scientist and adjunct professor at UCSF for 12 years, and Duzgunes is currently professor and chair of microbiology at the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry, and director of a research laboratory working on the therapy of oral cancer and HIV/AIDS. Dr. Duzgunes suggested that we use liposomes, and in order to test them, we could use animal models. He also mentioned developing “organoids.” We are going to use his ideas of liposomes as our biotech product. A liposome is a minute spherical sac of phospholipid molecules enclosing a water droplet, especially as formed artificially to carry drugs or other substances into the tissues. Possible products: -Albuterol (also known as salbutamol) is used to treat wheezing and shortness of breath caused by breathing problems (such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Albuterol belongs to a class of drugs known as bronchodilators. It works in the airways by opening breathing passages and relaxing muscles.
-Qvar (beclomethasone dipropionate) is a steroid used to prevent asthma attacks. It will not treat an asthma attack that has already begun. Qvar is available in generic form.