Chapter 5 Drugs of the Future

by Donna M. Brinton, Christine Holten, and Jodi L. Nooyen

Background | Classroom Applications | Internet Resources | Appendices

Appendices

Appendix A: Glossary (Printer-Friendly Format)

AIDS: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. First reported in 1981, it has since become a major global epidemic, killing over 10 million people and infecting tens of millions more. The disease is caused by HIV, a virus that destroys the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers. Go to the NHGRI glossary for more information.

Alzheimer's: A mental disorder that gradually destroys vital nerve cells in the brain. Symptoms include loss of memory, judgment and reasoning, and changes in mood and behavior. It is not a normal part of aging.

Antibiotics: Drugs that fight infections.

Antibodies: Protein molecules produced by the body to fight infection
or disease.

Artery: Blood vessel carrying blood away from the heart.

Arthritis: An inflammatory condition that often causes pain, swelling, and stiffness in the joints, often making even minor movements uncomfortable or painful.

Blood pressure: The pressure caused by the blood moving against the walls of the blood vessels, especially the arteries. It varies with the strength of the heartbeat, the flexibility of the arterial walls, the amount of the blood, and a person's health, age, and physical condition. Normal adult blood pressure is 120/80. If a person has high blood pressure, medication is often prescribed to lower the pressure.

Cancer: A general term for more than 100 diseases that are characterized by uncontrolled and rapid growth of abnormal cells. Cancer cells can spread locally or through the bloodstream to other parts of the body.

Chemotherapy: The treatment of cancer using specific chemical agents or drugs that harm fast-growing cells. This treatment kills fast-growing cancer cells, but often harms other fast-growing cells as well, such as the cells for hair and fingernails.

Cholesterol: A white substance found in many foods that is an important element in cell walls in the body. An unusually high level of cholesterol in the blood is often a symptom of heart disease.

Colon: A section of the large intestine, in the digestive tract. The total length is approximately 5 feet (approx. 150 centimeters) in the adult. It is responsible for forming, storing, and expelling waste.

Diagnose: To identify a person as having a certain disease or condition.

Genomic: (adj.) (medicine, treatment, drugs, researchers) Using genetic material or research.

Heart disease: A problem that prevents the heart from working normally. This problem can be with the heart's shape or how the heart works, or with the blood vessels supplying the heart.

Human Genome Project: An international research project to map each human gene and to completely sequence human DNA. (See NHGRI glossary for more information.)

Hypodermic needle: A hollow needle used to inject medicine or drugs directly into the blood.

Immune system: The body system, made up of many organs and cells, that defends the body against infection, disease and foreign substances. The immune system is often stimulated in specific ways to fight cancer cells.

Inhaler: A hand-held device used to take medicine by breathing in through the nose or mouth. Also called inhalator.

Leptin: A hormone produced by fat cells for regulation of appetite. It controls how much you want to eat, how much of the food your body stores, and how much is used for energy.

Liver: A large organ in animals that is important for digesting food and removing waste products.

Mental illness: Any of various conditions which cause problems with a person's normal thinking, feeling, or behavior, and caused by social, psychological, biochemical, genetic, or other factors, such as infection or head trauma. Also called emotional illness, mental disease, mental disorder.

Microchip: An extremely small piece of semiconducting material, which can contain a very large amount of information.

Neuron: A cell that sends electrical signals across distances. Neurons receive input from sensory cells or other neurons and send messages to muscles or other neurons.

Obesity: (n), Obese (adj.) (1) Having too much body fat.

Parkinson's: A problem with the central nervous system. A neurological disease that continues to get worse. Symptoms include uncontrolled shaking of the body and difficulties with muscular coordination.

Poison: A substance that causes injury, illness, or death

Protein: Essential components of all living cells that allow a body to function work well (including enzymes, hormones, and antibodies). Proteins are essential in the diet of animals for the growth and repair of tissue.

Radioactive isotope: Elements with an unstable nucleus that act as poisons, killing cancer cells without destroying other parts of the body.

Skin patch: A small piece of material put on the skin. It contains medicine that gradually enters the body through the skin.

Smart bomb: A genomic drug that contains natural antibodies targeted directly at cancer cells.

Swallow: (v) To cause (food or drink, for example) to pass through the mouth and throat into the stomach.

Symptom: An indication of disorder or disease that signals a change from normal function, sensation, or appearance.

Trophic compounds: The body's natural substances that help cells grow and develop.

Tumor: A mass of abnormal cells that are the result of rapid cell division. Tumors perform no useful body function. They may be either benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous).

Ultrasonic: (adj.) (1) Sounds that the human ear cannot hear. (2) Of or relating to acoustic frequencies above the range that the human ear can hear, or above approximately 20,000 hertz.

Vaccine: Weakened or dead poisonous cells injected into the blood in order to stimulate the production of antibodies.

 

Appendix B: Handout 1 for Activity (Printer-Friendly Format)

 

Conventional Medicine	Genomic Medicine
a. Traditional drugs cannot tell whether a cell is healthy or sick. They therefore kill both types of cells. For example, chemotherapy, which is used to treat cancer patients, kills both healthy and unhealthy cells. This is why patients are often very ill and lose their hair after receiving this treatment.	1. Using this technology, doctors will be able to cure the causes of diseases.
b. Doctors are unable to treat patients until they show symptoms. Only at this point can they diagnose the disease and prescribe drugs.	2. Only one drug will be needed to treat a disease in any patient.
c. Using traditional medicine, doctors are only able to treat the symptoms of the disease. If these drugs are successful, the symptoms go away but the disease remains. For example, people suffering from diabetes can take insulin to keep their blood sugar levels stable. But they still suffer from diabetes and will have to take insulin for the rest of their lives.	3. Genomic drugs will be able to find and kill sick cells (for example, in cancer patients), leaving healthy ones.
d. Today, most drugs are taken by pill or hypodermic injection.	4. In the future, doctors will be able to treat patients before they even become sick.
e. Different types of medicines are used to treat the same condition. For example, six drugs are used to treat high blood pressure. The drug used depends on the patient and his/her symptoms.	5. To take these drugs, people will use inhalers, skin patches, and even ultrasonic devices or microchips inside their bodies.

Answer Key for Activity 1

Traditional Medicine	Genomic Medicine
c. Using traditional medicine, doctors are only able to treat the symptoms of the disease. If these drugs are successful, the symptoms go away but the disease remains.	1. Using this technology, doctors will be able to cure the causes of diseases.
e. Different types of medicines are used to treat the same condition. For example, six drugs are used to treat high blood pressure. The drug used depends on the patient and his/her symptoms.	2. Only one drug will be needed to treat a disease in any patient.
a. Traditional drugs cannot tell whether a cell is healthy or sick. They therefore kill both types of cells. For example, chemotherapy, which is used to treat cancer patients, kills both healthy and unhealthy cells. This is why patients are often very ill and lose their hair after receiving this treatment.	3. Genomic medicines will be able to find and kill only sick cells (for example, in cancer patients), leaving healthy ones.
b. Doctors are unable to treat patients until they show symptoms. Only at this point can they diagnose the disease and prescribe drugs.	4. In the future, doctors will be able to treat patients before they even become sick.
d. Today, most drugs are taken by pill or hypodermic injection.	5. To take these drugs, people will use inhalers, skin patches, and even ultrasonic devices or microchips inside their bodies.

Appendix C: Handout 2 for Activity 2 (Printer-Friendly Format)

Scenario 1: A 58-year-old man from the United States was suffering from bone cancer. His cancer was not cured by traditional drugs such as chemotherapy. He was weak and even shrank several centimeters in height. His doctors knew about an experimental genomic treatment that involved taking cells from the patient’s blood and mixing them with cancer cells. This new mixture would be injected into his body to help his immune system fight the cancer.

Scenario 2: A 61-year-old woman from Germany had a tumor the size of an egg in her kidney. German scientists could create a special vaccine just for her. To do this, they would take some cancer cells from her and mix them with cells from a healthy person’s immune system. They then would inject this cell mixture into her.

Handout 3 for Activity 2

Role Play 1 Participants:          Patient,                               Doctor,                               Relative of the patient (spouse, parent, aunt or uncle, sibling) Situation: A patient goes to the doctor to receive test results. The doctor tells him/her that the disease he/she has is not treatable with traditional drugs. The patient then asks about other ways to treat the disease. The doctor explains that there is an experimental treatment available. The patient, the relative, and the doctor discuss this option. The doctor wants to convince the patient to try the experimental treatment. The relative wants to convince the patient not to try it.

 

Role Play 2 Participants:          Patient cured using experimental treatment; Genomic medicine scientist who devised the treatment; Television talk show host Scenario: Following a “miracle cure,” a genomic scientist and his/her patient are invited to appear on a local television talk show. The patient is reluctant to appear on television. The scientist who helped cure the patient and the talk show host try to convince the patient to appear on the show to help publicize the potential of genomic medicine.

 

Actual Results of Scenarios in Handout 2

Scenario 1: Two weeks after his experimental treatment, the patient was strong enough to return to work and within two months, his cancer was in remission. Scenario 2:  Within three months, the patient had only a few side effects (such as pain in the tumor area and mild fevers) and the tumor had disappeared.

 

Case 1: Smart Pills Scientists have used genetic engineering to create fruit flies with high levels of memory protein. This protein makes memorizing easier and helps fruit flies remember what they have memorized longer. Now that the scientists know this works in fruit flies, they are trying to find this memory protein in humans. This protein could be put into pills. Such “smart pills” would last a few hours. They would allow people to remember facts almost instantly and without the effort of repetition.

Case 2: Repairing Damaged Neurons Parkinson’s disease is a disease that damages a person’s brain. Over time, the patient’s brain becomes filled with a harmful protein substance. This substance destroys or damages neurons that transmit signals from the brain to the body. Scientists have not found a way to stop this substance from forming. However, to protect healthy neurons and to repair damaged nerve cells, genomic scientists are looking into using trophic compounds, the body’s natural substances that help cells grow and develop. They are currently testing a trophic compound that can travel into the brain and act like a bath, covering and protecting both healthy and damaged cells.

Case 3: Fat Pills Genomic scientists are currently identifying the genes that are involved in obesity. The hormone leptin was discovered in 1994, when scientists noticed that this hormone was absent in especially fat laboratory rats. Further research showed that certain obese children who also lacked leptin lost as much as 4 pounds a month when they were given this hormone. Subsequent trials with the leptin hormone have shown, however, that not all people lose weight when they receive this hormone. Scientists and drug companies are trying to find other chemicals in the body that are related to obesity.

Case 4: Combating Heart Disease Doctors are currently using drugs called “statins” that stop the body from making too much cholesterol. These drugs do not work for everyone, however, so drug companies are trying to create a new cholesterol removing drug. Instead of stopping the body from making cholesterol in the cell, this drug will remove cholesterol from cells. The cholesterol would go first to the liver and then eventually leave the body. This new drug, taken with statins, would remove all harmful cholesterol from the body.