3. New Antibiotic Could Battle Resistant “Superbugs”
Scientists in Massachusetts used an electronic chip to grow microbes in their native soil, creating a new antibioticcalled Teixobactin. Believed to have “evolved to be free of resistance,” it could be used to treat “superbugs” that have grown to become immune to other antibiotics.
Other treatments opened new fronts in the battle against cancer. Researchers in New York were stunned when a combination of two drugs used together completely dissolved a Stage IV tumor in just three weeks (pictured in the CT Scan at left).
A previously untested form of gene therapy saved a baby’s life after months of cancer treatment failed. Doctors in London transplanted special “designer immune cells” into the one-year-old girl to fight cancer. The untried process cured her leukemia in a matter of months.
2. Ebola Eradicated in Africa–Vaccine Trial Proves 100% Successful
Ebola was eradicated in Liberia by May, in Nigeria in October, and both Sierra Leone and Guinea were declared free of the disease in December.
Human clinical trials that began in 2014 on a variety of potential Ebola vaccines began to bear fruit in 2015. A new vaccine against Ebola was shown to be 100% successful in trials conducted during the outbreak in Guinea.
1. New Cancer Treatments Can Save a President–or a Baby
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter drew attention to new advances in immunotherapy treatments when it cured his brain cancer in just four months.
Here’s how it works: The human immune system doesn’t always see cancer cells, so they can grow unchecked. Immunotherapy changes the equation, strengthening the body’s immune system to include killing cancer. Laboratories all over the world announced breakthroughs this year.
Scientists in the UK were able to inject an altered cold-sore virus into cancer cells, signaling the immune system to attack tumors — and to maintain a “memory” that created new antibodies to kill future cancer cells.
Researchers in Texas used a similar method to cause prostate cancer cells to effectively “self-destruct” by exposing themselves to a newly trained immune system. Coupled with traditional radiation treatment, it led to a 20% improvement in the number of patients surviving at least five years following treatment.
