In this essay, a new biochemical technique to fight against viral diseases is going to be introduced. Before introducing this technique, it is necessary to know the origin of diseases first. Most diseases are caused by bacteria or virus. A long time ago, antibiotics were discovered and they have the power to kill bacteria. However, there are no such powerful methods to treat viral infection. This essay begins with an explanation of the principles of how penicillin and the HIV protease inhibitor work, followed by a proposed application to heal viral diseases based on learning enzymatic mechanism. The other half of the essay mainly focuses on the potential influence of this application in the future of Hong Kong.
According to what David and Michael (2008) describe, penicillin is an antibiotic which binds to and inactivate transpeptidase, an enzyme involved in cell wall synthesis in bacteria. The HIV protease inhibitor is a newly developed drug that has been designed to help people infected with the HIV virus. HIV protease is an enzyme in that virus. Its active site first binds to a large protein and then cleaves them into smaller fragments. This step is needed for reproduction of the virus. The HIV protease inhibitor serves as an analog of the correct substrate and it can fit into the active site of HIV protease. The strong binding of the inhibitor makes the enzyme no longer bind to the original substrate and function. As a result, the virus cannot work properly (Nelson and Cox 2008).
The above two mechanisms are very similar since both of them target at the enzymes. Based on understanding of the above examples, this author suggests a general way to treat viral diseases. Su...
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[CDCK] Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, The U.S. Government. 2011. Key Facts About Seasonal Flu Vaccine [Internet]. [cited 2011 Nov 3]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/keyfacts.htm
[CHP] Centre for Health Protection, HKSAR Department of Health. 2011. Why the influenza vaccine is important [Internet]. [cited 2011 Nov 2]. Available from: http://www.chp.gov.hk/files/pdf/miniweb_step2.pdf
Clincluster. 2004. Hong Kong An Asian Hub for Clinical Trials [Internet]. [cited 2011 Nov 2]. Available from: http://www.clincluster.com/hk.html
[CTC] Clinical Trials Centre, University of Hong Kong. 2011. Why Hong Kong [Internet]. [cited 2011 Nov 1]. Available from: http://www.hkuctc.com/whyhk.php
Nelson David L, Cox Michael M. 2008. Lehninger Principal of Biochemistry. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company. 1158 p.
However due to globalization, import and export viruses is more easily transmitted. Over the past century the global community especially Asian has been affected with new strains of the influenza virus. The changes in the virus can occur in two ways “antigenic drift” which are gradual changes in the virus over time. This change produces new strains that the antibody may not recognize. “Antigenic shift” On the other is a sudden change in the influenza virus which ‘’ results in a new influenza A subtype or a virus with a hemagglutinin or a hemagglutinin and neuraminidase combination that has emerged from an animal population,” as seen with H5N1 virus. This change leaves people defenseless against this new virus. (CDC, 2013) Currently there is no vaccine to combat all strains therefore “Planning and preparedness for implementing mitigation strategies during a pandemic requires participation by all levels o...
The Lancet. (2013). Towards better health for people in china. Lancet (London, England), 381(9882), 1959.
Current influenza vaccines are about 70% to 90% effective in preventing influenza in healthy adults. Since the vaccines are made of dead fragments of influenza viruses, they cannot cause influenza. The strains of influenza that circulate change every year and therefore, it is necessary to make a new influenza vaccine annually. After vaccination, the body's immune system produces antib... ... middle of paper ... ...
Loo, Yueh-Ming and Michael Gale, Jr. “Influenza: Fatal Immunity and the 1918 Virus.” Nature 445 (2007): 267-268. 23 July. 2008 .
Page-Reeves, J., Niforatos, J., Mishra, S., Regino, L., Gingrich, A., & Bulten, J. (2011). Health
This paper, by no means, is suggesting to completely avoid a placebo controlled studies. However, it points out that special care and thoughtful considerations need to be taken when planning a placebo controlled study especially where there are existing treatments. In addition, when conducting clinical trials in developing countries, patients should be given equal rights and opportunities as their counterparts in the developed countries.
Influenza is a major public health problem which outbreaks all over the world. Resulting in considerable sickness and death rates. Furthermore, it is a highly infectious airborne disease and is caused by the influenza virus. Influenza is transmitted easily from one person to another person which has a great impact on society. When a member of society becomes sick, it is more prone to spread to other people. In the United States, every year between 5 to 20 percent of the population is affected by influenza. As a result of this, between 3,000 and 49,000 deaths have occurred per year (Biggerstaff et al., 2014). Therefore, the influenza vaccine is the most effective strategy to prevent influenza. This essay will examine two significant reasons for influenza vaccination which are the loss of workforce and economic burden as well as one effect regarding herd immunity.
Influenza is very contagious and spreads rapidly from person to person. Influenza causes worldwide yearly epidemics. According to World Health organization Influenza affects 5-15% world’s population and resulting in 500,000 deaths yearly. Ottenberg stated that, in United States, an average of 200,000 were hospitalized and 36,000 died each year from influenza complications. Influenza is the sixth leading cause of death among US adults and is related to 1 in 20 death in persons older than 65 years. Disease control and prevention estimates indicate that infections like H1N1 which is one of the types of influenza, have resulted in an estimated 42 to 86 million cases and 8520 to 17620 deaths. As I mentioned earlier that infections like influenza are very contagious, they can spread easily from hcw to Patient and back to hcw. The most efficient and effective method of preventing influenza infection is vaccination(The best way to prevent influenza is with annual vaccination).(Sullivan,2010) (Gregory,Tosh &Jacobson, 2005). Motivated by a desire to actively avoid illness Influenza may increase the risk for death in people with existing heart, lung, or circulation disorders. In fact, the higher than average number of winter deaths in people with heart disease may be due only to the occurrence of influenza during those months.Vaccination provides immunity to fight against infection.To increase resistance to harm by modifying the environment to minimize preventable illness (NEED TO CHANGE WORDING)
“This knowledge will help us design drugs that mimic the viral effects on these proteins to either activate a host’s immune response or shut it down,” said Dr. Michael Gale, associate ...
I chose this study because it has a large cohort which eliminates sample bias. High quality data could be obtained from this longitudinal epidemiological ...
How Do Vaccines Work? How Do Vaccines Work? Department of Health, Jan. 2011. Web. The Web.
Currently, one cannot explore the news without coming across the topic of the swine flu, scientifically known as H1N1. Swine flu is a respiratory infection derived from the influenza virus. The virus contains genetic materials from human, swine, and avian flu viruses. It was first identified in spring 2009, and since then has spread rapidly across the globe. The infection’s spread has been verified as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. As soon as the swine flu virus was isolated, scientists quickly developed a swine flu vaccine. Four vaccines have been approved by the FDA for the prevention of the swine flu. The vaccines will be ready for distribution in October 2009. Now the question is: To vaccinate, or not to vaccinate? Millions of people are now preparing to answer this question.
O'Brien, D. (2009). Randomized controlled trials (RCTs). In R. Mullner (Ed.), Encyclopedia of health services research. (pp. 1017-1021). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: http://dx.doi.org.proxy1.ncu.edu/10.4135/9781412971942
Paul J., Seib R., Prescott T. The internet and clinical trials: background, online resources, examples and issues. J Med Internet Res. 2005; 7(1):e5
Controlled clinical trails, which work closely with therapy and study group, minimize bias via specific methods such as: double blinding and randomization. This trial also monitor patients during the study duration. The contro...