Written by: The Midland Certified Reagent Company
Summary: Curing disease involves exploring how a potential cure may affect a patient’s DNA.
Curing a disease is not just a matter of throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. The process involves several steps, beginning with how the disease affects the body on a physical and molecular level. It’s important to know, for instance, how disease affects a patient at the molecular level. One of the ways scientists are studying the effects involves using a fluorescent label to identify the disease at the molecular level.
Detection
The first step in curing a disease is recognizing it. One good example is malaria, where early detection can make all the difference in diagnosis and treatment. With a molecular beacon probe, scientists can take a blood sample and use an actual market to detect certain cells. This marker is designed to illuminate the cells it needs to find, while leaving other cells alone.
Once medical engineers have positive identification, they can begin to administer a treatment. Early detection is usually a major benefit in fighting life-threatening diseases.
Testing a Cure
Before a cure can be administered to humans, it has to receive thorough testing to confirm it won’t represent a serious danger to human health. In order to cure a disease, engineers need to create a substance that only affects the disease itself. Oligo synthesis is frequently used to test reactions in a laboratory setting.
One reason why testing with oligos makes so much sense is cost. Oligos are very affordable for research labs, and they are ideal for recreating certain conditions that would be present in the body. One scientists can approximate something at a molecular level, it becomes easier to test in live humans or animals because the effects are anticipated to some extent.