Modern trends in the biomedical sciences

RESUMO

This work presents some aspects of modern biomedical science that particularly contribute to its application to conquer disease. Two examples are used to show developments in methodology may contribute toward this end .The knowledge about the mechanisms of disease in the case of cholera on the one hand, and of cystic fibrosis, on the other, are leading to new possibilities of prevention and treatment of these diseases. In both cases, membrane transport defects are the underlying cause of their pathology. The nature of these defects has been investigated by in vivo and in vitro studies of ion transfer across the involved epithelia (intestinal and airway), including electrophysiological and single channel studies. The nature of the involved membrane transporters (in cystic fibrosis) as well as of the toxins that cause the symptoms of cholera has been determined by molecular biology methods, which have also detected the genetic defects responsible for the anomalous transporters. In addition, the genes responsible for the production of different main and accessory cholera enterotoxins have been defined, allowing the elaboration of vaccines that may prevent the effect of infection by Vibrio cholerae.This new knowledge may lead, in the future, to improved ways to detect, treat and prevent these and other diseases.