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By: Tejas Yerramilli - 09/1/2024
In past posts, we have discussed where stem cell and bone marrow donation and transplantation is now, and how they happen. However, could you imagine a world where sickle cell anemia could be cured by a simple injection? As technology rapidly evolves, many major fields are being revolutionized, and the future of medicine might lie in the tiniest of proteins.
CRISPR. Although many people today have heard about it, only a few know of its history and potential to change the medical world. CRISPR-Cas9 was first discovered in 1987 by Japanese scientists, but it wasn’t until 2012 that the world found out about its amazing capabilities. In 2005, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuel Charpentier (of America and France respectively) began to take an interest in CRISPR, and started studying it more thoroughly. Their labor eventually bore fruit, and in 2012, they released a landmark paper outlining the gene editing capabilities of CRISPR-Cas9. Gene editing was something that lied out of reach for doctors and researchers for as long as medicine had been practiced, but finally there seemed to be a way to fundamentally change a human being.
The implications of this were obvious. If successfully put into practice, CRISPR could potentially erase a genetic disease. However, there are several ethical questions that come into play here. Where does one draw the line between preventing diseases like sickle cell anemia and making a “designer baby”? With the possibility of changing somebody’s genetic makeup on the table, the study of genetic diseases has all but flipped upside down, and the future remains bright and hopeful for those who suffer from these diseases.
In addition to CRISPR, technology is also helping to better things like HLA matching, that matches a potential donor to a patient. New software and artificial intelligence are helping to increase the likelihood of a successful transplant, and may even help to predict complications with the use of AI. Artificial intelligence has changed the face of almost every industry on the planet, and medicine is no different. Personalized treatment plans can be crafted with AI that tend to every patient's individual needs, and can help to suggest the right timing of a transplant that would help to maximize success rates.
Along with these major breakthroughs, the steady modernization of countries around the world also lead to better care in the future. With organizations like SAMI around the world helping to find matches for patients that might have less representation in the donor list, the future of stem cell and bone marrow donation looks far more different than it did 20 years ago. This spread of technology to every corner of the world also leads to more widespread knowledge about donating, resulting in more donors, matches, and lives saved.
Technology is also helping to streamline patient care. With the rise of virtual care teams and telemedicine, patients can get care post-transplant wherever they might be located, making inpatient visits less frequent. Wearable devices are also a viable option for many patients, with the devices sending real time information to physicians so that the patient’s condition may be tracked around the clock, leading to better care before and after the transplant.
Stem cell donation is a wondrous thing, and can be used to treat a wide range of blood disorders, but it too can be changed for the better. Most transplants are used to replace damaged or diseased stem cells, but in the future, transplants might be used to regenerate a patient's blood and immune system. The possibilities for this are endless, but to give an example, this could massively help to counter the adverse effects of chemotherapy on the human body. We might even see a shift from only relying on donor to patient transplants to using stem cells from the patient's own body, which would massively decrease the odds of rejection and make stem cell therapy far more accessible to all those who need it.
Wrap-up
With the world of technology evolving every day, so too does the world of medicine. Whether it be through gene-editing tools, artificial intelligence, more donation organizations, or new medical devices, the future of stem cell donation and patient care is changing day by day. You too can be involved in this movement of change, by signing up for a donation registry and possibly saving a life. The future of medicine may very well be in your hands.
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