We have been “close” to some breakthrough with stem cells for at least 15 years now except every time it either doesn’t work or ends up causing cancer (e.g. tumorigenicity and immunogenicity).
I’ll believe it when I see it.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
The reason I mentioned heart disease is because of how widespread it is and how dramatically it might increase average lifespan. For heart disease specifically it is indeed hard to tell how far away we might be from stem cell treatment being a success.
But stem cell treatment as a whole has already delivered.
Not to mention the quality of life improvements from never being sick in the first place.
cardiac hepatocirrhosis is one example.
https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/151792-overview
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221317791...
in such a case isolated treatment of pathos may help but would not be a complete treatment, and would result in chasing subsequent sequelae, over a protracted therepeutic effort.
You’re talking about an uncommon end stage complication of chronic severe right heart failure.
To the parent comment’s question: yes, prevention is better. If you prevent right heart failure you will not get cardiac cirrhosis.
The old adage of “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure” is still true.
preventive and corrective measures, in response to health issues should be instituted in the context of the whole organism[patient]
cardiac cirrhosis, is an example of secondary pathology related to a common set of disease conditions [heart disease].
correction of pathologic state of one organ via stem cell therapy, is a start but is not complete, heart disease is not always preventable by way of lifestyle choices, as genetic, and traumatic causes will effect occurence.
protracted illness often leads to secondary, or even, systemic issues concurrently presenting, at time of first examination.
any therapy must take this context into account.
The old adage of “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure” is only true, when prevention is possible.
Congestive heart failure as a whole was attributable to preventable causes in something like 95% of cases in the NHANES cohort. The 5% of other cases is variable but sure, some are not preventable.
Point being that prevention is possible and remains the preferred approach for the overwhelming majority of people, as the parent comment was inquiring about:
> Perhaps this is a naive question, but wouldn’t a preventative measure for heart disease (stopping obesity via, say, ozempic) do more for longevity than repairing the heart after dysfunction has taken root?
Throw on a statin at 35-40 for good measure (expert opinion, not strong evidence but many of my physician colleagues do it too).
Given their reputation for making people energetic (not having any interest I've never tried), I wonder if ecstasy and cocaine lead to exercise?
Source? To my knowledge what’s approved is not iPSC.
Hematopoietic progenitors are a different challenge and “low hanging fruit”.
https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/cellular-gene-t...
> But stem cell treatment as a whole has already delivered.
Clinical trials underway does not equal delivered. In the 3 years since your review article talking about future applications none of these hypothetical applications have been delivered yet.
Of course, this assumes we will put a new premium on human life not just limited to the children of the privileged few, which in turn presumes some kind of limitation on human reproduction (steady state population in which births == deaths). Implies a high degree of rationality - who gets to reproduce, and who doesn't? It would take a lot of energy to preserve all those stem cells, after all, and energy supplies really are limited.
I’m not saying it will never happen, but this is a really challenging treatment paradigm to get right and I don’t believe it’s “around the corner”. I don’t doubt we’ll have something in 50 years, it’s like battery tech.
Don't think it'd have helped much in her case (a massive aortic stenosis, hard to fix at 87), but there are others who would love to have the chance to choose the lesser of two evils.
I know she would.