Word: cystic
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MEDICINE Scientists rapidly close in on a cure for cystic fibrosis...
Brianna was suffering from cystic fibrosis, the most common inherited disorder among whites and a disease that afflicts 25,000 Americans, killing more than 500 every year. Just 10 years ago, the prospects for a girl her age were as bleak as they were inevitable. As the combination of chronic infections, clogged airways and digestive problems took their toll, she could not have expected to outlive her teens. But now, says Ramsey, "Brianna has an excellent chance of living into adulthood." In fact, although Ramsey and other clinicians are reluctant to raise false hopes, Brianna and thousands of other babies...
...half a century, doctors have been treating cystic fibrosis symptom by symptom, doing their best to stem the rising tide of mucus triggered by the disease. As this abnormally thick fluid builds up in the lungs, pancreas, liver and other organs, it not only serves as fertile ground for damaging infections but also blocks the passage of vital digestive enzymes to the intestine and stops up sperm in the testes. As a result, patients have difficulty breathing, digesting food and even reproducing. "This is a disease that simply wears you down," says Ramsey...
...doctors could implant a healthy version of the CF gene in embryonic mice or goats, harvest the resulting protein from the adult animals' milk, and then spray the protein directly into patients' lungs. "Basically, we're talking about a four-legged manufacturing plant," said Dr. Robert Beall of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation...
...Illinois Masonic Medical Center have screened embryos from 15 couples who have a known risk of carrying such diseases as Tay-Sachs, a rare, crippling condition that often results in death by age four. Last week doctors at Cornell Medical Center began clinical studies on embryos at risk for cystic fibrosis...