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SPACE CAREER AND MEDICINE
Since the space race began, Medicine has benefited from its technological advances. Now, research is being done up there on how to treat illnesses down here.
06/04/23 00:00
Telemedicine, devices such as the laparoscope or a CT with digital images or new laser tools for eye surgery. All this drinks from the experience gained in space of the technology and tools used for space travel and adapted to cutting-edge medicine. But, in addition to devices, space research also offers new strategies for treat diseases such as cancer, problems such as kidney stones or oral health.
In recent years both the NASA like its European equal, the ESA, they are investing in research projects and programs to better understand how the human body works, find treatments for different problems or get diagnostic methods. The research is done in space, and the results are applied on Earth.
Microgravity has been shown to be an important focus of health deterioration
The microgravedad It has been shown to be an important focus of health deterioration. Since the first space trips, astronauts have suffered disturbances in the inner ear, hypotension, cardiac arrhythmia or loss of calcium. This increased susceptibility to various health problems is an important source of information.
In this sense, from the International Space Station Different studies are being carried out with the aim of, for example, alleviating the back pains. This investigation of the ESA with the University of Northumbria, he has been inspired by the low back pain that astronauts usually suffer when they are in orbit to create a device that helps them move without getting hurt by the lack of gravity and can be used as a rehabilitation tool for astronauts. patients who on earth suffer from back problems due to poor posture or a sedentary lifestyle.
From 2021 the Nasa finances a series of investigations to find out how pathologies such as kidney stone formation during space flight. As they point out on their website, the research Kidney Cells-02 uses a 3D kidney cell tissue chip to study the effects of microgravity on the formation of microcrystals that can lead to kidney stones. These data will make it possible to develop lines of treatment for astronauts, and, translated to Earth, drugs or strategies might also be created for the general population. Anemia is also something that the US agency is studying with the project Marrow.
The space offers research to improve the treatment of back pain, kidney stones, osteoporosis, gingivitis and studies on more effective ways to detect cancer
Another problem experienced by astronauts is a increased bone loss and muscle atrophy in space because of that microgravity. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency examines the molecular mechanisms behind these symptoms. With an increasingly aging population and with an incidence of osteoporosis in Europe of 5.6% according to data from the International Osteoporosis Foundation, advances in understanding this deterioration, preventing it and treating it, even in space, are very encouraging. It’s also underway on the space station la Oral Biofilms in Space which analyzes the impact of gravity on the composition and activity of oral bacteria to develop treatments once morest cavities, periodontitis or gingivitis.
Medicine is and continues to be the second most benefited science by the race and space travel. a week ago the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) announced an agreement with the German space biotechnology company Yuri GmbH to “take advantage of microgravity conditions in space and study its impact on the biology of cells, plants and human health”. The world’s first collaboration between a space biotechnology company and a biomedical research institute aims to discover new drugs or treatments through the study of space material. In fact, on April 15, the CRG will receive the first strains of “space bacteria” obtained from the International Space Station, whose analysis will allow the creation of new materials and products to treat different pathologies.
MORE INVESTIGATIONS; CANCER
The International Space Station has been inhabited for more than twenty years by humans who have allowed and continue to allow progress in Science. At the end of 2022 it was known that the ESA had designated the cancer researcher Sara García Alonso as a reserve astronaut. A profile that fits with the research that is being done on space and cancer, as she herself explained in an interview with ‘Europa Press’.
Also at the end of last year NASA announced the latest results of research on the radiation and cancer. For years this relationship has been analyzed, which has even made it possible to improve detection tests and with it the efficacy of cancer treatment. But, in addition, work has been done to better measure the radiation exposure of each patient and the damage that it has produced in the DNA. The researchers found a new method to measure changes in a more sensitive microsatellite biomarker than current ones. This test was authorized in 2021 by the FDA to determine microsatellite instability in colorectal tumors. “With that improved detection, we can better help doctors and patients make good decisions regarding treatment options. That is where the broader impact is,” the authors of the research noted.
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