After our discussion in class about the Gardasil shot in class and the effects of the HIV, I thought it would be interesting to read more about sexually transmitted diseases and what is being done in the medical field about it right now. This article starts off by telling us about an immune protein the female reproductive system known as interferon. It describes how most interferon proteins show up to fight off diseases and bacteria when they are present. However the specific type interferon-E is shown to be present even without the presence of the disease. Ultimately giving yield to an immune fighting protein being present all of the time. To support their theory than ran test on mice, and then on women to see during what times this protein was active. It was shown to fluctuate during specific time of the women's cycle but to almost be completely annihilated by menopause resulting in the conclusion that this protein needs estrogen to survive and in the presence of progesterone will reduce back out. To prove that the interferon-E protein actually works to fight off herpes and chlamydia they infected mice with these diseases without the protein and the results showed that much worse cases of these diseases than mice were did have the interferon-I protein. The overall results seem to be highly appraised by the doctors although they were a little weary when it came to chlamydia because they would have liked to see it have more of an effect on the inflammation of the oviducts which can cause infertility in women.
This is extremely relate-able to the current young adult age. With findings like this there could ultimately be a decrease in the amount of people catching sexually transmitted diseases. With that, these findings could also lead into a direction which could help researchers not only treat these diseases but find cures for them as well. Whose to say there are not more proteins just like this one that could maybe one day cure cancer.
Understanding the body and how it works is the first step to finding a cure for the tragic diseases that takes the lives of ones we love everyday. It is rare to come across new discoveries that lead to certain preventative diseases. By obtaining more knowledge of these mysteries of the body we will not only be benefiting ourselves today but the future as well.
K.Y. Fung et al., “Interferon-ε protects the female reproductive tract from viral and bacterial infection,” Science, 399:1088-92, 2013.
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