Posted on 06/22/2007 5:37:05 PM PDT by blam
Create a back-up copy of your immune system
22 June 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Andy Coghlan
Imagine having a spare copy of your immune system on ice, ready to replace your existing one should you fall victim to AIDS, an autoimmune disease, or have to undergo extensive chemotherapy for cancer.
An Anglo-American company called Lifeforce has received permission from the US Food and Drug Administration to do just that. The firm collects 480-millilitre samples of blood from healthy individuals, extracts the white blood cells and stores them as an insurance policy against future disease. The service comes at a price, though: around $800 for taking the initial sample then $25 per month for storing the cells at -196 °C. "That sample would have the complete repertoire of all your white blood cells," says Del DelaRonde, co-founder of Lifeforce in Newport, UK.
By taking some of the stored cells and exposing them to natural growth factors such as interleukin-2, whole new armies of white blood cells could be grown in the lab and reinfused into the patient. Many people with cancer undergo similar "adoptive" therapies using immune cells extracted before they have chemo- or radiotherapy, which can destroy immune cells. But there is a risk that the cells won't work optimally because of previous cancer damage, DelaRonde says. "Instead, we can send them their 'pristine' system from 25 years ago."
“Whole new armies of white blood cells could be grown in the lab and reinfused into the patient”In the case of HIV, which progressively destroys immune cells, the process could be repeated perhaps once a year, by multiplying up and re-storing fractions of the samples.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Throw it on my Flash Drive.
Mine’s backed up on 5 1/4” disks and I can’t access it.
No human beings are destroyed. The abortion indusry has convinced half of America that life saving cures only come at the cost of taking life.
Sorta like carbon credits.
I’ve got an old 286 that I’m willing to sell for the right price.
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