If humans lose their immunity, it will be an extremely terrifying thing, when the first virus enters the body, the immune tissue will be completely disrupted, and eventually the person will be put to death.
In order to adapt to the changing internal and external environment, people's immunity is also constantly changing, and only in this way can people constantly fight a variety of diseases, in order to survive in an environment full of various viruses, and in reality there have indeed been children without immunity, their lives are destined to be a tragedy.
Boy wrapped in "bubbles"
In CCTV's "People" program, there was an impressive foreign child, his name was David Philip Witt.
David was born in 1971 at St. Luke's Hospital in the United States, and from the day he was born, he did not have any freedom.
This is also because doctors discovered that he had an extremely rare immune system disorder called "severe combined immunodeficiency disease", which is fatal to anyone and can cause people to not have immunity.
It is well known that getting sick often is a sign of low immunity.
Those who are weak, mentally weak, and have reduced appetite, getting sick, injections, and taking medicine are commonplace, which is actually a means of supplementing immunity.
Normal people in the case of low immunity will often have asthma, pneumonia, diarrhea and other conditions, in the long run, it will also lead to poor physical development and induce some other diseases, such as lupus erythematosus, hepatitis and so on.
Immunity is the "loyal guard" of the human body, under the same conditions, some people will get sick, some people will not get sick, this depends to a certain extent on the strength of everyone's immunity, when the external germs attack, only to improve their immunity can smooth the transition.
When pathogenic bacteria begin to attack the human body, the immune system will immediately act, and there are "troops" in the human body who are specifically responsible for transmitting signals, they will report the information of the virus to white blood cells, and white blood cells will be in strict formation, not giving the enemy the opportunity to "escape or break through".
As early as the 18th century, a physiologist from Russia raised the question of the immune system, and he did a lot of research on it.
At that time, the researcher named Mechnikov specifically pierced a rose thorn into his muscle, and then he observed through a microscope that the moment the foreign body pierced the body, a variety of cells immediately surrounded the thorn.
The source of these cells is the body's immunity, and for the immune system, this is a "defense battle". Red blood cells and white blood cells are like soldiers in the immune system, and the role of bone marrow is to make these immune cells.
Lymph nodes are a "small battlefield", when foreign "enemies" and immune cells converge here, there will be what people call "swollen lymph nodes", but this is also a good phenomenon, at least to tell people that the body is being damaged.
Lymph nodes also shoulder the glorious mission of filtering lymph fluid and transporting viruses, bacteria and other waste products.
As long as there is no immunity, it is difficult to resist any germs and viruses, and the outside world is a huge "demon field" for David, who cannot use his body to contact the air.
When other children have the love and friendship of their mothers, David can only stay in the "bubble" completely isolated from the outside world, and a kiss from his mother is extremely fatal to him.
The media also paid widespread attention to this matter, and David also had a very eye-catching nickname: Bubble Boy.
In fact, David is also lucky, at least he can still see the world.
If David had lived in a country with inadequate medical resources from the beginning, he might have left this world at birth.
The plastic room, which is not infected in any way, was built with the help of NASA engineers, and others may not have such luck.
In David's upbringing, there was only one thing left in his life: fighting all the viruses and bacteria in the world.
But because the relevant research has not shown any growth, the "bubble boy" can only live in the "bubble" all the time.
And the "bubble" is not guaranteed to be unbreakable forever, David is getting older and facing more and more challenges, which is not all the "bubble" can protect.
All David and his family can do is wait for a medical miracle so that he can enjoy his childhood like other children.
Unfortunately, the miracle that belonged to David did not come.
At the end of 1983, David, who had been battling the disease for 12 years, was no longer able to hold on, and the bubble house could no longer guarantee David's living space.
The doctor was also very worried about his situation, and the only way he could think of was to transplant bone marrow stem cells for David, so that David could develop immunity on his own.
However, every element of the body is still in line with the human body, so the object of this surgical choice is generally close people, and the doctor chose David's sister.
Although the hospital found that David's sister's bone marrow stem cells did not match him exactly, they still chose to "gamble", otherwise, the result waiting for David could only be death.
After the operation, the last thing everyone wanted to see happened, my sister's bone marrow invaded David's body and multiplied wantonly in the body, and the doctor tried his best to rescue David, but in the end it was to no avail.
After a busy period of time, the doctor could not find a way to save it, and could only choose to give up treatment.
For "Bubble Boy", he has never been "normal" in his life, and everyone hopes that he can enjoy the treatment of a normal person in the last moment of his life.
So, after learning all the consequences, the doctor still took the dying "bubble boy" out of the "bubble".
The last period is also the moment when the "bubble boy" enjoys the last dignity in life.
In the past, he always wanted to enjoy the love of his family up close and the embrace of his parents, but all this could only be achieved at the last moment of his life.
The mother stroked his little hand, the first time in 12 years that the two sides had come so closely, and it was too late for Bubble Boy.
Such a story quickly spread around the world, and it also made everyone realize that there is still such a group in the world, they obviously live on the earth, but they do not have a normal life; They can't get close to anyone and enjoy real life.
This is also a very sad story, and after the report, many people regretted David's misfortune.
"God" gave David the power to live, but did not give him the ability to fight bacteria and viruses, which was fatal.
In the face of the strong invasion of countless viruses and bacteria, David has never been able to fight back, and if compared with him, then most people are extremely lucky.
If David had survived to this day, it seemed that anything was still possible
Since David was born in the 70s of the last century, when the world's medical level had not yet reached a very high level, it was a miracle that he could live in a "bubble" for 12 years.
Time is only one aspect, but the quality of David's 12 years is probably clear to everyone.
In addition to not being able to contact the outside world, the other tissues and organs of David's body are extremely normal, and there is no difference from other children.
The documentary shows that when David babbles, parents will also teach their children simple words and sentences through "bubbles" to help him further understand the outside world.
He is also very sensible, and seems to have found himself different since he was a child, but he can't go to school and make other friends, which is a huge blow to David, he can only listen to his parents' stories and grow up.
In order to make the child less boring, David's parents will also fully disinfect some toys and stuff them into "bubbles" to let David pass some leisure time.
Parents are extremely competent, they have never given up on their children, they do not feel pessimistic, they must not let the inner sadness be felt by David, they just hope that he tries to feel that he is a "normal child".
After a long time, even David felt that his illness would recover sooner or later, and sooner or later he would have to leave this "bubble".
And those people living in freedom in the outside world feel even more sad for David, and it is difficult for normal people to understand what a life will be like to live in a "cocoon" all their lives, and everyone is looking forward to David's new birth.
It's just a pity that the miracle did not appear, and David did not get a standard fairy tale ending.
With the development of medicine, doctors have found many new ways to treat this disease, but the cost is still very expensive.
A team of scientists from San Francisco, Seattle and other countries claims that they have treated 10 children with the same disease as David, and although this disease is a rare disease, a lot of research should be carried out, and no life can be given up at will.
The story of "Bubble Boy" David has attracted a lot of attention, and statistics from relevant institutions show that about one in every 200,000 newborns is plagued by severe combined immunodeficiency disease.
If David had been born a few years later or had survived to this day, he might have been able to live happily with his family.
Researchers at St. Jude Children's Hospital implanted modified copies of the faulty gene into the hematopoietic stem cells of sick children in the shell of the HIV virus, where the babies were first given low-dose chemotherapy and then cleared out the empty bone marrow so that the successfully repaired cells could take root and grow.
These repaired stem cells can multiply, and then they can begin to make the immune factors that the body needs to recognize and defeat threats, including B cells, T cells, and autophagy cells.
The entire treatment cycle is about half a year, and soon, the patient's various cells can reach a normal number.
Not only can these cells be made, but they also communicate and constrain each other.
One simple thing is this: if the number of T cells increases, then the number of B cells decreases accordingly; Conversely, if B cells grow wildly and uncontrollably, it can lead to cancer.
During the initial research phase, the scientists selected 10 sick babies, 9 of whom had regained immunity, and only one male infant had no response to the treatment and had to be re-treated.
However, this method can generally only be used on babies.
In 2000, researchers from France took a similar approach to fighting the disease, and they soon announced that they had cured a patient, concluding that the delivery system had accidentally turned on genes adjacent to repaired genes that caused uncontrolled cell growth and cancer.
David's story is a sad story for many, but Omarion Jordan, born in Indiana, changed his life in this way.
Omarion Jordan was born with this rare disease, but local doctors were not exposed to the disease in the first place, so Omarion Jordan missed the opportunity.
Omarion Jordan then contracted the bacteria at two months of age and developed a severe rash all over his body.
At that time, the doctor thought that he was infected with eczema, but only prescribed some anti-eczema creams and baths, but Omarion Jordan's condition did not improve in the slightest, but became more and more sick.
After 3 months, Omarion Jordan's head was covered with all kinds of ugly infected scabs, and his mother was terrified and just didn't know what to do.
It wasn't until all these symptoms appeared at the same time that doctors sequenced his genes, and he was transferred to a hospital specializing in the immune system.
Everything was especially fortunate for Omarion Jordan, who received his new treatment in time, and he also celebrated his first birthday after successful surgery.
His mother cried and faced the camera and said: "His life has completely changed and now he can finally go out and do anything a healthy baby can do." ”
The gene therapy Omarion Jordan received was extremely expensive, the treatment, known as "MB-107", was so expensive that even the doctors did not tell the media the specific price, because there was no dust settled at that time, and there were still many considerations.
The doctor told reporters at the time: "If this therapy is approved by the FDA, the cost of treatment will be as high as $4 million." ”
This is an astronomical amount for the vast majority of families.
Today, scientists are still working on other ways to reduce the cost of existing treatments to make already difficult families worse.
reference
Gene therapy to save the "bubble boy" Whisper Health Home
Gene therapy cures "bubble boy" Zhao Wenhui; Chen Hui Nature exploration
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Author: Li Li
Editor: Monon