Klaus
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Klaus
MemberAugust 21, 2020 at 10:01 am in reply to: The sickle cell and why it is in black people and why it makes them pass out??As said before, sickle cell is caused by a mutation for gene for hemoglobin in red blood cells. People with sickle cell anemia have 2 mutated alleles while those with “sickle cell trait” have only one mutated allele and one normal allele.
The abnormal hemoglobin is “sticky” in low oxygen environments and causes red blood cells to become deformed and sickled in shape and rigid. This is a problem because these cells cannot pass though blood vessels as easily as normal RBCs can. I think (not sure on this one) that they can even get stuck and clog up vessels causing blindness and pain <span data-sheets-value=”{“1″:2,”2″:”https://19216801.onl/”}” data-sheets-userformat=”{“2″:268480,”9″:1,”10″:2,”14″:[null,2,1136076],”15″:”arial,sans,sans-serif”,”21″:1}”>https://19216801.onl/</span>.
The reason why so many black people have sickle cell, is that having the trait (so only one copy of the mutated allele) makes people more resistant to malaria <span data-sheets-value=”{“1″:2,”2″:”https://routerlogin.uno/”}” data-sheets-userformat=”{“2″:268512,”8”:{“1”:[{“1″:2,”2″:0,”5”:{“1”:0}},{“1″:0,”2″:0,”3”:3},{“1″:1,”2″:0,”4″:1}]},”9″:1,”10″:2,”14″:[null,2,1136076],”15″:”arial,sans,sans-serif”,”21″:1}”>https://routerlogin.uno/</span>. Malaria is a huge problem is sub-saharan Africa. While the exact mechanism is still unknown, we believe that this resistance is caused by RBC’s sickleing when infected by the malaia parasite. This makes people with sickle cell trait better able to survive than people without the trait in malaria prone regions.
So even though having sickle cell anemia makes people sick, having the sickle cell trait can be beneficial.
To be more precise, malaria doesn’t cause sickle cell anemia but it does make the disease more common. If you have one copy of the gene (allele) for sickle cell anemia and another healthy copy (heterozygous), you are more malaria resistant. Because of this, people that carry the gene are more likely to survive malaria than people with two healthy copies. Unfortunately, carrying two copies of the unhealthy allele (homozygous) has all of the bad effects you mentioned.
Higher rates of this unhealthy allele should be more common any where there is rampant malaria. Without malaria, there is no reason why people with one copy should survive better than people with two healthy copies (in fact, I believe there are some negative effects of carrying one copy).
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Klaus
MemberAugust 10, 2020 at 1:42 pm in reply to: Alberta woman 1st adult in Canada to be ‘cured’ of sickle cell anemiaHello everyone, It’s not far off! http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1705342?query=featured_home
And here’s a YouTube video about it: http://www.nejm.org/do/10.1056/NEJMdo005273/full/
(I’m not sure if you knew about this trial already, or you’re just exited to see a cure come along. Sorry if you already knew!)
As far as I understand, the process of extracting stem cells destroys the embryo they came from. Stem cell research is only done with stem cells that come from embryos that are leftover from IVF or have harmful genetic diseases. However it’s super easy to contort the message {“1″:2,”2″:”https://kodi.bio/”}” data-sheets-userformat=”https://kodi.bio/ into “stem cell research kills babies” which is a nice clickable sensationalist headline. Some people thought that doctors would be in cahoots with researchers and sabatoge pregnancies for more stem cells. Then they split the profit from the research. Crazy stuff like that. You’d think that people would get riled up over it since it can closely relate to the pro choice pro life argument. Maybe I’m overestimating people but I like to think more people understand the benefits of stem cell research now and sensationalist headlines about it are largely in the past.
She lives in my City and I work in the health industry. I’ve met her on a few occasions and I can tell you she is so deserving of this. She’s pretty amazing.