Well my busy week has turned out sadly a different kind of
busy week. Not one for me but others I have to sort out. My plan of a coffee
with a friend worked out yesterday, but we made plans to go out to a quiz this
Thursday and sadly, Hub won’t be able to come because he is working away and
won’t be home until late. He told me to go but it’s not the same it’s a couple
kind of night out. Today I was to meet with Arty but I had to cancel because
Hub decided to work from home last minute. Also, the most important reason, my
Son is really ill in bed. He has been unwell for days. But he is getting worse rather
than better. He is twenty, so I can’t do anything about it apart from today
take him drinks and paracetamols and before he said for the first time he was
starving. He hasn’t eaten in 24 hours, this is not like him. I took him a
cheese muffin he didn’t want toast or scrambled egg as I suggested. He asked
for a hot water bottle. I said I bought him over the years two. I asked, where
are they? He replied. In the loft. Oh, very handy. So, I found mine and he now
is nursing a really poorly stomach, head, ache and his limbs are painful. Being
his age, he won’t go to the Doctors, mind you, I doubt our place would be able
to see him for two weeks.
I had no sleep at all last night. I’m not joking. He was out
at Shams until two this morning. He said he slept. Well he should have been
home in his own bed how boring for Sham. He said he tried to go for a walk and
couldn’t get out of the car. Oh, you know, I’m worried sick. It’s almost three
in the afternoon and he is still in bed. And, get this, my dog isn’t too well
either. She keeps threatening to be sick. It’s funny as each time she starts to
do that sound no dog owner wants to hear, The Little Fella walks away from lying
next to her. He goes as far across the room as possible. They know don’t they
when the other is going to be sick? She will have eaten something in the
garden, but BW hasn’t, so what is wrong with him? I think I know. He on
Shamrocks instructions is cooking his dinners prep as he calls it and freezing
them. Then defrosting and microwaving. I
told him not to do that, but Sham says she does it so in the freezer they went.
Of course, a just turned eighteen-year-old lass knows best. Then he has bought
fat busters. I mean, he has not got a bit of fat on him. He bought them from
what he called a reputable company. He also bought tablets to give him energy.
With caffeine in them. Again, he read the ingredients out to me and I’m no
wiser. The only thing I understood was vitamins but I suppose if they put the
odd word in them like vitamins, then some, people will think they are good.
Well since he has been taken them he has been really really ill. Today he has
been in bed so I pray to God he will stay there and keep away from them. But if
he doesn’t get better soon and continues to take them, what do I do? He isn’t a
child as he keeps telling me.
My Son eventually got his clothes cleaned yesterday from
when he did the mud race. Oh, you should have seen my kitchen. It took me two
hours this morning to sort our kitchen out, not just mud, but last night I didn’t
tidy up before bed and it was left. So empty dish washer, fill it, wash down
work tops and cooker as well as wipe down the fridge as our groceries are coming
tonight. Took my Sons washing out on our new line, it’s great, once I find the
blooming thing. We put it down every night so it’s like a stick in the middle
of a large yard and then it’s hunt the pole. Then to clean the washing machine.
Then the floors oh boy, but all done now as for dinner tonight? Really don’t
care. Smile.
It’s a nice day. Not too hot but a gentle breeze coming
through our open window. Right now, I will go and do some more work around the
house then I have a couple of calls and dates to enter into the Diary for various
appointments.
So far, I hope to meet up with my friend tomorrow then I got
a text from Greece to meet up with another couple on Friday night with Hub. Not
sadly in Greece, haha, but they are on holiday and are coming back tomorrow so
want a catch up. So that will be nice. I just hope my baby will be feeling
better by then. I pray he stops taken them blooming pills. He is so very stubborn.
And before I go some news.
In Melbourne, they are very close
to developing a small device that is implanted and is better than the previous
bionic eye which is much more intrusive but this is only good for those still
with sight. In China, they are working hard with stem cells. The news looks
good from there. It’s in Northern China and about 20 days of pretty intense
treatment. Again, the only reports I have read are from those with some sight
not those of us who are totally blind. But this is great news for us. CRISPR Breakthrough: Restoring Vision by Reprogramming Cells
April 25th,
2017 by FFB Canada
The eye’s
photoreceptor cells are essential for vision because of their unique ability to
convert light into visual signals. The loss of photoreceptors is at the root of
many blinding eye diseases, including retinitis pigmentosa (RP), age-related
macular degeneration (AMD), and Stargardt Disease – to name just a few.
Restoring
photoreceptors therefore has tremendous therapeutic potential. Many research
teams, around the world, are developing sight-restoring treatments that involve
replacing damaged photoreceptors via stem
cell transplantation.
Stem
cell transplantation is not the only way to restore vision. Last week, an incredible discovery
demonstrated that gene-editing can also restore sight.
The team, led
by Kang Zhang from the University of California, San Diego, used the
gene-editing tool, CRISPR, to change the genes that are expressed in rod
photoreceptor cells. Specifically, they used CRISPR to turn off the genes Nrl
and Nr2e3, which play an important role in the development of photoreceptors
cells. There are two types of photoreceptors: rods and cones. Humans have
approximately 6 million cones and about 120 million rods. Amazingly, the team
observed that turning off these two genes in rods caused the cells to become
cone photoreceptors. This “reprogramming” of rods into cones has powerful
therapeutic potential, especially for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which
primarily involves the loss of rod photoreceptors.
Currently,
there are no treatments for RP, which is an umbrella term for a group of
inherited blinding eye diseases that are caused by mutations in more than 60
genes. Although there are different kinds of RP, all forms involve the death of
rod photoreceptors, which are responsible for peripheral and night-vision. In
contrast, cone photoreceptors are responsible for high-acuity, central
vision. In RP, cones continue to function after the rods are gone, but
ultimately begin to die toward the later stages of the disease.
To test if
their reprogramming approach could work as a treatment for RP, the team studied
two different animal models of RP. In both cases, the team demonstrated that
reprogramming rod cells with CRISPR led to improved cone function, thereby
reversing the development of RP and restoring visual function.
The team is
optimistic that their approach could also work as a treatment for people living
with RP because their proof-of-principle results in the laboratory are very
encouraging. Although they are not able to test their approach in a clinical
trial yet, they are certainly looking toward treatments in the future,
especially because the need is so urgent.
This urgent
need for new treatments and the fast-pace of promising vision research
motivates the FFB’s Restore
Vision 20/20 Initiative, which will fund sight-saving research with the
greatest potential to move into a clinical trial.
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