Why 2018 Was the Year of Living Medicines
How Engineered Organisms are Being Programmed to Fight Disease
Leeches, those blood-sucking, slimy animals that are too often the stuff of nightmares and B-movies (for a great B movie example, see Leeches!, a movie from 2003, with the actual plot line of: “Mutated leeches terrorize a college campus after feeding on blood tainted by steroids”), are actually amazing healers. The word ‘leech’ even derives its name from the Anglo-Saxon loece, meaning ‘to heal’. These oozing creatures have been used in medicine for thousands of years, with medical documentations dating back to at least the time of Themison of Laodicea, a Greek physician that lived between 80–40 BC and is credited as the founder of the Methodic School of Medicine.
Leeches are placed on the skin of the patient for about 30 minutes. They pierce the skin with sharp rows of teeth and inject anticoagulants and other bioactive compounds into the bloodstream. Leeches are still used in certain medical applications today, including for osteoarthritis and some inflammatory diseases. But the future of ‘organismal-based’ therapies is far more extreme than just leeches. Research published in 2018 has changed everything, ushering in a new era of ‘living’ medicines.
