Team:Manchester-Graz/Practices
Human Practices
Key Achievements
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Drawing conclusions from our human practices and outreach activities we can conclude, that the theoretical concept of DopaDoser found great approval from experts as well as from patients. Due to the daily burden of Parkinson’s patients applying current medications like Levodopa, the attitude towards new drug developments are very positive. The latest achievement on that field is the introduction of the Duodopa® therapy, an intrajejunal tube which uses Levodopa® gel. This Duodopa® therapy enables the reduction of side effects by the possibility to directly transfer L-Dopa into the jejunum. Thus, the ingestion of decarboxylase blockers can be avoided and the L-Dopa level can be adapted to a constant level throughout the day. Still the whole system has to be rinsed every evening and an oral therapy has to be applied over night.
DopaDoser would have the same advantages as Duodopa® due to its introduction in the jejunum. As well no elaborate maintenance of the system has to be sustained. For patients a well-established application of DopaDoser would improve living conditions due to less side effects and limited medication complexity. After an initial implementation of the DopaDoser therapy, the costs could probably be minimized, in comparison to the Duodopa® therapy, due to a less elaborate application of the new system. Furthermore, the novel production and delivery method could have certain advantages over existing industrial processes.
Still, some open questions have to be ruled out. Though, the issue regarding cell densities that can be reached in the jejunum has to be investigated. As well, concentrations of L-Dopa released by our engineered bacteria have to be measured and adapted.
Even though, at the moment the application of our introduced system is not thinkable, it might be a solution in the future. Not only Parkinson’s disease but also other treatments could be invented regarding engineered bacteria that could be introduced in the human body. Of course, the implementation of our system would not only be accompanied with further research efforts, but also the legal foundations would have to be adapted. One important step though was done within our project. We created awareness and enlightenment when it comes to topics involving synthetic biology. We got positive response from patients, experts and the general public concerning the use of genetically engineered bacteria as medication systems. This gained attitude is one step towards the design of a new field of medical applications for people in the future.
