Biotechnology in Healthcare and Medicine: Definition, Application & Significance

Have you ever met a person with diabetes who requires daily insulin injections? What is the source of this synthetic insulin, according to you? It is a result of biotechnology applications in the medical area. Biotechnology is widely employed to develop beneficial products for human benefit in various disciplines such as medicine, agriculture, food processing, etc. The most important biotechnology applications in healthcare and medicine are covered in-depth further down. Let’s take a closer look at these applications of biotechnology in healthcare and medicine.

Biotechnology Definition

Biotechnology integrates natural science and organisms, cells, parts thereof, and molecular analogues for products and services. It uses cellular and molecular processes to create products that can improve human lives on the planet. It has a broad range of applications in the human welfare research area. Let’s look at some of the most notable biotechnology applications and how far they have spread.

Fig: Application of Biotechnology in Healthcare and Medicine

Biotechnology Applications in Healthcare

This biotechnology use in healthcare and medicine is critical since it enables the mass manufacture of safe and effective drugs. It also reduces immunological reactions that are prevalent in medical items derived from non-human sources.

Around 30 recombinant medicines have been approved for human use all over the world today. Whereas presently, there are 12 recombinant therapies available in India. In the field of medicine, biotechnology has a wide range of applications. The following are some examples of biotechnology uses in treatment: Let’s look at a few possibilities.

1. Genetically Engineered Insulin or Recombinant Insulin

People with diabetes need insulin to eliminate excess sugar from their blood. As a result, they require external insulin to maintain blood glucose control. Earlier, diabetes was treated using the insulin produced from the pancreas of slaughtered pigs and calves. Insulin obtained in this way on administration caused allergies and other immunological issues. Hence it became necessary to isolate human insulin.

Insulin comprises two short polypeptide chains, A and B, which are connected by disulfide bridges. In mammals, insulin is created as a ‘prohormone’ (including humans). This prohormone contains an additional peptide; the C peptide must be eliminated before mature insulin is produced.

Fig: Maturation of an Insulin-Like Structure

The most difficult aspect of producing human insulin is assembling it into its mature state. In 1983, an American business called “Eli Lilly” solved this obstacle. Let’s see how.

1. They created two DNA sequences that correspond to human insulin A and B chains.
2. They then used these sequences to construct insulin chains in E.Coli plasmids.
3. They also made the chains (proinsulin) individually, removed C- peptide, and joined them using disulphide bonds to make human insulin.

2. Gene Therapy

Is it possible to treat a child who was born with a genetic defect? Yes, by a technique called gene therapy! The most potential solution to the problem of hereditary illnesses is gene therapy.
Gene therapy treats genetic problems involving inserting a normal gene or a right gene for a defective or dysfunctional gene into a person using vectors. The normal gene takes up the functions of the faulty or dysfunctional gene. If the therapy is started early in infancy, it has the best potential of growing into a permanent cure.

1. The first medical gene therapy was used to cure a 4-year-old girl with an adenosine deaminase deficiency (ADA) in 1990. Adenosine deaminase is an enzyme required for immune system function.
2. A loss of the ADA gene causes this condition.
3. In some cases, bone marrow transplantation can help to cure this disease.
4. Few medical cases also suggest enzyme replacement therapy to treat ADA, which injects the patient with functioning ADA.
5. Both of the operations mentioned above, however, are not curative.

Fig: Gene Therapy

Let’s have a look at how gene therapy works:

1. The patient’s blood lymphocytes are cultivated in a culture outside the body during gene therapy.
2. After that, a functioning ADA cDNA is integrated into these cells and returned to the patient. These help to relieve the disorder’s symptoms.
3. However, because these genetically altered lymphocytes are not immortal, the patient will need to get infusions of them regularly.
4. The gene-producing ADA from stem cells could be introduced into cells at the early embryonic stages of life to provide a permanent treatment.

3. Molecular Diagnosis

Another application of biotechnology in the health sector is a medical diagnosis or molecular diagnosis. Conventional procedures such as serum and urine tests do not allow for early detection. By the time the condition is recognised, the pathogen concentration has often increased. As a result, early detection and understanding of pathophysiology are critical for a successful cure.

Recombinant DNA Technology, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), autoradiography, and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), among other techniques, can be used to achieve this. Let’s have a look at some biotechnology applications that assist in disease early detection.

a. PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)

Is there a technique to detect infections when their concentrations are low in the early stages of the disease?

1. Yes, PCR (polymerase chain reaction) is used. PCR enables amplification of the pathogen’s nucleic acid, identifying the pathogen at extremely low concentrations.
2. We now utilise PCR to regularly detect HIV in suspected AIDS patients and gene mutations in suspected cancer patients.

b. ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay)

Antigen-antibody responses are the key principle of ELISA. ELISA can identify the presence of antigens (pathogen proteins) in the patient’s serum or the antibodies generated against the pathogen to diagnose infections. Some examples include:

1. Diagnosis of HIV infection
2. Pregnancy tests
3. Measurement of cytokines or serum
4. Food allergens
5. Detection of platelet antibodies

c. Autoradiography (Fluorescence In Situ Hybridisation)

Fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) is a molecular method that allows gene mutation detection by the number, size, and location of DNA and RNA segments within individual cells in a tissue sample.

Let’s have a look at how and where autoradiography works:

1. Fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) utilises fluorescent-labelled bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) probes hybridised with single-stranded DNA or RNA.
2. They are used to imaging chromosomes and genes—for instance, aneusomy, chromosomal deletions, and translocations.
3. It is used to detect mutations in genes in suspected cancer patients and many more.

4. Recombinant vaccine

The vaccine produced through recombinant DNA technology is called a recombinant vaccine. This involves inserting the DNA encoding an antigen (such as a surface protein of bacteria) which stimulates an immune response into bacterial or mammalian cells and expresses the antigen in these cells. Then purify it from them. Example: Hepatitis B vaccine was the first human vaccine produced by recombinant DNA techniques.

Following are the types of Recombinant Vaccine:

1. Subunit vaccines: These are the components of pathogenic organisms. Subunit vaccines include protein, peptides, and DNA. Example: Hepatitis B, BCG, HSV.
2. Attenuated recombinant vaccines: These are the genetically modified pathogenic organisms made non-pathogenic and used as vaccines. Example: measles, mumps, rubella, yellow fever, and some influenza vaccines.
3. Vector recombinant vaccines: These are genetically modified viral vectors. These can be used as vaccines against certain pathogens. Example: ZIKA, Flu

Other Applications of Biotechnology in Healthcare and Medicine

1. Pharmacogenomics

Pharmacogenomics is the application of whole-genome technologies to forecast an individual’s disease’s susceptibility or resistance to a single or set of pharmaceuticals. Pharmacogenomics has resulted in the development of medications that are tailored to a person’s genetic makeup. It can be used to treat cancer, depression, HIV, asthma, and other illnesses.

The monoclonal antibody, an antibody produced artificially through genetic engineering and related techniques. The (mAb or moAb) are identical immunoglobulins generated from a single B-cell clone. These antibodies recognize unique epitopes, or binding sites, on a single antigen. The application of monoclonal antibodies is as follows:

1. ELISA Detection Antibody(direct, indirect, sandwich,
2. and capture ELISA formats)ELISA Capture Antibody
3. Western Blot Detection Antibody
4. Therapeutic Antibody Drug
5. Clinical Tests

2. Edible Vaccines

Animals and cell cultures are used to create vaccines. These vaccinations include microorganisms that have been inactivated. Antigens produced by transgenic plants can be utilised as edible vaccinations. Plants such as tomatoes and bananas can express antigenic proteins from a variety of diseases. Animal foot and mouth disease can be treated with transgenic sugar beet, while illnesses like cholera and hepatitis B can be cured with transgenic bananas and tomatoes.

3. Biomedical Innovations

Biomedical Innovation encompasses bioprinting, regenerative medicine, biomaterials, nanomedicine, gene editing, stem cell therapies, and other life-science-based treatments. These biomedical innovation sub-domains are recognized as potential remedies for a variety of diseases. For instance: 3D bioprinting of entire complex tissues or organs such as the liver or kidney.

4. Drug Delivery

The methods for delivering medicinal drugs’ focused delivery to their place of action are strongly bound to their development. These drug delivery systems are mostly utilized for drugs with physical and chemical properties that prevent them from reaching their target site of action intact. They can also be used to deliver drugs to specific locations of action (tissue-specific targeting) or to get drugs through biological barriers like the intestinal wall or the blood-brain barrier.

Significance of Biotechnology Application in Medicine

In recent years, the field of medical biotechnology has seen remarkable growth, resulting in the creation of several novel ways for preventing, diagnosing, and treating diseases.

1. Biotechnology is helping to minimise the spread of infectious diseases.
2. Insulin is made using recombinant DNA technology in the pharmaceutical industry.
3. Gene Therapy is used to treat hereditary illnesses by replacing genes that are dysfunctional with normal functional genes.
4. Cancer, ADA deficiency, cystic fibrosis, and genetic disorders are treated using Biotechnology.
5. Bovine and human growth hormones, human interferon, and other vital drugs have all been synthesised.
6. DNA fingerprinting is used in forensics to identify parents and offenders.

Summary

Biotechnology integrates natural science and organisms, cells, parts thereof, and molecular analogues for products and services. In recent years, the field of medical biotechnology has seen remarkable growth, resulting in the creation of several novel ways for preventing, diagnosing, and treating diseases. It has made significant contributions to improving health science, such as the development of recombinant insulin, gene therapy, recombinant vaccine, and DNA fingerprinting for forensics.

Novel methodologies, such as polymerase chain reaction and fluorescence in situ hybridisation synthesised, have improved healthcare. This article has reviewed, injecting and updated major techniques in medical biotechnology and the goods created using these technologies. Medical biotechnology will soon become a major pillar of health science if current growth rates continue. In the end, we have discussed the significance of biotechnology resulting in the creation of several novel ways for preventing, diagnosing, and treating diseases.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Biotechnology Applications in Healthcare & Medicine

Q.1. Why is biotechnology so important?
Ans: The most significant aspect of biotechnology is its impact on health and medicine. Scientists have produced novel medications, such as interferon for cancer patients, synthetic human growth hormone, and synthetic insulin, using genetic engineering – the controlled change of genetic material.

Q.2. What are the five types of Biotechnology?
Ans: Medical biotechnology, industrial biotechnology, environmental biotechnology, agriculture biotechnology, and marine biotechnology are the five primary types of biotechnology.

Q.3. What are some examples of biotechnology applications in healthcare and medicine?
Ans: The following are some examples of biotechnology uses in medicine are:
1. Diabetic patients require genetic Engineered Insulin to eliminate excess sugar from the blood.
2. Gene therapy is a type of therapy that involves using the most potential solution to hereditary disorders.
3. ELISA is an example of where recombinant proteins are used in clinical diagnosis.

Q.4. How can biotechnology help humans?
Ans: Biotechnology has played a key role in medical advancements, allowing for the development of increasingly complex medicines and vaccines and the treatment and prevention of a wider variety of medical conditions.

Q.5. Where does recombinant insulin come from?
Ans: Genetically engineered insulin was first produced in E. coli by Genentech in 1978, using an approach that required the expression of chemically synthesized cDNA encoding for the insulin A and B chains separately in E. coli. These were licensed and marketed by Eli Lilly in 1982.