Category: Bad Medicine
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Egas Moniz: The Controversial Father of Psychosurgery
António Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz (1874-1955) was a Portuguese neurologist who left an indelible, if controversial, mark on the field of psychiatry. Born in Avanca, Portugal, Moniz studied medicine at the University of Coimbra, graduating in 1899. Moniz’s career was multifaceted: -Professor of Neurology at the University of Lisbon (1911-1944) -Politician and diplomat,…
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Omenn Syndrome: When Your Body Throws Its Own Surprise Party
Imagine your immune system as an overzealous party planner, but instead of organizing a fun bash, it’s staging a revolt against your own body. Welcome to the world of Omenn syndrome, where your T cells decide to go rogue and treat your organs like they’re uninvited guests. These rebellious T cells, armed with mutant RAG…
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The Lady Who Brought Pox to the Party
Picture this: It’s 1717, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is living her best life in Constantinople, sipping Turkish coffee and learning about the latest beauty trends when she stumbles upon a local practice that would change medical history forever. Instead of bringing back exotic spices or fancy rugs, she decides to import something truly wild…
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Thorazine: chemical straitjacket
This is the absolutely bonkers tale of Thorazine, the wonder drug that turned mental hospitals into zombie discos! Picture this: It’s the 1950s, and French scientists are busy cooking up antihistamines like they’re trying to win a sneezing contest. But oops! They accidentally create a drug that makes people act like they’ve had a lobotomy…
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The Merry-go-round from hell for the mentally unstable
Picture this: It’s 1810, and ol’ Benny Rush, fresh off his success with the Tranquilizing Chair, thinks to himself, “You know what would really cure madness? A merry-go-round from hell!” Enter the Gyrator, a centrifugal spinning board designed to improve circulation to the brain. Because nothing says “mental health” like being strapped to a giant,…
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Sensory Deprivation toilet chair for the Mentally Unstable
Imagine walking into a room and seeing a contraption that looks like a cross between a medieval torture rack and a porta-potty. Welcome to Benjamin Rush’s Tranquilizing Chair, the 18th century’s answer to the question, “How can we make mental illness even more fun… for us?” In 1810, Rush, the “Father of American Psychiatry” (because…
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The neonatal fragment crystallizable (Fc) receptor (also FcRn, IgG receptor FcRn large subunit p51, or Brambell receptor) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FCGRT gene
It is an IgG Fc receptor which is similar in structure to the MHC class I molecule and also associates with beta-2-microglobulin. In rodents, FcRn was originally identified as the receptor that transports maternal immunoglobulin G (IgG) from mother to neonatal offspring via mother’s milk, leading to its name as the neonatal Fc receptor. In humans, FcRn is present in the placenta where…
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Structure of DNA repair protein XRCC4 aka X-ray repair cross-complementing protein 4
XRCC4 protein is a TETRAMER that resembles the shape of a DUMBBELL containing two globular ends separated by a long, thin stalk. The tetramer is composed of two dimers, and each dimer is made up of two similar subunits. The first subunit (L) contains amino acid residues 1 – 203 and has a longer stalk than the second…
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Staphylokinase (SAK) aka staphylococcal fibrinolysin or Müller’s factor
Staphylokinase (SAK; also known as staphylococcal fibrinolysin or Müller’s factor) is a protein produced by Staphylococcus aureus. It contains 136 amino acid residues and has a molecular mass of 15kDa. Synthesis of staphylokinase occurs in late exponential phase. It is similar to streptokinase. Fibrinolysin is an enzyme derived from plasma of bovine origin (plasmin) or extracted from cultures of certain bacteria. (more below) Staphylokinase is positively…
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Leavell, B S. “Thomas Jefferson and smallpox vaccination.” Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association vol. 88 (1977): 119-27 and a few notes
Little Turtle, mentioned in the main article, suffered gout and rheumatism before he died in 1812 Wikipedia says Little Turtle, who also met Washington and Adams, made two trips to Washington, D.C., in 1801–02 and 1809–09 to meet with President Jefferson. Little Turtle died on July 14, 1812, and had suffered from gout and rheumatism for some time. He was honored…
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Reactive arthritis aka Reiter’s syndrome
Reportedly triggered by everything from food poisoning to bug bites to STDs to hormones (estrogen, relaxin) Mnemonic: Can't See, Can't Pee, Can't Climb a Tree
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Chrysiasis
Chrysiasis is a dermatological condition induced by the parenteral administration of gold salts, usually for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Such treatment has been superseded as the best practice for treating the disease because of “numerous side effects and monitoring requirements, their limited efficacy, and very slow onset of action”. Similar to silver, a gold preparation used parenterally for a long period may rarely…
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Thrombin
Thrombin (fibrinogenase, thrombase, thrombofort, topical, thrombin-C, tropostasin, activated blood-coagulation factor II, blood-coagulation factor IIa, factor IIa, E thrombin, beta-thrombin, gamma-thrombin) is a serine protease, an enzyme that, in humans, is encoded by the F2 gene. During the clotting process, prothrombin (coagulation factor II) is proteolytically cleaved by the prothrombinase enzyme complex to form thrombin. Thrombin in turn acts as a serine protease that converts soluble fibrinogen into insoluble strands of fibrin, as well as catalyzing many other coagulation-related reactions. History After the description…
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Microfold cells (or M cells)
Microfold cells (or M cells) are found in the gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) of the Peyer’s patches in the small intestine, and in the mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) of other parts of the gastrointestinal tract. These cells are known to initiate mucosal immunity responses on the apical membrane of the M cells and allow for transport of microbes and particles across the epithelial cell layer from the gut lumen to the lamina…
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Perivitellin-2 (PV2) is a pore-forming toxin present in the egg perivitelline fluid of apple snails
Perivitellin-2 (PV2) is a pore-forming toxin present in the egg perivitelline fluid of the apple snails Pomacea maculata (PmPV2) and Pomacea canaliculata (PcPV2). This protein, called perivitellin, is massively accumulated in the eggs (~20 % total protein). As a toxin PV2 protects eggs from predators, but it also nourishes the developing snail embryos. Structure and stability These ~172-kDa proteins are dimers of AB toxins, each composed of a carbohydrate-binding…
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Perivitellins are egg proteins found in the perivitelline fluid of many gastropods
Perivitellins are multifunctional complexes providing the developing embryo with nutrition, protection from the environment, and defense against predators. Despite the central role perivitellins play in reproduction and development, there is little information about their role in gastropod Molluscs. Most studies of perivitellins have been performed in eggs of Ampullaridae, a family of freshwater snails (Caenogastropoda), notably the Pomacea genus, mostly…
