AP, STOCKHOLMTwo Americans and a British scientist won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering how the body’s cells sense and react to oxygen levels, work that has paved the way for new strategies to fight anemia, cancer and other diseases, the Nobel Committee said. That response is key to things like producing red blood cells, generating new blood vessels and fine-tuning the immune system. The Nobel Committee said scientists are focused on developing drugs that can treat diseases by either activating or blocking the body’s oxygen-sensing machinery. The oxygen response is hijacked by cancer cells, for example, which stimulate formation of blood vessels to help themselves grow. People with kidney failure often get hormonal treatments for anemia, but the work of the new laureates points the way toward new treatments, Nils-Goran Larsson of the Nobel committee said.

Source: Taipei Times October 07, 2019 15:56 UTC