Cystic Fibrosis Research Paper

History of Cystic Fibrosis “Woe to that child which when kissed on the forehead tastes salty. He is bewitched and soon must die.” This proverb, dating back to European folklore in the 1700’s, was the diagnosis for the disease recognized today as Cystic Fibrosis (CF). In that time period the disease was usually fatal and common among infants. The excessive salt in the sweat, just one symptom of CF, made the disease identifiable. However, since the time of European folklore, various renowned scientists worked actively to discover the cause and possible treatments of Cystic Fibrosis. Documented history of CF began during the 1930’s and each decade following that date brought new advances in the disease. The 1930’s is the decade said to be the discovery of Cystic Fibrosis. The first mediacl description of CF as an individual disease was in 1936 by a Swiss physician, Dr. Fanconi. He labeled the illness celiac syndrome and said it caused changes in children’s pancreas. In 1938, Dr. Dorothy Andersen of Columbia University in New York, named the disease Cystic Fibrosis and distinguished it from Celiac syndrome because there was progressive lung
However, the fruition of high fat diets to treat the disease was seen. The 1980’s is said to have been the greatest decade in the history of Cystic Fibrosis research. As well as further advancements in treating the illness, the revolutionary discovery of the cystic fibrosis trans-membrane conductance regulator gene was made, by the scientist who would later go on to completing the Human Genome Project, In 1989. A mutation of this gene directly causes Cystic Fibrosis. Not too long after the discovery of the Cystic Fibrosis gene, gene replacement therapies began as a new treatment method during the 1990’s. Finally during the 1990’s the first drug made to treat Cystic Fibrosis, mucolytic Pulmozyne, was approved by the Food and Drug