In Melanin We Trust

My grandmother was born in Palestine before Israel existed. My grandmother, who died less than a decade ago (in her 70s) was already older than the settler colonial state of Israel. Judaism exists without Zionism. Zionism goes against the Jewish religion. Zionism is white supremacy.

Bulletproof Dreams is an exhibition that displays paintings by Gazan children and aims to raise international awareness to the genocide in Gaza. The exhibition is located in Turkey. So powerful.

"People can't live without their parents!"

"When Rachel was 2 years old, armed men came to her village, which is 50km from Bunia, DRC. She, her sister, and her mother were attacked. Her mother was killed, and her sister had her arm cut off. Rachel now has a scar from the man who slashed her face with a machete. These pictures were taken when she was 5 and living in the Kigonze Refugee Camp in 2021. The article says she does her best not to cry when other children in the camp make fun of her scars. 💔"

"At the time of the article, UNICEF stated there were 3 MILLION children displaced across the DRC. They have no access to education and face an increased risk of rape and exploitation. They are also at risk of falling prey to drug use and being recruited into armed groups."

#FreeDRC #CongoIsBleeding #SaveCongo

The article OP references:

Edit: holy heck it’s real…

My understanding: The way autoimmune diseases usually seem to work* is the immune system is "flagging" the wrong thing as harmful/not needed and destroying it. The typical treatments for autoimmune diseases are just tamping the entire immune system down so it can't destroy anything, which leaves a person vulnerable to infection.

The newer method is basically "tricking" the body using a method that... the human body already came up with. Cells flagging the wrong thing apparently happens all the time, so there are multiple defenses against immune disease, and one of them is in the liver. So scientists figured out a way to tell the body "hey, you flagged this wrong" and sent it to the liver and the liver/body recognized this signal.

There is still a lot of work to be done and it sounds like this isn't foolproof (ie: what if the liver is whats broken? unsure, and what if the immune system flags things wrong again?) but this is literally so amazing. i was tearing up reading it, and i hope that everything goes well in clinical trials.

So the most exciting thing about this article is the last paragraph tbh (working on getting the actual paper, it's not up on sci-hub yet).

The company mentioned, Anokion, has four registered clinical trials for both Celiac and MS patients. The trial for Celiac just submitted data from their phase 1 trial (meaning there's good data it is safe) and are recruiting for a Phase 1/2 trial (meaning they are now testing efficacy). After that, the big hurdle is phase 3, which looks at whether or not it is better than a current treatment. The projected completion date is spring 2025. They are also preparing for a Phase 2 trial but are not yet recruiting.

The phase 1 MS trial is currently active, estimated completion in summer 2024.

I checked the company website and it looks like they are in the process of submitting an investigational new drug (IND) application for Type 1 diabetes. This is the first step to starting clinical safety and efficacy trials.

Holy shit. The idea of not having celiac disease anymore is so completely overwhelming.

the donations would assist healthcare workers across Gaza's hospitals, including the northern region, as they endure the challenges posed by the complete collapse of the healthcare system and the disruption of their salaries