Where does humira come from?

Humira, also known as adalimumab, has taken the medical world by storm since its introduction in 2002. It is a medication that treats various autoimmune diseases and comes with an awe-inspiring price tag. But where does this magical drug come from? Let’s delve deeper into the mysterious origin story of Humira.

A Brief Introduction to Autoimmune Diseases

Before we dive into the origin of Humira, let’s do a quick refresher on autoimmune diseases. Autoimmune diseases are conditions caused when your immune system mistakenly attacks your own body’s tissues. These can manifest in several forms, but most involve inflammation brought about by abnormal actions from white blood cells meant to protect you.

Some common examples include rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Crohn’s disease, psoriasis, and lupus. To treat these types of illnesses requires something special; which brings us closer to understanding how Adalimumab came about.

Birthplace of Adalimumab

Adalimumab owes its birth to two things: researchers at Cambridge University studying TNF-alpha protein1, and Belgian biopharmaceutical company Solvay Pharmaceuticals testing for ways to block it from causing chronic inflammatory disorders.2

It turns out that TNF-alpha is one particular pro-inflammatory cytokine (what we call messaging molecules used when a cell needs another cell/group or itself need[s] help surviving infection/injury). Researchers in Cambridge discovered that patients suffering from regions such as rheumatoid arthritis had considerably higher levels than average3.

As it happened, around this time Solvay was attempting to develop inhibitors against Chronic Inflammatory Disorders by blocking/neutralizing/binding biologicals (proteins) such as TNF-alpha molecule responsible for inducing inflammation & tissue damage4.

Eventually, these two entities’ paths crossed and found themselves on a course to develop an inhibitor of TNF-alpha. While Solvay initially experimented with Infliximab (a monoclonal fusion antibody against the same pro-inflammatory cytokine), Adalimumab would come later as the more successful product.

How Does Humira Work?

Adalimumab operates by binding to tumor necrosis factor (TNF) molecules soluble in blood or filching them from places they are not wanted. Humira injections directly added thus act as human-made antibodies and help prevent inflammation caused by the immune system5.

Sounds good, but what makes it peculiar? Part of its uniqueness comes from its method of preparing.(Let’s slip into laboratory territory for a moment)

Many ‘traditional’ ways to forming antibodies need synthetic complement limbs attached ergo-called “Fab” domains; still, Adalimumab uses something new: Complementary Determining Regions (CDR). These three loops have noticeably greater variability than other parts of humira molecule & allow it precise bindings at TNF molecules without useless attachment elsewhere 6.

As such, when our white blood cells overreact during autoimmune disorders & synthesize excessive amounts of dysfunctional TNFs that should be helping us recover/injured tissues can slowly breakdown- leading to further cell death/necrosis complications.

In steps Humira (aka adalimumab), which suppresses said unwanted reactions effectively while also being safe enough for long-term treatment programs according to studies and reviews7.

On top of this benefit crucially is that because pure lab-manufactured CDRs make up the core componentry hence scientifically confirmed low levels dependency regarding animal products used in manufacturing particular batch productions(up until now)p8/sup).

Cooking Up Humira

Birthed from Cambridge and Solvay’s research efforts, the founding materials to cook up Adalimumab includes these:

  • Purified Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines.
  • A high yield expression vector gene sequence that interferes with protein folding interfering sequences10.
  • Several chemically refined reagents such as an Ultrapure water purification system + molecular HClp11/sup>.

The CHO serves as a type of cell line used for creation purposes in bio-manufacturing industries due to their high-quality phenotype results yet relatively low health risk.

After a series of stringent quality control checks scientists inject CHOs with our specially synthesized genetic code using DNA vectors. The resulting genome then kick-in overproduction machinery pumping out adalimumab antibodies at specific paces kept under optimal lab conditions like temperature & nutrient supply until harvest time comes along.12.

Final Thoughts

And there you have it folks, another medical origin story has come to light! We’ve seen where Humira came from and its significance in treating autoimmune diseases through selectively blocking TNF-alpha molecules’ actions effectively plus have had an inkling into how this procedure gets done — after enduring frank-science talk!

Admittedly the Costs behind getting access/continuous treatment utilization could differ vastly between countries, so before considering if online science interests get translated into personell care conversations per try consulting certified health practitioners or related associations within desired regions first (e.g., FDA; NCBI etc.)

Either way, let’s raise our glasses filled with purified water presented only by genuine ceramics apart   —Quite different than what it considered pure H20 back in elementary right?Start your own fact-checking journey on this one!

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