I tend to read quite a lot of health research online, and one of the things that has intrigued me recently is the use of UV light to kill bacteria. It's already used by some medical institutions, and is very slowly creeping into home use. I think we're going to see a real revolution here soon - so long as the manufacturers of the endless anti-bacterial cleaning products don't manage to squash development. After all, who will need their products when you can just zap your kitchen surfaces with a UV light and have them clean without the use of any nasty chemicals...

They have already found an inroad into our homes though, as toothbrush sanitizers. Probably because nobody really sells a chemical product for the job - we're just supposed to throw our toothbrushes out regularly (why!?). They come in various forms, the best of which are very easy to use and just do the job without any hassle. These UV toothbrush sanitizer reviews should get you started in the right direction at least. They are published by the Dental Pros site - you can find their main website here.

There are other ways to clean and sanitize a toothbrush too of course like using real sunlight or even putting them in the dishwasher. The problem with these approaches though is that we just tend to forget to do it. If it's just automatic when you put your brush away then it's never forgotten. That's the main reason I like this approach anyway.

Look out for these products growing rapidly over the coming years though - and do support them too. Imagine all the bleach and other noxious chemicals we could avoid pouring into our oceans if we simply used UV light to clean our surfaces, toilets and floors. They could even work out cheaper in the long run too. Imagine that.

Professor Long Zheng, who is University of Alabama's director of the Division of Laboratory Medicine, is working with his team on molecular-level studies of an antibody that inactivates ADAMTS13 (which is a blood enzyme). It's basically inhibiting of ADAMTS13 by this antibody within patients suffering TTP that leads to microvascular clots.

As a report of the study says:- The ability of ADAMTS13 to recognize von Willibrand factor is exquisitely sensitive, somewhat like a fan who goes to a football game with 50,000 people and yet recognizes his cousin out of all the faces in the crowd. Similarly, the ability of the autoimmune antibodies in a TTP patient to recognize and bind to the patient’s own ADAMTS13 enzyme is also exquisitely sensitive, picking only ADAMTS13 out of all the other possible “self” proteins in the body.

But if Prof. Zheng and his team can uncover how these two abilities work, then they could alter the enzyme to stop it being hit by the immune system without causing any further side effects. If they achieve it this would greatly assist recovery times and massively cut treatment costs too. It's a long way from being anything available, but it's exciting research all the same.

Here's an interesting recent paper from Lim, Vesely, and George on the use of rituximab in preventing relapse of TTP. Bear in mind this drug is not approved by the US FDA for TTP treatment (it's actually approved for use with non-Hodgkin lymphomas).

Anyway here's the link to the full paper at the American Society of Hematology:-
https://ashpublications.org/blood/article/125/10/1526/33786/The-role-of-rituximab-in-the-management-of