![]() identified a lipid-soluble agent, distinct from the already known vitamin A, which they called vitamin D, as a nutritional anti-rachitic component which promoted calcium deposition in bones ( 5). Mellanby established an experimental animal model in dogs that mimicked human rickets ( 4). The role of calcium deficiency, the beneficial effects of cod-liver oil and sun exposure were already known, but insufficient to understand or prevent the underlying pathophysiology. UV light, generated by recently developed mercury quartz lamps, healed and prevented rickets in children after repeated exposure. He demonstrated that exposure to ‘artificial sunlamps’, i.e. However, families living on low incomes could not afford to prevent this disease by exposing their offspring to fresh air and sun during the summer months in southern European regions.Īfter a first reported communication on the light treatment of rickets in 1904 ( 1) and a suggestion that sunlight deficiency caused rickets ( 2), rational medical prevention and therapy were ‘enlightened’ by a series of reports published by Huldschinsky between 19 ( 3). First tentative nutritional (cod oil) and therapeutic (sunlight exposure) measures achieved initial and significant successes. ![]() Rickets had been associated with poor nutrition, lack of sun exposure, poor life conditions and low socioeconomic status. More than a century ago, a prevailing condition that adversely affected child development and was termed the ‘English disease’, but which was widespread over most industrialized regions and major cities in the northern hemisphere, received high attention. ![]() Classical chemicals-based pharmaceuticals, recombinant proteins, monoclonal antibodies and biologicals, and (very recently) mRNA-based vaccines, have successfully expanded the therapeutic spectrum, whilst efficient preventive approaches have proved challenging. Contemporary medicine focuses its therapeutic approaches on the personalized targeting of key molecular elements with respect to mechanism-based pathways, or molecules involved in pathophysiologically relevant processes that are causally related (or indeed associated with various diseases). ![]()
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