Bilharz also noted that the adult flukes were different in anatomy and number eggs they produced. He introduced the terms bilharzia and bilharziasis for the name of the infection in 1856. A German zoologist David Friedrich Weinland corrected the genus name to Schistosoma in 1858; and introduced the disease name as schistosomiasis.The species distinction was first recognised by Patrick Manson at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Manson identified lateral-spined eggs in the faeces of a colonial officer earlier posted to the West Indies, and concluded that there were two species of Schistosoma. An Italian-British physician Louis Westenra Sambon gave the new names Schistosomum haematobium and Schistosomum mansoni in 1907, the latter to honour Manson. Sambon only gave partial description using a male worm. In 1908, a Brazilian physician Manuel Augusto Pirajá da Silva gave a complete description of male and female worms, including the lateral-spined eggs. Pirajá da Silva obtained specimens from three necropsies and eggs from 20 stool examinations in Bahia. He gave the name S. americanum. The species identity was confirmed in 1907 by British parasitologist Robert Thomson Leiper, identifying the specific snail host, and distinguishing the egg structure, thereby establishing the life cycle. References
External links
 Media related to Schistosoma mansoni at Wikimedia Commons
Disease info at CDC
Species profile at Animal Diversity Web
Profile at WormBase
Patisiran, sold under the brand name Onpattro, is a medication used for the treatment of polyneuropathy in people with hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis, a fatal rare disease that is estimated to affect 50,000 people worldwide.It is the first small interfering RNA-based drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the first drug approved by the FDA to treat this condition. It is a gene silencing drug that interferes with the production of an abnormal form of transthyretin. Patisiran utilizes a novel approach to target and reduce production of the TTR protein in the liver via the RNAi pathway.Patisiran was developed and is marketed by Alnylam. The FDA considers it to be a first-in-class medication. History
Patisiran was granted orphan drug status, fast track designation, priority review and breakthrough therapy designation due to its novel mechanism and the rarity of the condition it treats. It was approved for medical use in the United States and in the European Union in August 2018. The per-patient cost is between US$451,430 and US$677,145 per year, depending on the number of vials needed. Formulation
The siRNA active component of Patisiran is formulated into lipid nanoparticles, which protect the RNA and facilitate its delivery to target tissues. The lipid nanoparticle formulation includes buffer components, as well as the lipid components DLin-MC3-DMA, Distearoylphosphatidylcholine, cholesterol, and the PEGylated lipid DMG-PEG 2000. Society and culture
Economics
As of 2020, there were 1050 people globally receiving patisiran, generating $65.5M in net-revenues for Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. References
External links
"Patisiran". Drug Information Portal. U.S. National Library of Medicine.