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Using Anthrax To Fight Cancer
StarEmperor writes "According to this BBC news article, scientists have used a version of the anthrax toxin to kill tumors in mice. The toxin was so effective that after just one treatment tumours were reduced in size by up to 92%."
"The toxin was so effective that after just one treatment tumours were reduced in size by up to 92%" ...but unfortunately, the scientists haven't figured out a way to keep the anthrax from killing the mice, but they remain optimistic. "The last mouse took 72 hours before it suffering respiratory failure, and tumor reduction was still 86%!"
When something like this kills off a large percentage of cells, say even 99%, I always wonder why 1% survive - are they resistent somehow? Or the toxins can't reach those particular cells? Or what?
Scientists in the US have come forward to confirm the British findings and excitedly add that Winger, Pantera and Judas Priest have also shown promising results. Cancer patients are urged to use 80's metal with caution however, as side effects such as mullets, Pointac Firebird ownership and acid wash jeans can often overshadow the original illness.
... "the cure is worse than the disease"
Anthrax is a complex of three proteins: anthrax protective antigen, edema factor, and lethal factor. Anthrax works by binding onto the surface of a cell, then an endogenous protease cleaves the protective antigen, which allows the lethal factor to enter the cell where it acts as a protease chopping up the cell's proteins (notably those involved with cellular signaling) which kills the cell. The authors of the above study have replaced the old cleavage site in the anthrax protective antigen with one that is recognized and specifically cut by urokinase, which is dramaticly upregulated in cells that are cancerous. The result is that the anthrax toxin binds cells but is only cleaved by urokinase, not by whatever was cutting it before. So cells that are making lots of urokinase (cancer cells) cut more of the anthrax protective antigen which allows more of the anthrax lethal factor to enter the cell and chop up more proteins, which kills the cell. The down side is that all cells produce some level of urokinase, so a few noncanerous cells will also be killed by the anthrax toxin, but this sounds like it could be less than traditional chemotherapy. Anyway, this is an incredibly slick idea for combating cancer!
after just one treatment tumours were reduced in size by up to 92% . Scientist believe this was due to 92% of the rats dying and being eaten
Not one comment on Scott Ian & the boys? Not even a troll?
Sitting Walrus Blog
North Korea and Iraq are going to claim they're just doing cancer research? "Cancer research, yeah, that's the ticket!"
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
to think that this never would have been discovered if we hadn't had that Anthrax scare. I mean, you can't tell me that scientists were just sitting around and then said, "Let's see if we can alter Anthrax to kill cancer". It was more of a "Recent events have shown us that Anthrax is an efficient cell killer. Let's take it and see if we can customize it to attack cancerous cells." And then they used a characteristic that separates cancer cells from normal cells and exploit it to the benefit of man. What a great world we live in.
It makes me happy to see scientists turn something that has been portrayed as only an indiscriminate killer (which, unaltered, it is) and use it to battle one of the body's toughest enemies.
Bravo.
for maximum effect, the preceding post should be read monotone and at a steady cadence
Its just one of many ways that Anthrax is like The Cure.
Cures 100% of all cancers in one good sized "spliff". Government declares "medicine isn't smoked"
As /. idiots can't even write anything serious about a possible cure for cancer...
This is an important breakthrough that could one day save your life... Still wanna joke?
The mice got the anthrax through the post.....