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GM Blood Kills Human Cancer Cells

Posted by timothy on from the so-do-ford-trucks dept.

adri writes "New Scientist has an article which outlines an interesting method of combating cancer: genetically modifying T-cells in human blood to seek and destroy bowel cancer cells."

27 comments

  1. What else? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    genetically modifying T-cells in human blood to seek and destroy bowel cancer cells.

    And what else does it kill, I wonder?

    1. Re:What else? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what else does it kill, I wonder?

      Mimes.

    2. Re:What else? by Smallpond · · Score: 1

      It T-cell's purpose to kill invading cells, so this is just a form of job re-training. Mostly they look for specific chemical signatures.

      I'm hoping that they can also be trained for SARS infections which is likely to be the bigger problem soon.

      Is that a cytokine in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?

    3. Re:What else? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      thank god.

  2. It's genetically modified with dynamite... by clambake · · Score: 1

    Sure, the cancer doesn't survive the blast... but neither do you.

  3. Only side effect by jsse · · Score: 1

    is that the genetic re-engineered T-Cell might rebel and take over the control of your body; the plus side is that nobody else would notice and life goes on.

  4. Re:Tsarkon reviles at commy FUCKS by Loosewire · · Score: 0

    Needed - New modifyer " TRUE "

    The april fools stuff really got to this guy :)
    i found it quite annoying too

    --
    Slashdot - The one stop shop for procrastination
  5. GM? by mrbrown1602 · · Score: 1

    Does Ford, Toyota, or Chrysler have anything to say about this? And besides, I thought GM Blood was gasoline....

    1. Re:GM? by Muhammar · · Score: 1

      I knew it! Only mutants could have designed some Chevy trucks.

      --
      I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
  6. cool by capnjack41 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Wow, I just realized that GM isn't General Motors, and that the April Fools' jokes are over!

    But since cancer cells are (as I understand it, I'm not all that knowledgeable about this) caused by "genetic modifications" in themselves, how do we know (as someone said) that these don't have adverse effects in themselves?

    However I suppose that if I did have this condition, I'd be willing to try...

  7. Another bullet in the treatment arsenal? by geekwench · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Good lord, I hope so.

    This is exciting research, and just the sort of thing that GM should be used for. If the researchers can add the necessary information to white blood cells so that they recognize cancer cells as "foreign", and respond accordingly, then we might see a future in which the cure isn't worse than the disease. Chemo and radiation are both damned indiscriminate, and there's an upper limit to how much of either can be administered to a person. Tweaking white blood cells so that they do their job more effectively would be a far better answer, since they wouldn't attack healthy tissue.

    Not only does this show promise for cancer (it's being used on bowel cancers, but I can see more widespread applications), the findings could prove useful in the future treatment of autoimmune disorders. I'm very much looking forward to the developments that are going to come out of this line of research.

    --
    Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
  8. The problem is... by Ieshan · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Tweaking white blood cells so that they do their job more effectively would be a far better answer, since they wouldn't attack healthy tissue."

    Right, sure, that sounds very good on paper. The problem is, T cells work by recognizing surface antigens present on certain cells and not on others, or the absence of certain key antigens. I think autoimmune issues will be the *first* to occur - we're teaching someone's T cells how to kill cells in his own body, granted, cells that have been mutated in some way, but still.

    I'm not so sure this will work in vivo as well as it has in vitro. :-\

    1. Re:The problem is... by Suidae · · Score: 1

      I was thinking the same way, however, T cells have a limited lifetime, so any problems they might cause in the body should be limited in scope, presuming they are set up so the don't attack something really critical.

    2. Re:The problem is... by geekwench · · Score: 2, Insightful
      If I'm reading the article correctly, what the researchers are attempting to do is nothing more than step up the T-cells' normal function. They already go after disease pathogens, and there is a certain amount of evidence that they behave the same way towards cancerous cells in the same way that they do any other "foreign body." For reasons unknown, some rogue cells slip through the defenses and proliferate beyond the immune system's capabilities to fight the disease. Since the T-cells being use are being harvested from the patient, the risks of autoimmune responses being triggered should be minimized, since the "self/not self" coding is already in place. And, as Suidae said in the above post, T-cells have a limited lifespan, so the potential harm is minimized further.

      I see a great deal of promise here. I don't know if you've ever been around someone recieving conventional cancer treatments, but I have. When I say that "the cure can be worse than the disease", that's not mere speculation; it's a direct quote from someone who - irony of ironies - didn't feel sick until her cancer was diagnosed and she started treatment. She felt just fine before the chemo and radiation. Three years later, she's cancer-free, but still having health problems caused by the lingering after-effects of the treatments. IMNSHO, anything that leads to a way of curing cancer without half-killing the patient is worth pursuing.

      --
      Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
    3. Re:The problem is... by Ieshan · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, part of the "secret" of how cancer cells slip by immune system responses deals with their mutation from normal, working human cells.

      Cell surface antigens are very complicated, but suffice it to say, they're somewhat unique based on a variety of different factors (a similar analogy: people can't recieve blood from other "types", the "types" being different "types" of a specific surface antigens).

      Since cancer cells arise from mutated cells, there might not be a marked difference in surface antigens on the cells - and that's why the immune system fails to realize the mishap. It's a bit like this: Suppose you were to put one blue marble in a jar of yellow marbles and tell someone to pick it out by the way it "felt" different. T-cells aren't capable of seeing the big picture, they only focus on specific chemical reactions - namely, recognition of foreign bodies through foreign antigens and their destruction.

      AIDS works in a similar way - fooling T cells into "missing" infected cells and virus particles as foreign bodies in the system. My concern is that fooling with T-cells is an awful risk in terms of autoimmune disorder - no matter how fast cancer kills you, autoimmune disorders can do irreparable damage in a relatively short amount of time. I hope the research, when it finally progresses into human trials, is so safe that they don't have to worry about this sort of thing.

  9. Re:Tsarkon reviles at commy FUCKS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You seem upset because you have a weight problem.
    Maybe you should go work out. With your mom.

  10. Re:Tsarkon reviles at commy FUCKS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think he was trying to be funny, but someone moderated him as a troll...poor guy :(

  11. GM Blood Kills Human Cancer Cells by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah! Go General Motors!!

  12. I like Geron's teqnique better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Geron is working on a way to target 90% of cancer cells by homing in on there need for the enzyme "telomerase".

    From what I can gather, the enzyme is necessary for splitting the DNA strands to prep for Cell division. Embryos and Cancer cells that are doing this continuously have lots of it. Adult cells do not. So by hunting for this enzyme in Adults you target cancer cells no matter what kind they are.

    I'm not sure if the treatment supresses the enzyme or if an anti-body has been developed wich targets the cells expressing the enzyme.

    I'm guessing that a side effect may be sterility for males since the rapid creation of Sperm cells also involves the enzyme.

    Either way it sounds pretty cool and doesn't involve GM of cells in your body.

    Phase I testing is being done at Duke Universty against Prostate cancer.

  13. But should we? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I for one am disturbed by such developments :(

    Blood is the essence of our life, so tampering with it is to tamper with life itself. This is more evil from those scientists who seek to replace god.

    1. Re:But should we? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We can do anything we want. God gave us the tools to do so.

      The question we should be asking though, "should we?". It's not one of ethics, but rather one of caution to the survival of the Human race and other forms of life here on Earth.

    2. Re:But should we? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why not replace an irrelevant god?

      This is cancer we're talking about.

    3. Re:But should we? by suwain_2 · · Score: 1

      That's your opinion, and I'm certainly not saying it's wrong. However, I wanted to share my personal belief...

      I'm a Catholic, and I'm against artificially ending life (abortion, death penalty...), as well as artificially creating it. However, I don't think artificially extending life is wrong, nor at all "playing God," or even going against what God wanted.

      I'm having a hard time articulating why I believe this, but... I have a hard time believe it's God's will that someone develop cancer and die. Rather, I'm more inclined to believe that the scientists trying to give people longer, healthier, happier lives are closer to the will of God.

      To use a rather ridiculous comparison, if you witness a car accident, you don't tell those injured that it's the will of God that they be injured, but rather, you call 911. Again, this is just my personal belief, and I'm not asking you to change yours because I disagree, but I think preserving life is the will of God.

      I don't think they're seeking to replace God, but rather, to try to imitate him, something we're called to do. Jesus healed many during his life on Earth; surely, he would have done the same for those with cancer. We're not seeking to be God, but rather, to try to live a more Jesus-like life, something we're all supposed to do.

      --
      ________________________________________________
      suwain_2 :: quality slashdot p
  14. what if you have fake blood? by dougnaka · · Score: 1

    Like Hemopure?
    Which, AFAIK, is made from actual biological tissue (cow's blood), and is a very effective replacement for human blood.
    If you're T-cells have been modified to go after a broader range of cells you could have much more serious issues with any transplant/transfusions.. ??

    --
    My Linux Command of the Day site : LCOD
  15. Re:The problem can be solved by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    T cell antigen receptors already recognize cancer cell antigens fragments in vivo.

    Class I MHC (major histocompatibility complex) molecules present antigen fragments in cancerous cells to cytotoxic T cells (which in turn cause ions and water to enter through pores, lysing the cell).

    This also causes the creation of memory T cells that prevent further spread of the cancer by the same means.

    Some people (and other animals) have immune systems that effectively recognize and kill cancer cells. It's those of us that don't have the necessary proteins encoded correctly in our genes that need some help from scientists.

    The major step is engineering cytotoxic and helper T cells that very specifically recognize the antigens in the cancer cells in question and nothing else (like they currently do for people and animals that don't get cancer; their cells should be used as a model).

    These engineered T cells should be produced from the patient's own Lymphocyte stem cells, to prevent the body from having a primary or secondary immune response to the GM T cells (imagine creating a cure for cancer, only to have the patient have a terrible reaction to it or watch as their own body kills the cure).

    It may be science fiction right now, but I think it will become science fact within a decade.