Fighting Cancer With The Common Cold?

Roland Piquepaille writes "After 30 years of work, Saint Louis University researchers have genetically engineered a common cold virus to fight cancerous cells while leaving unaffected healthy ones. They received a patent for this research and clinical tests on humans will start soon, according to this news release. Dr. William Wold, chair of the department of molecular microbiology and immunology, received the patent No. 6,627,190 for his work. Preclinical testing has already been done so clinical trials should start soon. We can only hope they will be successful. This overview contains many more details and references about this potential cure for all kinds of cancer. [Note: this is a very different project from the one mentioned by a previous Slashdot post.]"

Comments

Re:I'm conflicted again

[pvt_medic]

Yeah but then the cheap sollution will be just everyone has a big party once one of them has caught the flu and they all catch the communicable disease. It be very easy for (unless they put safeguards into place) for this to sweep across the nation... and no more cancer. Well i guess that is an idealistic view of things.

Economically Deficient

[Scoria]

received the patent No. 6,627,190 for his work.

Only the sufficiently wealthy may receive access, then. In many economically deficient portions of the world, relatively benign diseases have remained impressively lethal.

Thirty years of effort, plus several decades of awaiting the availability of a less expensive implementation. What an unfortunate circumstance.

Let's hope they got this right

[CatGrep]

Article seems to indicate that they juiced this virus so it's more effective in killing cells. We can only hope that after it's been out in the environment for a while (and that's bound to happen, they can't keep everyone who gets it isolated for weeks) that it won't start to mutate and infect healthy cells too.

so they patented this, but what's to keep someone from just getting their cancer cure by shaking hands with someone who's getting the treatment?

Good!

[Shihar]

Not to invoke the wrath of the anti-humanity moderators out there, but good! To hell with Darwinism. If humanity can do it better then nature, why shouldn't it? Ok, so we can no longer effectively evolve stronger and better humans through evolution. We can still evolve stronger and better humans through genetic manipulation. Granted, we are not able to effectively do this today, but some day within the near future we will be able to. Once that happens we will likely evolve much faster then any species on the face of this planet ever has. Hell, we might not even do it biologically, it might be that a few hundred years from now we have stripped away the organics and 'being human' has nothing to do with the parts you were built out of.

Now, the obvious response is that we are playing god or screwing with mother nature, but consider for a moment that perhaps this is natures grand design?

Biological evolution is just the latest of nature's trends towards greater complexity. Why can't intelligence be the next perfectly natural way to head towards greater complexity? We don't look down upon sexual reproduction because it is more complicated then single sex reproduction. No cries that it is unnatural when sexual reproduction, the next step in evolution, is given its shot. Why look down on intelligence when it contributes to the grand scheme of things? Why would intelligent human evolution brought about in a lab be worse?

Honestly, I think humans are just the next rung on the ladder on the way up. What happens when you get to the top? Who the hell knows. Are we the last step? Probably not. It doesn't bother me though that there is a new order in town. If anything, it is uplifting. Biological evolution likely is not the most reliable way for life to survive when sun dies.

Antibiotics Cause Cancer

[yintercept]

If you look at the historical records, you will see a marked jump in the percent of people who die of cancer after the introduction of antibiotics. Food does the same thing. In times of famine and wars (for that matter) very few people die of cancer.

does that mean the Cold kicks Cancers ass for most annoying thing to get in you?

It makes sense to fight disease with disease.

There's a whole ecosystem of single celled creatures living inside people. Some things like acidophilous are quite good for the system. IMHO, the occasional cold seems to help keep the immune system in tune.

I think it is healthier to think in terms of maintaining a good balance in the ecosystem than to try and prevent all exposure to disease. Personally, I avoid antibiotics except for extreme diseases. BTW, when people do take antibiotics, they need to take the full subscription, other wise you will turn into a fun little biology experiment where the germs resistent to the anti-biotic can work on their evolution. I read arguments by some doctors that think the government should curtail the use of antibiotics to extreme cases so that we can halt the evolution of antibiotic resistent diseases.

Re:Antibiotics Cause Cancer

[yintercept]

I recall, several decades ago, there were health agencies screaming about a big rise in the number of cancer deaths. Fatalities of all the other major diseases were going down, but the percent of deaths from cancer kept rising. Some cancer researchers were making the increase in cancer related deaths sound like an epidemic. Everyone was paranoid about anything that might be carcinogenic...until someone realized that all of the percentages had to add up to 100, and that the primary cause for the increased cancer rate was longevity. When longevity was identified as a carcinogen, then the rhetoric cooled down, while opening opportunities for sick humor on /.

Personally, I think the biggest health threat the world has right now is the increasing drug resistence of many of the historical diseases that plagued the past. I think the most promising things we are discovering right now is how our bodies work as ecosystems. My hope is that doctors will stop over prescribing antibiotics and take a more holistic approach to diseases. Designer, symbiotic organisms might encourage more thought on the body as a whole system.

A large number of the different creatures living inside people have symbiotic relations with the host. I would not be surprised if they found natural viruses with a tendency to attack cancers. Genetically modifying the viruses might just be a matter of increasing natural tendencies.

Re:hmm

[sosume]

When you are trying to fight cancer with an adenovirus, like a particularly nasty common cold, you get a mutated adenovirus that seems to copy itself only in cells that lack a functioning copy of a gene called p53 that repairs damaged or mutated DNA. If the DNA is then too smashed up to be repaired, p53 instructs the cell to self-destruct.

Since cancer occurs when DNA becomes so badly battered that it stops regulating cell growth and behavior, it is not surprising p53 has stopped working in more than half of human tumors..