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Researchers Find Potential Cure for Cancer

Posted by Zonk on from the proverbial-cure-for-cancer dept.

MECC writes "Researchers at Johns Hopkins University may have found a way to kill cancer cells without radiation or toxic chemicals. The group is taking the step of patenting the idea, as this new approach using sugars may hold real potential for the fight against cancer. This is not the first approach to use sugars, the article states, but is (by the researchers' estimation) the most successful. From the article: 'Sampathkumar and his colleagues built upon 20-year-old findings that a short-chain fatty acid called butyrate can slow the spread of cancer cells. In the 1980s, researchers discovered that butyrate, which is formed naturally at high levels in the digestive system by symbiotic bacteria that feed on fibre, can restore healthy cell functioning ... The researchers focused on a sugar called N-acetyl-D-mannosamine, or ManNAc, for short, and created a hybrid molecule by linking ManNAc with butyrate. The hybrid easily penetrates a cell's surface, then is split apart by enzymes inside the cell. Once inside the cell, ManNAc is processed into another sugar known as sialic acid that plays key roles in cancer biology, while butyrate orchestrates the expression of genes responsible for halting the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells.'"

10 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. All this... by Centurix · · Score: 5, Funny

    And still no cure for ca... oh.

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    Task Mangler
    1. Re:All this... by Apocalypse111 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Still no cure for 17 stab wounds in the back, although I have it on good authority they're up to 15.

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      There is no mod option "-1: Disagree" for a reason. "Overrated" is not an acceptable substitute. Post something instead.
  2. Mmmmm by saskboy · · Score: 3, Funny

    "as this new approach using sugars may hold real potential"

    Mmmmm, sugar donuts. Is there anything they can't do?

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    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
  3. She's a ManNAc, ManNAc, by PrescriptionWarning · · Score: 5, Funny

    and she's curing cancer like she's never cured before!

  4. My thoughts on any "cures" from this country by rodoke3 · · Score: 4, Funny
    can be summed up quite nicely by Chris Rock:
    You think they're gonna cure AlDS? They're still mad at all the money they lost on polio! Curing AlDS? Shit, that's like Cadillac making a car that lasts for fifty years. And you know they can do it...but they ain't gonna do nothing that fucking dumb.
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    There's nothing like a good gunfight to uplift the spirit--Calvin
  5. At least... by Baron+Eekman · · Score: 4, Funny

    it will make one person happy in each city

  6. Cure for cancer patented.... by mblase · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...still no cure for greed.

  7. Calm down, people by DJPenguin · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's only a cure for cancer, not a new operating system!

  8. I thought there was already a cure? by transmetal · · Score: 4, Funny

    I heard Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he's never cried.

  9. Mary Poppins was right! by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 4, Funny
    "But we found that when the right sugar is matched with the right chemical partner, it can deliver a powerful double-whammy against cancer cells."

    So, Mary Poppins was right! A spoonful of sugar does help the medicine go down! And in a most delightful way, too!
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    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?