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Cancer Vaccine That Mimics Lymph Node
SubComdTaco writes "Harvard has announced their approach towards an implantable cancer vaccine (press release here). To anyone familiar with how the immune system works, this appears to be a synthetic lymph node, an intriguing bit of biomimicry. From the Science Daily article: 'A cancer vaccine carried into the body on a carefully engineered, fingernail-sized implant is the first to successfully eliminate tumors in mammals, scientists recently reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The new approach, pioneered by bioengineers and immunologists at Harvard University, uses plastic disks impregnated with tumor-specific antigens and implanted under the skin to reprogram the mammalian immune system to attack tumors. The new paper describes the use of such implants to eradicate melanoma tumors in mice. ... The slender implants... are 8.5 millimeters in diameter and made of an FDA-approved biodegradable polymer. Ninety percent air, the disks are highly permeable to immune cells and release cytokines, powerful recruiters of immune-system messengers called dendritic cells. These cells enter an implant's pores, where they are exposed to antigens specific to the type of tumor being targeted. The dendritic cells then report to nearby lymph nodes, where they direct the immune system's T cells to hunt down and kill tumor cells.'"
The immune system does attack HIV, and that's kind of the problem. HIV infects T4 lymphocytes, which get killed off by the rest of the immune system, which then allows opportunistic infections to cause problems (and death).
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
If it cures my cancer, I don't care if the think is the size of a hockey puck and they have to stick it in my forehead*.
*Ass was too expected.
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unless the foreign components are later found to cause cancer themselves.
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
it's a therapeutic vaccine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine
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Not really a problem, the antigens are significantly different and we already use them to diagnose the cancer in the first place. If there was any autoimmune response the implant could be removed and the antibodies would filter out of the body.
Making the immune system attack (only) the cancerous cells seems to be a popular research subject these days.
Another company called Immunovative is taking a slightly different approach which does not require an implant.
They are currently running human clinical trials in Israel and California. More information here.
Disclaimer: A close friend of mine is participating in the clinical trial in Carlsbad.