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Method For Fooling Cancer Cells Into Fat Cells Can Stop Cancer's Spread (technologynetworks.com)
Researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland have discovered that they can prevent the formation of metastases by fooling breast cancer cells into fat cells. The proof-of-concept study was published in the journal Cancer Cell. Technology Networks reports: Malignant cells can rapidly respond and adapt to changing microenvironmental conditions, by reactivating a cellular process called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), enabling them to alter their molecular properties and transdifferentiate into a different type of cell (cellular plasticity). Cancer cells can exploit EMT -- a process that is usually associated with the development of organs during embryogenesis -- in order to migrate away from the primary tumor and form secondary metastases. Cellular plasticity is linked to cancer survival, invasion, tumor heterogeneity and resistance to both chemo and targeted therapies. In addition, EMT and the inverse process termed mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) both play a role in a cancer cell's ability to metastasize.
Using mouse models of both murine and human breast cancer the team investigated whether they could therapeutically target cancer cells during the process of EMT -- whilst the cells are in a highly plastic state. When the mice were administered Rosiglitazone in combination with MEK inhibitors it provoked the transformation of the cancer cells into post-mitotic and functional adipocytes (fat cells). In addition, primary tumor growth was suppressed and metastasis was prevented. Since both drugs used in the preclinical study were FDA-approved the team are hopeful that it may be possible to translate this therapeutic approach to the clinic.
Using mouse models of both murine and human breast cancer the team investigated whether they could therapeutically target cancer cells during the process of EMT -- whilst the cells are in a highly plastic state. When the mice were administered Rosiglitazone in combination with MEK inhibitors it provoked the transformation of the cancer cells into post-mitotic and functional adipocytes (fat cells). In addition, primary tumor growth was suppressed and metastasis was prevented. Since both drugs used in the preclinical study were FDA-approved the team are hopeful that it may be possible to translate this therapeutic approach to the clinic.
English as a fifteenth language, or just the vocabulary of a screaming monkey?
I think they mean 'turning'.
Fascinating science in the actual article - really odd use of language in the article. 'Fooling' is kind of anthropomorphizing the cancer cells - they're changing based on mechanisms, they never really make decisions to be fooled on, and that's why the actual study doesn't really use the word.
Ryan Fenton
I would call it hacking. They are hacking the process started by the cancer cells. Just like digital hackers, biohackers can be good guys.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Instead of runaway cancer, you get runaway obesity? Then you die of a massive coronary.
FAIL
Because it's like asking for a drug that cures viruses. We develop drugs that help deal with specific viruses all the time, but there are a lot of viruses.
Improvements in cancer detection and treatment also seem to be relatively incremental. Something that killed 90% of patients a generation ago maybe kills 50% now, and maybe next year a treatment or diagnostic tool or screening program comes out that brings that down to 45%.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Cancer is part of your body that stops doing what it is supposed to do and goes off and does its own thing until problems ensue. As such, there will always be cancer, although it will continue to get increasingly treatable and survivable.
But it would be better than what we have now!
fat? :)
Serious question - I understand everyone has fat cells, just that in obese people, they are larger than in lean people. However, if we turn cancer cells into fat cells, and that person adopts a healthy lifestyle to reduce the size of the fat cell, is that a win-win? Or is this a different type of fat cell that has other consequences?
Because Basel is a major center for pharma research, with several major firms headquartered there, it nurtures a university/manufacturing complex that makes it the Silicon Valley of the drug trade. Switzerland has its own regulatory apparatus that is notably faster and more responsive than our FDA, with the same high standards. And as a non-EU country, Switzerland is not subject to regulatory luddism from Brussels. If genetic engineering turns out to be part of the next big cancer treatment, it will flourish in Switzerland.
https://www.pharmaceutical-tec...
Hollywood saw to that. And it's the law now: "Computer hacking" is criminal, even though the law doesn't say what "hacking" is. Since this "hacking" indubitably involves computers somehow, it must be "computer hacking" and therefore criminal. Don't go "but the law doesn't mean that" on me, you doofus. If the prosecutor feels like it, he can use it that way. That makes it bad law, but it is a law in force, and thus almost anything anyone would care to call "hacking" can get prosecuted.
You can thank the security s'kiddies for that. And hollywood.
Since I can turn on a television and watch TV shows promoting how to Hack My Life, I'm not really inclined to believe your bullshit Hollywood representation of what the general public has obviously accepted when it comes to hacking. There are plenty of legitimate job titles and even computer certifications that contain the term/title "Hacker", so drop the drama already. A few billion people using computers daily can manage to avoid being labeled a criminal, so it's not hard to use these things and avoid your Hollywood courtroom and its overly zealous prosecutors.
While excited. I hope it works out.
Turn cancer cells into fat cells
Good news for everyone except Hollywood starlets, who'd rather have the cancer.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Then we'll just get viruses instead. If they don't evolve naturally, someone will make them.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Sounds like a massive HIPPA violation if your wife is sharing patient records with you.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
I am a bit suspicious of the value of studies that have not been replicated for more than one case. This is one of those. It is very clever work but I don't think the chances that it will lead to a cancer therapy are particularly high. The idea behind the work is that cells from breast cancer are one type (epithelial), but they need to convert into another type (mesenchymal) so they can leave the tumor and form metastasis. The clever part is that they nudge the mesenchymal cells to convert to fat cells and stop dividing. The problem is that the occurrence of the epithelial to mesenchymal transition in tumors is a bit of a controversial topic. The idea has a devoted cult following, but it has not been convincingly shown to be true. We know that the breast cancer tumors are epithelial and we know that their metastasis are epithelial. Genetic tagging to detect the transition in actual tumors so far have failed to do so and have shown that you don't need this transition to form metastasis. We also can see epithelial cells leaving the tumor without the need to convert to a different cell type. In the work, they use cell lines (cell cultured in a dish) that either readily undergo the epithelial to mesenchymal transition when exposed to a hormone that is abundant in the tissue and the blood (TGF-Beta), or a cell line that is mesenchymal (MDA-MB-231). These experiments show that when you inject these cell lines in a mouse you can reprogram them into fat cells. To make sure the reprogramming also works on tumors they use a human patient derived tumor that is grown in mice. Here is where my major problem with the work is. There are hundreds of these patient derived tumors that are available but they do the experiments on just one. Why just one? Why this particular one? If you are developing a cancer therapy one of the major questions is what are the chances that it will work. You answer that question by testing as many tumors as you can.
Fat cancer sounds terrifying.
No, don''t get up, I'll show myself out
+Raider of the lost BBS
But cancer wants to become fat cells, it just can't remember how without our helpful hints.
All my cancer cells turned into fat!
Be cancer free with bigger breasts?
Ducks...
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
From my Funk & Wagnalls dictionary, definition 3 of 4 for "into."
To the form, state, or condition of: to change water into steam.
There's nothing wrong there, it's standard vernacular American English, and has been for many years.
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