Using Malaria to Destroy Cancer

heckler73

Well-Known Member
Mindbending and coming out of Vancouver, to boot!


Scientists at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver Coastal Health and the BC Cancer Agency have discovered a protein from malaria that could one day help stop cancer in its tracks.

This new approach, which halted the growth of various tumours in mice, was based on a discovery by collaborators at the University of Copenhagen. While exploring why pregnant women are particularly susceptible to malaria, they found that the mosquito-borne parasite produces a protein that binds to a particular type of sugar molecule in the placenta.

That discovery led to another: that same sugar molecule is also found in most cancers. This commonality is understandable, because both cancers and placentas grow rapidly, often pushing aside other tissues in the process.
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The drug was then tested on mice that were implanted with three types of human tumours. With non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the treated mice’s tumours were about a quarter the size of the tumours in the control group. With prostate cancer, the tumours completely disappeared in two of the six treated mice a month after receiving the first dose. With metastatic breast cancer, five out of six treated mice were cured from metastatic disease. The mice showed no adverse side-effects, and their organs were unharmed by the therapy. The results were published today in Cancer Cell.

http://news.ubc.ca/2015/10/13/destructive-disease-shows-potential-as-a-cancer-treatment/
 
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