Posted on 08/02/2004 2:12:05 PM PDT by Main Street
Cloning Experiment Shows Cancer Reversible - Report Sat Jul 31, 2004 05:01 PM ET
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A cloning experiment may show that the body itself has the ability to reverse cancer, U.S.-based researchers said on Saturday.
They cloned mouse embryos from a melanoma skin cancer cell, and created healthy adult mice using some of the cloned cancer cells, showing that malignancy is not the inevitable fate of a cancer cell.
"This settles a principal biological question," said Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the country's leading experts in cloning.
He said while the genetic elements of cancer cannot be reversed, the epigenetics -- how the genes are actually turned on and off -- can be.
The finding, published in the journal Genes and Development, point to a new way to treat cancer, said Lynda Chin of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, who worked on the study.
"Drugs that target the cancer epigenome may prove to be a key therapeutic opportunity for diverse cancers," she said in a statement. In other words, it might be possible to silence a cancer gene.
Cancer begins when certain genes mutate, or when a certain, inherited version of a gene somehow gets turned on.
This can happen through various so-called epigenetic processes -- when other molecules in a cell affect genes without actually altering the sequence of DNA.
In the experiment, Konrad Hochedlinger and Robert Blelloch, both researchers in Jaenisch's lab, took the nucleus from a melanoma cell and injected it into a hollowed-out mouse egg cell.
This started the egg growing as if it had been fertilized by sperm.
They did not allow this embryonic mouse to develop, but harvested from it embryonic stem cells -- immature cells that have the potential to become any cell in the body at all.
They put these stem cells into healthy mouse blastocysts -- very early embryos only a few days old. Some of these developed into healthy, normal mice.
"It's important to note that the stem cells from the cloned melanoma were incorporated into most, if not all, tissues of adult mice, showing that they can develop into normal, healthy cells," Blelloch said.
They included skin pigmentation cells, immune cells and connective tissue.
This could only have happened if the cancer cells had lost their malignant qualities, at least temporarily, the researchers said.
But when certain cancer-related genes in these mice were activated, they developed malignant tumors at a much faster rate than normal mice, the researchers added.
Many researchers want to try similar experiments with human cancer cells, but the administration of President Bush forbids the use of federal funds for such study because it would involve the creation of what is technically a human embryo.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=9759
Nanoshells cancer treatment proves effective in first animal test
22 Jun 2004
A revolutionary new form of cancer therapy in development at Rice University and its licensee, Nanospectra Biosciences Inc., has proven effective at eradicating tumors in laboratory animals during the first phase of animal testing.
The noninvasive cancer treatment uses a combination of harmless, near-infrared light and benign, gold nanoshells to destroy tumors with heat. The treatment does not affect healthy tissue.
"We are extremely encouraged by the results of these first animal tests," said Jennifer West, professor of bioengineering and chemical engineering. "These results confirm that nanoshells are effective agents for the photothermal treatment of in vivo tumors."
Results of the study are published in the June 25 issue of the journal Cancer Letters.
Invented in the 1990s by Naomi Halas at Rice, nanoshells are about 20 times smaller than a red blood cell. The multilayered nanoshells consist of a silica core covered by a thin gold shell. The size, shape and composition of nanoshells give them unique optical properties. By varying the size of the core and the thickness of the gold shell, researchers can tailor a nanoshell to respond to a specific wavelength of light.
The photothermal cancer treatment uses nanoshells that are tuned to respond to near-infrared light. Located just outside the visible spectrum, near-infrared light passes harmlessly through soft tissue. In the treatment, nanoshells convert this light into heat that destroys nearby tumor cells. The heating is very localized and does not affect healthy tissue adjacent to the tumor.
The animal trial involved 25 mice with tumors ranging in size from 3-5.5 millimeters. The mice were divided into three groups. The first group was given no treatment. The second received saline injections, followed by three minutes exposure to near-infrared laser light. The final group received nanoshell injections and laser treatments.
The blood vessels inside tumors develop poorly, allowing small particles like nanoshells to leak out and accumulate inside tumors. In the test, researchers injected nanoshells into the mice, waited six hours to give the nanoshells time to accumulate in the tumors and then applied a 5 millimeter wide laser on the skin above each tumor.
Surface temperature measurements taken on the skin above the tumors during the laser treatments showed a marked increase that averaged about 46 degrees Fahrenheit for the nanoshells group. There was no measurable temperature increase at the site of laser treatments in the saline group. Likewise, sections of laser-treated skin located apart from the tumor sites in the nanoshells group also showed no increase in temperature, indicating that the nanoshells had accumulated as expected within the tumors.
All signs of tumors disappeared in the nanoshells group within 10 days. These mice remained cancer-free after treatment.
Tumors in the other two test groups continued to grow rapidly. All mice in these groups were euthanized when the tumors reached 10 millimeters in size. The mean survival time of the mice receiving no treatment was 10.1 days; the mean survival time for the group receiving saline injections and laser treatments was 12.5 days.
"The results of these first animal studies are very promising, and while we don't yet have a target date for our first human trial, our entire team is working hard to make this treatment available to cancer patients as soon as possible," said Halas, the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of chemistry. "We have licensed the technology to the Houston-based firm Nanospectra Biosciences Inc., which will obtain the necessary approvals and funding for human trials."
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation under both an STTR grant to Nanospectra Biosciences and a National Nanotechnology Initiative grant to Rice's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology.
Contact: Jade Boyd jadeboyd@rice.edu 713-348-6778 Rice University
Great News! However, 10 years to late for my father.
ping
"Many researchers want to try similar experiments with human cancer cells, but the administration of President Bush forbids the use of federal funds for such study because it would involve the creation of what is technically a human embryo."
FEDERAL funds are not to be used... this by no means limits private research. In addition, they have so many cultures already that it is extremely unlikely that we'd ever run out, especially seeing as the existing cells are still able to divide normally. That they finished such a great article with such an ill-considered attack on Bush that has no factual merit really pisses me off though.
I was regrettably thinking the same thing.
But, modern medicine/technology is just remarkable!
Looking back at how much progress we have made in successfully treating what were formerly fatal afflictions, I can imagine that many currently fatal afflictions will soon be able to be treated successfully.
Unfortunately, it does come too late for many.
Actually, the statement is quite factual. What in it is not?
Why do you consider it an attack?
If you are against cloning it should be considered praiseworthy.
Does it seem to anybody else that this article just jumped the track here?
That is a Reuters trademark. They report and then add a partisan punchline.
By the way, adult stem cells are legal to harvest and contrary to alot of pro-fetal stem cell proponents, adult stem cells behave the same. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
The reason that fetal tissue stem cell proponents are so vocal is because they are an offshoot of the abortion industry. Fetal tissue from abortions is already sold to makeup companies where the tissue is listed as an active ingredient with anti-aging properties.
A reason that some with a science background will say that fetal stem cells have more potential is twofold. One is that fetal stem cells are much easier to isolate. Two, there are no patent infringement concerns as most patents granted to stem cell providers are for adult stem isolation techniques.
Stem cells are the new abortion rallying cry for this years democrats. The Bush administration is not opposed to stem cell research. They are not opposed to using placentas to harvest stem cells. They are opposed to the abortion industry getting into the business of selling aborted fetal tissue for stem cell harvesting.
We don't want to promote abortion. We don't want to make ot a growth industry.
But be wary that these stem cell activists are trying to blur the distinction between stem cell research and fetal stem cell research.
Perhaps he can earn enough money to pay for my therapy with gold nanoshells.
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