Posted on 09/10/2002 7:16:04 PM PDT by mjp
Cancer breakthrough stuns scientific world
September 05 2002 at 08:26PM
By Steve Connor
Scientists have successfully destroyed cervical cancer cells using a revolutionary new technique which is being hailed as one of the most important developments in medicine for decades.
The technique, called RNA interference (RNAi), completely eliminated all the cancer cells growing in a test tube yet left healthy cells unharmed. The scientists called the results "absolutely remarkable".
As the findings were released on Thursday, it emerged that another team of researchers were planning the world's first clinical trial of the technique, this time on a group of Aids patients. The trial is expected to begin within the next two years.
'I've been in research a long time and this was fantastic' RNAi works by "silencing" harmful genes. Excited scientists believe it could be used to turn off the genes of infectious viruses or human tumour cells that have turned malignant, rendering them harmless.
A study published yesterday in the journal Oncogene demonstrated that RNAi efficiently switched off the genes of the human papiloma virus, which triggers cervical cancer in women. All cancerous cells growing in a test tube died, leaving normal cells untouched.
Professor Jo Milner, who led the investigation at the University of York, said that in her long career as a cell biologist she had never before witnessed such a powerful anti-cancer agent which was so highly specific at targeting tumour cells.
"The successful elimination of the cancer cells, without adverse effects on normal cells, is absolutely remarkable. I've been in research a long time and this was fantastic," she said.
Milner's team targeted the RNAi against two genes of human papiloma virus. By silencing one gene, the tumour cells stopped growing. By silencing the other, all the cancer cells "committed suicide".
Because the treatment had no effect on uninfected human cells, this is strong evidence that RNAi would be unlikely to produce the harmful side-effects seen when other cancer treatments are used on patients.
Milner said she intended starting clinical trials as a potential treatment for cervical cancer within five years. Cervical cancer is the second-most-common form of female cancer, killing 1 250 British women a year.
"Our work has identified a novel agent with major therapeutic potential for the treatment, and possibly the prevention, of human cervical cancer," Milner said.
Cervical cancer is caused when human papiloma virus attacks natural proteins in the body which are vital for the suppression of cancer. RNAi effectively restores this natural cancer-suppression by attacking the virus. - Independent Foreign Service
Five years? I'm sure there are plenty of cancer patients who would be willing to volunteer to try it now for a chance at having a normal life span.
I'm so sorry but, I suspect there are many loved ones out here that should not have to line up behind those in the aids line. I suspect there are many good descent loved ones that could start a line of their own. AND GUESS WHAT THEY EARNED THE OPPORTUNITY
Now folks don't give me a lesson on aids. Trust me I don't need it and I heard all the crap and balogna from the left liberal gay community.
That's 5 years to start clinical trials. They've got to get through several phases of clinical trials. An available treatment may be 15 years away.
Thank the FDA on your way out.
Stay Safe Monroe !
So, why did God hide it?
Hank
Ohhhhh. Should make it easy to drugify.
In light of the following from the source you gave, what are we to make of 'how the RNAi is derived?'... They first showed that siRNAs are produced even in the absence of RNAi using Drosophila embryo extract.
Ok, here's the way i understand it, excerpt from, never mind...
Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is a potent and specific inhibitor (RNAi) of gene activity in Drosophila. dsRNA corresponding to a single gene specifically interferes with expression of that gene by causing rapid degradation of the cytoplasmic mRNA product. A concentration of dsRNA that is an order-of-magnitude lower than the level of mRNA transcripts is sufficient to degrade most transcripts. Interference of gene expression can persist for at least fourteen days in an organism during which the body size increases 100-fold. These latter two properties indicate that the RNAi effect is amplified and highly stable. However, we find that RNAi is efficiently initiated only in the germline or early blastoderm-stage,suggesting that its normal function is limited to those stages. In order to understand the mechanism behind RNAi, we have undertaken a genetic screen for mutants that are resistant to RNAi. Results from the screen will be presented. In parallel, we are using a cell-free system derived from syncitial blastoderm extracts that mimics RNAi in vivo. Evidence from this in vitro system and from embryo experiments rule out RNA-directed RNA synthesis as a possible step in the RNAi process. This result is in contradiction to evidence that a similar phenomenon in plants and fungi use RNA synthesis.
NO cure for the practicing Gay's till all the others get it. PERIOD. GET IT TIGHTEN?
I think I referred to the left gay community in my post. I stand on my statement.
Maybe you read to fast.
For instance (if you already know this - forgive me) about 2 years ago during retroviral gene therapy trials a young man suddenly died. I personally think that stopping all such trials was a mistake, but care needs to be taken. Don't you think?
For the same reason she created billion+ year old photons from distant stars a mear few thousand light years from the earth.
She's got a great, though clearly dark, sense of humor.
This is, of course, only in vitro, where a number of things seem to work that end up killing the patient in vivo. But it is very promising. That it is a mechanism for apoptosis as well as gene suppression is even more exciting - there are a number of apoptosis-activators currently in clinical trials but I don't know of any that sound this promising. Oncology isn't a magazine known for hype or journalistic hysteria, either.
For those who care, the reason AIDS patients are in this is that they are a conveniently immune-suppressed population that is willing to act as human guinea pigs. I don't care how they got that way, I'm just glad they're volunteering. That is always the most difficult hurdle for treatments involving gross somatic effects, getting something approximating the human organism to act as a disease model for toxicity studies and projected dosages. Unless I'm missing something pretty big this is not a cure for AIDS, it's a potential cure for tumor cancers.
Oncogene? Maybe a great journal, but first time I've ever heard of it.
Oops - I thought I'd read "Oncology." Oncogene is a much smaller mag, but it is peer-reviewed. It's part of the Nature Publishing Group, named after that eponymous parent mag. I work at a place that subscribes - I'll be checking this one out when this issue arrives.
I wish. And it isn't the FDA's fault, either. One of those patients dies and the relatives sue the company - drug companies are all big and rich, dontcha know - sue for the Big Bucks. Ain't gonna happen.
Besides, it's a long way from dropping the stuff into a suspension of cancer cells and managing to get it into the appropriate site in the body in the proper concentration, once we even figure out what that is. Shoot enough straight penicillin into a patient and you kill him. This is nowhere near ready to field yet.
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