Algae has been engineered to kill cancer cells and leave healthy cells unharmed

Sciencealert.com ^ | November 12, 2015 | SIGNE DEAN

[Mellonkronos]

[This is really encouraging!]

"Algae has been engineered to kill cancer cells and leave healthy cells unharmed"

90% of cancer cells destroyed!

Scientists have genetically engineered tiny algae to kill up to 90 percent of cancer cells in the lab, while leaving healthy ones unharmed, and the treatment has also been shown to effectively treat tumours in mice without doing damage to the rest of the body.

Developing medicine that only attacks tumour cells and leaves the rest of the body alone is one of the biggest challenges in cancer drug therapy. Such targeted chemotherapy helps to avoid some of the devastating side-effects associated with typical chemo treatment, when all fast-dividing cells in the body are bombarded with toxic drugs – including hair follicles, nails, and bone marrow.

That's why researchers have been working on nanoparticle-based cancer drug delivery, and have been sending drug-loaded, porous silica particles into the body to target tumour cells. However, the manufacturing of these types of nanoparticles is expensive and requires industrial chemicals, such as hydrofluoric acid.

Now an international team of scientists from Australia and Germany have genetically engineered a diatom algae that can get the synthetic nanoparticle job done just as nicely.

Diatoms are a large group of microscopic one-cell organisms which sport translucent cell walls composed of hydrated silicon dioxide or silica - the same type of porous material used in manufactured nanoparticle medicine. These algae are just four to six micrometres in diameter, over ten times smaller than the width of a human hair.

“By genetically engineering diatom algae - tiny, unicellular, photosynthesising algae with a skeleton made of nanoporous silica, we are able to produce an antibody-binding protein on the surface of their shells,” said lead author and nanomedicine expert Nico Voelcker.

Such antibody-laden diatom nanoparticles only bind to molecules found....

[GraceG]

All well and good until the algae cell reanimate dead tissue and bring the dead back to life .....

[Fai Mao]

Brings to mind the Will Smith movie “I am Legend”

[Nailbiter]

bflr

[CIBvet]

Bflr

[rbg81]

Everything seems to cure cancer in mice. In humans, it much more complicated.

[Tired of Taxes]

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