Posted on 08/15/2009 1:00:17 PM PDT by neverdem
Researchers have discovered a way to identify drugs that can specifically attack and kill cancer stem cells, a finding that could lead to a new generation of anticancer medicines and a new strategy of treatment.
Many researchers believe that tumor growth is driven by cancerous stem cells that, for reasons not understood, are highly resistant to standard treatments. Chemotherapy agents may kill off 99 percent of cells in a tumor, but the stem cells that remain can make the cancer recur, the theory holds, or spread to other tissues to cause new cancers. Stem cells, unlike mature cells, can constantly renew themselves and are thought to be the source of cancers when, through mutations in their DNA, they throw off their natural restraints.
A practical test of this theory has been difficult because cancer stem cells are hard to recognize and have proved elusive targets. But a team at the Broad Institute, a Harvard-M.I.T. collaborative for genomics research, has devised a way of screening for drugs that attack cancer stem cells but leave ordinary cells unharmed.
Cancer stem cells are hard to maintain in sufficient numbers, but the Broad Institute team devised a genetic manipulation to keep breast cancer stem cells trapped in the stem cell state.
The team, led by Piyush B. Gupta, screened 16,000 chemicals, including all known chemotherapeutic agents approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The team reported in the Thursday issue of Cell that 32 of the chemicals selectively went after cancer stem cells. These particular chemicals may or may not make good drugs, but the screening system proves, the researchers say, that it is possible to single out cancer stem cells with drugs that leave ordinary cells alone. Only one of the 32 chemicals is approved as a drug for cancer.
Another approach to...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I went to a sarcoma seminar yesterday.
One of the questions to the panel was about the Health Care plan.
Consensus of opinion is no new drugs, no new therapies.
Picky MOF crystals show promise
Beer could stop bones going brittle
Osteoporosis drugs effective in killing flu viruses multiple links through the thread
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
There goes the hope for the biotechnology industry in health care and the resulting unemployment in that field in addition to the health insurance industry, not that I have much sympathy for the latter. The health insurance industry was a creation of the rat's World War II price controls.
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