MEDICAL FRONTIERS
Novel way to kill malaria parasite
London: A class of chemotherapy drugs designed to block signaling pathways in cancer cells also kills the parasite that causes malaria, opening up a whole new way of combating this deadly disease.
The research shows that the malaria parasite depends upon a signaling pathway present in the host, initially in liver cells and then in red blood cells, in order to proliferate. The enzymes are active in the signaling pathway are not encoded by the parasite, but rather hijacked by the parasite to serve its own purposes. These same pathways are targeted by a new class of molecules developed for cancer chemotherapy known as kinase inhibitors, the Cellular Microbiology reports. When a team from the Global Health Institute and Inserm, the French agency for biomedical research, subjected RBCs infected with malaria to the chemotherapy drug, the parasite was stopped in its tracks, according to a GHI statement.
Malaria drug ‘may slow pancreatic cancer
Washington: Scientists say they shrunk or slowed the growth of notoriously resistant pancreatic tumors in mice, using a drug routinely prescribed for malaria and rheumatoid arthritis. The pre-clinical results have already prompted the opening of a small clinical trial in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest and hardest-to-treat forms of cancer, said the investigators, led by Alec Kimmelman, a radiation oncologist at Dana-Farber cancer institute. “We are seeing robust and impressive responses in pancreatic cancer mouse models, said Kimmelman, whose laboratory specialises in studies of pancreatic cancer, the fourth-leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
Capsule to track cancer in the body
London: Scientists have developed a tiny white breath mint like little capsule that can track the growth of a tumour without repeated invasive procedures. “With this, we are going to bring the laboratory into the patient,” said Michael Cima at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The device is small enough to fit inside a needle and implant in the body during a biopsy, reports New Scientist. Magnetic nanoparticles fit the capsule’s hollow interior, each sporting a few monoclonal antibodies. These are proteins engineered to bind to molecules of interest, such as Human Chronic Gonadotrophin (HCG), a hormone that tumour cells overproduce in testicular and ovarian cancers.
The research shows that the malaria parasite depends upon a signaling pathway present in the host, initially in liver cells and then in red blood cells, in order to proliferate. The enzymes are active in the signaling pathway are not encoded by the parasite, but rather hijacked by the parasite to serve its own purposes. These same pathways are targeted by a new class of molecules developed for cancer chemotherapy known as kinase inhibitors, the Cellular Microbiology reports. When a team from the Global Health Institute and Inserm, the French agency for biomedical research, subjected RBCs infected with malaria to the chemotherapy drug, the parasite was stopped in its tracks, according to a GHI statement.
Malaria drug ‘may slow pancreatic cancer
Washington: Scientists say they shrunk or slowed the growth of notoriously resistant pancreatic tumors in mice, using a drug routinely prescribed for malaria and rheumatoid arthritis. The pre-clinical results have already prompted the opening of a small clinical trial in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest and hardest-to-treat forms of cancer, said the investigators, led by Alec Kimmelman, a radiation oncologist at Dana-Farber cancer institute. “We are seeing robust and impressive responses in pancreatic cancer mouse models, said Kimmelman, whose laboratory specialises in studies of pancreatic cancer, the fourth-leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
Capsule to track cancer in the body
London: Scientists have developed a tiny white breath mint like little capsule that can track the growth of a tumour without repeated invasive procedures. “With this, we are going to bring the laboratory into the patient,” said Michael Cima at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The device is small enough to fit inside a needle and implant in the body during a biopsy, reports New Scientist. Magnetic nanoparticles fit the capsule’s hollow interior, each sporting a few monoclonal antibodies. These are proteins engineered to bind to molecules of interest, such as Human Chronic Gonadotrophin (HCG), a hormone that tumour cells overproduce in testicular and ovarian cancers.
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