MEDICAL FRONTIER

Cells that re-generate liver without cancer risk

New York: Scientists have discovered new type of cells which are an important part of liver regeneration, reports IANS.

When healthy liver cells are depleted by long-term exposure to toxic chemicals, the newly discovered cells, known as hybrid hepatocytes, generate new tissue more efficiently than normal liver cells.

Importantly, they divide and grow without causing cancer, which tends to be a risk with rapid cell division. “Hybrid hepotocytes represent not only the most effective way to repair a diseased liver, but also the safest way to prevent fatal liver failure by cell transplantation,” lead researcher professor Michael Karin from University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of medicine. The liver is the only organ regenerates after being damaged. Exactly how it repairs itself remained a mystery until recently, when researchers discovered a type of cell in mice essential to the process. The researchers also found similar cells in humans.

The researchers studied liver function in mice. They were able to isolate the hybrid hepatocytes after observing how the tissue regenerated. They then exposed healthy mice to three known cancer causing pathways and watched the hybrid hepatocytes closely. Liver cancer never originated from these cells.

Insecticide to eradicate malaria!

Washington: Researchers have come up with a new antibody insecticide that targets malaria mosquitoes, says ANI.

Recent progress in halting the spread of the disease has hinged on the use of insecticide-treated bed nets and spraying programes that target the insect that spreads the disease, the African malaria mosquito (Anopheles gambiae). However, the insects are fighting back, developing resistance to insecticides such as pyrethroid that control their numbers, forcing Brian Foy and Jacob Meyers from Colorado State University to think of alternative control strategies.

The duo decided to test whether antibodies targeted at a key component of the malaria mosquito’s nervous system could be fed to the insects in a blood meal to kill them.Identifying a glutamate gated chloride channel (the mosquito glutamate gated chloride channel – AgGluCl), which is an essential component of the insect’s nervous system, to be the target of their novel strategy the duo decided to generate antibodies that specifically targeted a portion of the protein that is exposed on the surface of nerves to try to exterminate the disease carriers. However, Meyers admits that the strategy was risky as antibodies against a single mosquito antigen have never been shown to have mosquitocidal properties before and the majority of previous research had focused on midgut antigens, while they were targeting a neuronal antigen expressed only in tissues found outside of the midgut.

Meyers said that cattle are a major blood meal source for multiple malaria vectors, explaining that any malaria-harbouring mosquito that consumed blood carrying the toxic antibodies during the malaria parasite’s incubation period would die, disrupting transmission of the disease and offering hope of a malaria-free future for generations to come.