Tech Star Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 IT'S a heavy price to pay for a sweet tooth. Researchers have tricked glucose-eating cancer cells into consuming a sugar that essentially poisons them - it leaves a "suicide" switch within the cells open to attack."Most cancer cells rely almost exclusively on glucose to fuel their growth," says Guy Perkins of the University of California at San Diego. With Rudy Yamaguchi of Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, Perkins found the cells would take up a similar sugar called 2-deoxyglucose. But this sugar physically dislodges a protein within the cell that guards a suicide switch. Once exposed, the switch can be activated by a drug called ABT-263. This kills the cell by liberating proteins that order it to commit suicide (Cancer Research, DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-11-3091). The approach could ultimately spell doom for several types of cancer, including liver, lung, breast and blood. In mice, the treatment made aggressive human prostate cancer tumours virtually disappear within days. Yamaguchi and Perkins are now hoping to mount a clinical trial at UC San Diego. News Source: NewScientist.com Wooo! Glassed Silver and MillionVoltss 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
User_Deleted Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 This is very good news! I hope they can get through human testing without a hitch and it be available soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dotdot Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 nice find :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicane-UK Veteran Posted December 6, 2011 Veteran Share Posted December 6, 2011 Always wonderful to hear news stories like this - I hope it works out to be an effective treatment for this terrible illness! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reacon Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Wow! This is HUGE! The end of many types of cancer as we know it- if perfected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phouchg Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Now that is a commendable discovery! Even malware has it's backdoors, so to speak. Charisma 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teebor Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 The more you learn, I never knew Cancer cells were so reliant on Glucose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chasethebase Reporter Posted December 6, 2011 Reporter Share Posted December 6, 2011 Man, I really hope that this goes somewhere quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Holy Wow. That's fantastic!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCordRm Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 VERY interesting discovery. Die, cancer, die! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Japlabot Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Oh great, now we will live until we are 200 and have to work until we are 160. Life is going to suck if this treatment can keep us living well past our life expectancy. I hope that the treatment is successful and it can be used to treat people before they reach old age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inklin Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 I hope it is successful, it looks totally awesome, but methinks the drug companies will get upset about it as it will make them lose money on the patented drugs they have made already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 ^ Domino's sugar company will be elated. :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glassed Silver Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 It makes me happy and sad at the same time! Sad, because I wish this would have been available to all that died due to it and of cause because of a relative of mine... Glassed Silver:win Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Alex- Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Wow, thanks for posting the story! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Sounds like simply fasting will kill off cancer -- no glucose, no life support or growth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Alex- Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Well I'm not much of a biologist, but it's my understanding that we store glucose for extended periods of time... thus you'd just die from slow starvation... if I'm wrong, tell me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tagerd0g Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axebox Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Trigger the zombie apocalypse! Great news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 And with the last several cures to cancer/aids articles ive read, this will most likely be the last most of everyone hears about it. Before people jump on me, I am not saying that the cures are being withheld , but it seems everyone gets excited and some terrible side effect is found and it leads nowhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre S. Veteran Posted December 7, 2011 Veteran Share Posted December 7, 2011 Hopefully this will be available for humans before I get prostate cancer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reacon Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 The more you learn, I never knew Cancer cells were so reliant on Glucose Just about every cell in the body can use Glucose if I recall correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 Just about every cell in the body can use Glucose if I recall correctly. That is something that could pose a problem, what if this kills other cells? The problem with making drugs was never that you could not devise a drug to kill the bacteria/virus/cancer, but that you also made one that wouldn't kill the patient. Given that life on the cellular level is extremely similar, what kills a bacteria generally kills human cells and what kills cancer generally kills healthy tissue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerowen Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 That is something that could pose a problem, what if this kills other cells? The problem with making drugs was never that you could not devise a drug to kill the bacteria/virus/cancer, but that you also made one that wouldn't kill the patient. Given that life on the cellular level is extremely similar, what kills a bacteria generally kills human cells and what kills cancer generally kills healthy tissue. My thoughts as well. A cancerous cell is still a cell that was originally a healthy human tissue cell. It may end up being used like chemotherapy, being applied to a target area in small doses. You may get sick and some healthy cells will die, but it may end up being more effective at actually stopping the cancer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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