Cancer growth in the body could originate from a single cell – target it to revolutionise treatment

Cancer remains a frightening and largely incurable disease. The toxic side effects of chemotherapy and radiation make the cure often seem as bad as the ailment, and there is also the threat of recurrence and tumour spread.

Cancer treatment still follows a practically medieval method of cut, burn or poison. If the growth can’t be cut out through surgery, it may be burnt away with radiation or poisoned by chemotherapy. As a result, cancer therapy remains a daunting diagnosis for patients and treatment options seem limited for a disease which causes one in six deaths globally.

The failure to innovate in cancer treatment may lie in the very poor success rate of clinical trials. Approximately 95%-98% of new anti-cancer drugs actually fail phase III clinical trials, the phase in which new treatments are compared with existing therapy options. This is a staggering statistic. No other business could possibly survive with such an abysmal success rate.

 Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are broad-based treatments which attack the bulk of cancer cells but also damage healthy tissue. 

Most drugs are made to target “bulk” cancer cells, but not the root cause: the cancer stem cell. Cancer stem cells, also known as “tumour-initiating cells”, are the only cells in the tumour that can make a new tumour. New therapies that specifically target and eradicate these cancer stem cells are needed to prevent tumours growing and spreading, but for that there needs to be more clarity around the target.

Our new research may have discovered such a target. We have identified and isolated cells within different cancerous growths which we call the “cell of origin”. Our experiments on cancer cells derived from a human breast tumour found that stem cells – representing 0.2% of the cancer cell population – have special characteristics.

They generate vast amounts of energy and proliferate rapidly. We believe that they resemble the cancer cell of origin that has escaped senescence – the natural process of cell ageing and “death” which concludes a healthy cell life cycle. These are thought to be the first cancer cells which start the process of uncontrolled cell multiplication and cause tumours to form.

These cancer stem cells undergo anchorage-independent growth, also known as growth in suspension, without any tissue attachment. This is how metastasis occurs – spreading via the blood vessels and lymphatic vessels. These features put them front and centre as a new target for anti-cancer therapy.
 
Cancer stem cells grow in suspension in the bloodstream and spread throughout the body. 

With astonishing luck, these energetic cancer stem cells are colour-coded which means they have a natural phosphorescent glow, making them easy to identify and target.

Now that we have found them and we know how they behave, it should be relatively simple to find drugs to target cancer stem cells. In our new paper we have already shown that they are easily targeted with a mitochondrial inhibitor or a cell cycle inhibitor such as Ribociclib, an FDA-approved drug in the US which would prevent their proliferation.

Ultimately, this means that if we focus on energetic cancer stem cells, we may be able to directly hit the target. We might be able to turn cancer into a manageable chronic disease, like diabetes. We believe that we have arrived at the start of a new, more fruitful, road in cancer therapy. As a consequence, “big pharma” drug screening should actually focus on cancer stem cells and their relevant targets.

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement 

Cure for HIV moves closer as scientists find potential genetic switch

A genetic switch that causes HIV hidden inside the cells to replicate can be manipulated to completely eradicate the virus from the human body, a study has found.

Cells harbouring latent HIV are "invisible" to the natural defences of the immune system, said researchers.

During infection, the DNA of HIV makes its way into the host cell's nucleus and integrates itself into the host genome.

The Tat gene circuit is a key piece of HIV DNA that controls the HIV gene transcription and activation, according to the study.

When activated, it initiates a takeover of the cell's machinery to churn out new copies of the HIV virus, which eventually burst from the cell and infect neighbouring cells.

HIV-specific immune effector cells kill cells infected with HIV, but only when the cells are being used to produce more of the virus, meaning that the Tat gene circuit is switched on.

In cells that are latently infected, the Tat gene circuit is off, and the cell goes about its normal business all the while harbouring quiescent HIV.

"By targeting the Tat gene circuit with drugs or small molecules to activate it, we would be able to cause latently-infected cells to start producing more virus, and then they can be destroyed by the immune system," said a researcher.

So far, there are no drugs successfully targeting this circuit, researchers said.

People infected with the HIV virus can live relatively normal lives with exceedingly low or even undetectable viral loads thanks to powerful antiretroviral therapies that work to suppress viral replication.

However, even in people where the virus is undetectable, it doesn't mean it's completely absent.

The HIV virus can hide in cells in an inactivated state, meaning it isn't actively replicating.

This is a dire situation and makes life-long antiretroviral therapy the only option for HIV infected patients.

"It is extremely difficult to flush latently-infected cells out of their latency," he said.

Techniques developed to reactivate latent HIV-infected cells so that they become susceptible to the body's natural immune response or to drug therapies have had mixed results.

This is mostly because the technique, known as "shock and kill," relies on a class of drugs called HDAC inhibitors that come with severe adverse effects, researchers said.

"We need to better understand the mechanisms that regulate HIV latency so we can identify new opportunities for intervention and develop better drugs that can either lock viral particles in a latent state, or kill latent cells, or both,"he said.

The Tat gene circuit has a random probability of being active or inactive, and the switch from inactive to active can happen spontaneously.

"In HIV-infected cells, reactivation of the Tat gene circuit is still a very rare event," he said.

The researchers developed advanced computational algorithms to study the Tat gene circuit under different conditions.

"Using different models and algorithms, we were able to accurately map a 'probability landscape' of the cellular reactions that can impact Tat gene circuit reactivation, and our results suggest new ways of targeting latent cells that may lead to the eradication of the HIV virus from a host," he said.

Researchers identified ways to manipulate the Tat gene circuit so that the "shock and kill" technique would be more effective.

They also looked at a "block and lock" strategy, where latent viral particles are locked into latency by permanently blocking activation of the Tat gene circuit.

"Our results suggest that by controlling HIV latency through manipulation of the Tat gene circuit, effective therapeutic strategies can be identified that would one day provide a cure for HIV," he said.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                                             FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                                                             https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/                                                                                       FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com