Targeted Virus Compels Cancer Cells to Eat Themselves

[Pendragon_6]

M. D. Anderson News Release
05/02/06

An engineered virus tracks down and infects the most common and deadly form of brain cancer and then kills tumor cells by forcing them to devour themselves, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The modified adenovirus homed in on malignant glioma cells in mice and induced enough self-cannibalization among the cancer cells - a process called autophagy - to reduce tumor size and extend survival, says senior author Seiji Kondo, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at M. D. Anderson.

"This virus uses telomerase, an enzyme found in 80 percent of brain tumors, as a target," Kondo says. "Once the virus enters the cell, it needs telomerase to replicate. Normal brain tissue does not have telomerase, so this virus replicates only in cancer cells."

©2006 The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

M D Anderson Cancer Center (http://www.mdanderson.org/departments/newsroom/display.cfm?id=2BFBE8C5-BA5B-421D-96E235C4CF443D07&method=displayFull&pn=00c8a30f-c468-11d4-80fb00508b603a14)

Trimmed by DesertFox to comply with board's 25% policy. P6, please use no more than 25% of an article in future, unless it expressly authorizes use of the entire thing. Thanks.

[Timberwolf]

Way cool article!! Thanks for that P6.

[DoctorDoom]

Fascinating! That's the sort of research that's worth whatever it costs.

[Patriot Heart]

Awesome. May God continue to bless the scientists who work long lonely years on these discoveries.

[DesertFox]

Good stuff. Hope they have it ready when cancer starts hunting up my ass.

[Trevelyan]

That is so interesting! :)

They mention telomerase in the article. There is one hypothesis out there as to why we age, and telomeres are the focus of the one I am referring to. Telomeres are areas of DNA that do not code for anything, and they are located at the ends of chromosomes. Due to the way in which DNA replicates, there is material that is lost at the ends after each round of replication. So after a while, the telomeres are depleted, and then coding material begins to be eaten away.

Telomerase is an enzyme that replenishes the telomere supply in sex cells. This ensures offspring have a full set of telomeres. There is speculation that this is why the cloned sheep died early. The sheep was cloned from a cell that did not have a fresh stock of telomeres, because it was not a cell from a newly formed or new born sheep. When telomerase was tested in somatic (non-sex body cells) to see if its replenishing effects would be observed, it was found that it caused cancers to form instead.

Anyway, I would like to close by saying, "Screw you PETA!" :)