Science - Cancer and the Push towards Personalised Treatments

Cancer - The Push towards Personalised Treatments

         Whereas previously cancers were defined by their position inside the body, advances in the field of oncology are increasingly revealing that primarily similarity between cancers is as a result of similar genetic mutations different cancers may cause. This means that a particular lung cancer may have more in common with a specific breast cancer than another type of lung cancer. This has profound repurcussions in the medical field where currently treatments are prescribed by a clinician based primarily upon the severity and location of the cancer in the body. However, with each cancer having the possibility of causing over 100,000 genetic mutations inside cancerous cells current genetic sequencing equipment is, at present, insufficient in terms of efficiency and economic viability to be used to sequence the DNA of the UK's many thousands of cancer patients. The reason for these problems with the equipments efficiency in coding a patients genetic code becomes clear once it is realised that storing one million cancer patients genetic codes would require as much space as Youtube.

        The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) is pouring funding into new projects designed to provide greater insight into which mutations cause tumour suppressor genes to lose function. If tumour suppressor genes become inactivated they can no longer inhibit cell proliferation leading to uncontrollable cell growth and the formation of a tumour. By understanding which mutations cause healthy cells to convert into cancerous cells it is hoped that improved treatments specific to an individuals own particular type of cancer. Rapid advances in genetic sequencing techniques are catalysing this progression towards personalised treatments. One of the most established of these new 'personalised' treatments is the drug Herceptin. Herceptin is already being used to treat certain types of breast and stomach cancers in which the protein HER2, which stimulates cell division, is over expressed. However, such treatment is immensely expensive costing over £65,000 ($100,000) for a years treatment of Herceptin resulting in numerous American insurance companies and the NHS in Britain being reluctant to prescribe such treatments. Despite the expense of such treatments the ICR is hopeful of improvements in genetic sequencing and the development of new drugs reducing the costs.

        However, treatments specific to particular mutations (in what are rapidly proliferating and mutating cancerous cells) are then face with the problem of tumours developing resistance. Prof. Alan Ashworth, the ICR's director, has detailed the disappointment he feels when promising new drugs failing after the cancer develops resistance after only a few months. Describing the ICR's battle against cancer as a "bit like the game whack-a-mole" with the re-emergence of a cancer after it has seemingly been eradicated by a new treatment. The Tumour Profiling Unit at the ICR is understood to be planning to undertake a programme of frequent testing of cancer sample in order to understand changes the tumour undergoes in order to achieve such resistance. 

    Newly unveiled government plans to record the entire genetic sequences of over 100,000 patients with cancers and rare diseases clearly shows the governments commitment to stimulating progress towards more personalised treatments. The potential benefits of such plans to researchers is significant and scientists are already predicting implementation of new, faster genetic sequencing techniques into the NHS within the next 10-15 years.

-Adam

      

        

Science - DRACO (Medicine's Secret Weapon)

DRACO (Antiviral)

        Viruses have long been one of mankind's greatest enemies. Indeed, the battle between humans and viruses stretches back millennia to a time when even Egyptian pharaohs were not immune to the deadly smallpox. In more recent times the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918 killed over 50 million people, dealing a more deadly blow to a crippled Europe than the First World War itself. Even the H1N1 virus, more commonly known as "swine flu" which reached pandemic proportions in 2009, is now often dismissed as a relatively insignificant event, despite killing over 17,000 people.


       However, scientists from M.I.T. in the past few years have begun laying the foundations for what is already being called a "Doomsday device" in the war against viruses. This "Doomsday device" is in the form of DRACO (Double-stranded RNA Activated Caspase Oligomerizer) a bioengineered microscopic superprotein which it is hoped will be able to eradicate a variety of viral diseases. Current Antivirals have a limited usefulness due to the fact they can only inhibit the growth of pathogenic virus rather than destroy it and are specific only to certain strains of viruses. Furthermore due to their genetic variability viruses of the ability to mutate rapidly, potentially rendering an previously effective antivirals ineffective against the new strain of virus. DRACO overcomes this as DRACO actually kills virus infected host cells. Through various studies we now know that DRACO has the potential to eradicate over 15 different viral infections inside mice including H1N1, the rhinovirus (common cold), dengue virus and the adenovirus.

     DRACO works by detecting double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) which is expressed in almost all viruses but not in healthy cells, making dsRNA the perfect marker. When viruses replicate by invading a host cell the convert the DNA of the host cell into an intermediary stage of dsRNA. When two or more DRACO proteins recognise this viral dsRNA they release the enzyme caspase which initiates apoptosis in the infected host cell. Apoptosis is the process the host cell undergoes to destroy the virus, essentially cellular suicide.



          In conclusion, DRACO has been shown to exhibit many of the qualities which make it worthy of its comparison to an antiviral equivalent of penicillin. However, further intensive testing needs to be done still to progress DRACO through the different stages of Health and Safety regulations before human trials may be carried out. Although this further extensive experimentation needs to be carried out many of the scientists working on the project believe DRACO will be available for public use within the next decade. If the hopes of the scientific community in regards to DRACO are realised we might finally gain a significant advantage against our viral enemies.

-Adam

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Science - Quadruple Helix

The Quadruple Helix

        Cambridge University Scientists have recently discovered quadruple helices made up of four strands of DNA intricately laced together. Although such a molecule has previously been produced in vitro under laboratory conditions the discovery of the molecule in cancerous cells is the first known example of a quadruple helix structure of DNA in naturally occurring human cells. The Quadruple Helix, scientifically called a G-Quadruplex, is most commonly found in regions of DNA rich in the nitrogenous base guanine. G-Quadruplexes occur in greatest abundance during the 's phase' of cell replication and are formed inside chromosomes and telomeres.

    

     The discovery of the G-Quadruplex is of keen interest to the field of oncology due to the fact the molecule has only been identified inside cancerous cells. This means the G-Quadruplex could potentially have a role in whether a cell becomes cancerous in the first place. 

More significantly, however, is the possibility of new treatments being developed which specifically target the G-Quadruplex without damaging healthy cells. For years the 'holy grail' of oncology is to find a characteristic specific to all cancer cells alone which would allow such characteristics to be targeted without damaging healthy cells, destroying the cancer. Indeed, Professor Shankar Balasubramanian of the University of Cambridge's Department of Chemistry has already detailed “...links between trapping the G-Quadruplexes with molecules and the ability to stop cells dividing” suggesting that the Quadruple Helix has a significant role in leading to the uncontrollable and rapid division of cells in cancer. 

Further research into the G-Quadruplex, therefore, could pave the way for more effective and more personalised cancer treatments in the near future. Many research scientists have already begun advocating the benefits of potential treatments to pharmaceutical companies in order to get the next generation of cancer treatments along the development pipeline.

-Adam

                                                                                                    

For more detailed information please have a look at this excellent New Scientist article:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21729014.400-quadruple-helix-dna-discovered-in-human-cells.html

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Science - Turrotopsis Nutricula and Living Forever

Turrotopsis Nutricula and Living Forever

      

Ever wanted to live forever? Be a Jellyfish! When thinking of the word jellyfish, for most people, it is the thought of horrible searing stings and the infamous Portuguese Man o’ War which springs to mind. However there is one Jellyfish, Turrotopsis nutricula, which appears to break the seemingly golden rule of life: that everything must die. This is because the Turrotopsis nutricula is, theoretically, biologically immortal - a title that it alone holds.

This brings about a very important question: How?

The process by which the Turrotopsis nutricula stays young is a kind of ‘reverse metamorphosis’ called cell transdifferentiation. Cell transdifferentiation is the process in which the jellyfish alters the differentiated state of a cell into a new type of cell. Significantly, there is no intermediate step where the cell converts into a stem cell first; the change is from one somatic cell to another.

This process allows the Jellyfish to revert from the medua stage (fully formed adult jellyfish) to the polyp stage (sexually immature, stalk-like form). Cell transdifferentiation is not only triggered by age but by environmental stresses, such as starvation. Since the process can be repeated indefinitely this means that as long as the jellyfish does not succumb to predation or disease that it can live, in theory, indefinitely.

What does this mean for me?

Unsurprising the nutricula's phenomenal properties has developed great interest in many scientific circles, particularly in stem cell research.  It is at the forefront of many studies in organ reproduction, cancer treatments and brain injury treatments to name a few. The jellyfish cells are very similar to cancer cells in the way they are able to affect the normal process of genetic systems. By studying the cells of the jellyfish, the scientists are hoping to gain greater insight elusive cure for cancer.

The Turrotopsis nutricula is undoubtedly one of the most amazing animals in the animal kingdom and arguably, of all time.  By mere chance this otherwise inconspicuous jellyfish has developed the perhaps the most desirable evolutionary trait ever dreamt of.

However, immortality has a price. The ability to reproduce alongside eternal life means the numbers of Turrotopsis nutricula are increasing exponentially, and they are now spreading. In what is being dubbed as the ‘Silent Invasion’ by the tabloids, Turrotopsis nutricula is spreading away from its native Caribbean seas by hitchhiking on the hulls of large ships and is migrating into waters closer to home. Spain and Italy have already identified the Turrotopsis nutricula off their own shores. With no predators seemingly up to the task of slowing their advance, it appears this unique jellyfish will distort ecosystems around the world as it secures its hold over the world’s oceans.

- Adam