GM Blood Kills Human Cancer Cells

adri writes "New Scientist has an article which outlines an interesting method of combating cancer: genetically modifying T-cells in human blood to seek and destroy bowel cancer cells."

What else?

[Anonymous Coward]

genetically modifying T-cells in human blood to seek and destroy bowel cancer cells.

And what else does it kill, I wonder?

It's genetically modified with dynamite...

[clambake]

Sure, the cancer doesn't survive the blast... but neither do you.

Re:What else?

[Smallpond]

It T-cell's purpose to kill invading cells, so this is just a form of job re-training. Mostly they look for specific chemical signatures.

I'm hoping that they can also be trained for SARS infections which is likely to be the bigger problem soon.

Is that a cytokine in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?

Only side effect

[jsse]

is that the genetic re-engineered T-Cell might rebel and take over the control of your body; the plus side is that nobody else would notice and life goes on.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:GM?

[Muhammar]

I knew it! Only mutants could have designed some Chevy trucks.

cool

[capnjack41]

Wow, I just realized that GM isn't General Motors, and that the April Fools' jokes are over!

But since cancer cells are (as I understand it, I'm not all that knowledgeable about this) caused by "genetic modifications" in themselves, how do we know (as someone said) that these don't have adverse effects in themselves?

However I suppose that if I did have this condition, I'd be willing to try...

Another bullet in the treatment arsenal?

[geekwench]

Good lord, I hope so.

This is exciting research, and just the sort of thing that GM should be used for. If the researchers can add the necessary information to white blood cells so that they recognize cancer cells as "foreign", and respond accordingly, then we might see a future in which the cure isn't worse than the disease. Chemo and radiation are both damned indiscriminate, and there's an upper limit to how much of either can be administered to a person. Tweaking white blood cells so that they do their job more effectively would be a far better answer, since they wouldn't attack healthy tissue.

Not only does this show promise for cancer (it's being used on bowel cancers, but I can see more widespread applications), the findings could prove useful in the future treatment of autoimmune disorders. I'm very much looking forward to the developments that are going to come out of this line of research.

The problem is...

[Ieshan]

"Tweaking white blood cells so that they do their job more effectively would be a far better answer, since they wouldn't attack healthy tissue."

Right, sure, that sounds very good on paper. The problem is, T cells work by recognizing surface antigens present on certain cells and not on others, or the absence of certain key antigens. I think autoimmune issues will be the *first* to occur - we're teaching someone's T cells how to kill cells in his own body, granted, cells that have been mutated in some way, but still.

I'm not so sure this will work in vivo as well as it has in vitro. :-\

Re:The problem is...

[Suidae]

I was thinking the same way, however, T cells have a limited lifetime, so any problems they might cause in the body should be limited in scope, presuming they are set up so the don't attack something really critical.

Re:The problem is...

[geekwench]

If I'm reading the article correctly, what the researchers are attempting to do is nothing more than step up the T-cells' normal function. They already go after disease pathogens, and there is a certain amount of evidence that they behave the same way towards cancerous cells in the same way that they do any other "foreign body." For reasons unknown, some rogue cells slip through the defenses and proliferate beyond the immune system's capabilities to fight the disease. Since the T-cells being use are being h

Re:The problem is...

[Ieshan]

Well, part of the "secret" of how cancer cells slip by immune system responses deals with their mutation from normal, working human cells.

Cell surface antigens are very complicated, but suffice it to say, they're somewhat unique based on a variety of different factors (a similar analogy: people can't recieve blood from other "types", the "types" being different "types" of a specific surface antigens).

Since cancer cells arise from mutated cells, there might not be a marked difference in surface antigens on

I like Geron's teqnique better

[Anonymous Coward]

Geron is working on a way to target 90% of cancer cells by homing in on there need for the enzyme "telomerase".

From what I can gather, the enzyme is necessary for splitting the DNA strands to prep for Cell division. Embryos and Cancer cells that are doing this continuously have lots of it. Adult cells do not. So by hunting for this enzyme in Adults you target cancer cells no matter what kind they are.

I'm not sure if the treatment supresses the enzyme or if an anti-body has been developed wich targets t

But should we?

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one am disturbed by such developments :(

Blood is the essence of our life, so tampering with it is to tamper with life itself. This is more evil from those scientists who seek to replace god.

Re:But should we?

[suwain_2]

That's your opinion, and I'm certainly not saying it's wrong. However, I wanted to share my personal belief...

I'm a Catholic, and I'm against artificially ending life (abortion, death penalty...), as well as artificially creating it. However, I don't think artificially extending life is wrong, nor at all "playing God," or even going against what God wanted.

I'm having a hard time articulating why I believe this, but... I have a hard time believe it's God's will that someone develop cancer and die. Rather,

what if you have fake blood?

[dougnaka]

Like Hemopure? [biopure.com]
Which, AFAIK, is made from actual biological tissue (cow's blood), and is a very effective replacement for human blood.
If you're T-cells have been modified to go after a broader range of cells you could have much more serious issues with any transplant/transfusions.. ??