Small-molecule drug drives cancer cells to suicide

[Milkster]

Cancer researchers have pinned down a molecule that can kick-start the body’s own tumour-destroying systems, triggering cell death in cancerous but not healthy tissue in mice.
The molecule, TIC10, activates the gene for a protein called TRAIL (tumour-necrosis-factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand), which has long been a target for cancer researchers looking for drugs that would avoid the debilitating effects of conventional therapies.
“TRAIL is a part of our immune system: all of us with functional immune systems use this molecule to keep tumours from forming or spreading, so boosting this will not be as toxic as chemotherapy,” says Wafik El-Deiry, an oncologist at Pennsylvania State University in Hershey and lead author of the study, which is published today in Science Translational Medicine1.
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Experiments showed that TIC10 had potent effects against a variety of tumours, including breast, lymphatic, colon and lung cancer. It was especially effective at triggering cell suicide in glioblastoma, a kind of brain tumour that is notoriously difficult to treat2. Mice with glioblastomas that were treated with TIC10 and bevacizumab — a drug used against diseases including brain tumours, and sold under the name Avastin — survived three times as long as untreated mice. However, they survived only 6% longer than mice treated with bevacizumab alone.
Quick and collaborative

El-Deiry says that TIC10 is so effective because it is much smaller than proteins that have previously been tested as TRAIL-based drugs. The molecule is so compact that it can cross the blood–brain barrier, which separates the main circulatory system from the brain. This barrier normally acts to prevent hazardous agents such as microbes from infecting the brain, but can also thwart anti-cancer drugs by keeping them out. “We didn’t actually anticipate that this molecule would be able to treat brain tumours — that was a pleasant surprise,” says El-Deiry.
Furthermore, it seems that TIC10 activates the TRAIL gene not only in cancerous cells, but also in healthy ones. This gives it enormous potential to create a 'bystander effect', in which apoptosis — or cell death — is induced in cancer cells immediately next to healthy ones. Healthy cells are also stimulated to increase the amount of TRAIL receptors on their cell surface. These receptors can then bind to the adjacent cancerous cells, triggering their demise. “It’s almost like TRAIL-plus — it does so much more,” says El-Deiry.
Tough TRAIL

This is by no means the only mechanism thought to trigger cell death in cancer. In particular, cancer researchers have been developing a number of drugs, including TRAIL-based therapeutics, that work by activating the cellular messenger tumour protein 53 (p53). But p53-based methods are not always effective, says El-Deiry. "Most tumours have dysfunctional p53, so in order to develop new therapeutics for cancer, one needs them to be effective in tumours with mutated p53,” he explains. His team's approach bypasses p53 entirely.
Although the study was limited to mice, the team is confident that a similar approach would work in humans. Other researchers are sceptical, in part because TRAIL-based strategies have not lived up to past hype.
The potential for TRAIL to usher in a new age in cancer therapy was first identified in the mid-1990s3. However, although early clinical trials for TRAIL-based therapies showed little toxicity, they were not very successful at treating cancer, says Andrew Thorburn, an oncologist at the University of Colorado Denver, who co-authored a review on the subject last year4. “All the large clinical trials found no significant survival benefit to adding TRAIL-based therapeutics to standard treatments,” he ads. Many large biomedical research groups have shelved their TRAIL-based drugs.

Potentially, the cure for cancer will be found in our lifetimes.

http://www.nature.com/news/small-mol...uicide-1.12385

[Pirian]

Potentially, the cure for cancer will be found in our lifetimes.

You were so close, lol. Cool nonetheless

[Priran]

the thing about coming up with "a cure for cancer" is that there's no one specific thing that goes wrong in all cancer that you can treat. I mean yeah, they all grow uncontrollably, but how they evade the checks in place in normal cells to prevent that from happening isn't even consistent across tumors of the same kind of cancer (i.e. one person's breast cancer might have a mutation in a receptor tyrosine kinase but another's could have the same effect be accomplished through a mutation in a G protein). targeted therapies that work in this fashion have been approved by the FDA for over a decade, this one just targets a different protein.

[kuronosan]

Cancer is not a disease, it's a symptom. Jesus. It's like saying you're going to cure sniffles.

[Moss]

Cancer is not a disease, it's a symptom. Jesus. It's like saying you're going to cure sniffles.

DUH GUYS COME ON

[Clash Perez]

what we really need to do is get the fluoride out of the water

[hey]

what we really need to do is get the fluoride out of the water

lol

[archibaldcrane]

“TRAIL is a part of our immune system: all of us with functional immune systems use this molecule to keep tumours from forming or spreading, so boosting this will not be as toxic as chemotherapy,” says Wafik El-Deiry

Didn't realize that Wafik went from having cancer to curing cancer so quickly.

[Heavencloud]

what we really need to do is get the fluoride out of the water

iodine out of salt and ban all vaccines while we're at it

[Kerberoz]

Purity of Essence!

[Fhloston]

lol

I don't get what is so funny about the fluoride statement. The research/science is there to back up the issue. It's gone way past being just a "conspiracy theory".

[archibaldcrane]

lol

[Kerberoz]

Yeah, fucking bodily fluid sappers and impurifiers WAKE UP and TEACH THE CONTROVERSY!

READ THIS SHIT, SHEEPLE: http://www.whale.to/d/fluoride.html

[Talus]

Fun fact: bevacizumab (Avastin) was originally developed for treating colorectal cancer. One of its most common uses now is off-label in retina clinics for treatment of age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, branch retinal vein occlusions, etc. It's about $65/dose, with typically q1mo intravitreal injections. That's compared to ranibizumab (Lucentis), which is a little over $2000/dose and aflibercept (Eylea), which is under $2000/dose and q1mo for 3 months and then q2mo. They all work by binding to VEGF-A (or VEGF-B, PIGF as well in the case of aflibercept), i.e. are anti-angiogenics.

TL;DR: Avastin is used FOR asses AND IN eyes.

[Fhloston]

Not even gonna try. I forgot how full close-minded a lot of people on this forum are. CONTINUE CLUBBING AND GETTING WASTED YEAH THAT'S WHAT'S COOL AND HIP THOSE GUYS ARE ALL STOOPID W/THEIR THEORIES I BET THEY HAVE NO FRANDS OR SELF PORTRAITS ON FACEBEWK

[miokomioko]

CONTINUE CLUBBING AND GETTING WASTED YEAH THAT'S WHAT'S COOL AND HIP THOSE GUYS ARE ALL STOOPID W/THEIR THEORIES I BET THEY HAVE NO FRANDS OR SELF PORTRAITS ON FACEBEWK

WHAT? LOL

[Dotsudoku]

did you just do a reverse-realnigga on a video game forum?

[Clash Perez]

Not even gonna try. I forgot how full close-minded a lot of people on this forum are. CONTINUE CLUBBING AND GETTING WASTED YEAH THAT'S WHAT'S COOL AND HIP THOSE GUYS ARE ALL STOOPID W/THEIR THEORIES I BET THEY HAVE NO FRANDS OR SELF PORTRAITS ON FACEBEWK

omg do u stock me wtf

[archibaldcrane]

did you just do a reverse-realnigga on a video game forum?

yes

yes i do believe that's what he did

[Fhloston]

Not even gonna try. I forgot how full close-minded a lot of people on this forum are. CONTINUE CLUBBING AND GETTING WASTED YEAH THAT'S WHAT'S COOL AND HIP THOSE GUYS ARE ALL STOOPID W/THEIR THEORIES I BET THEY HAVE NO FRANDS OR SELF PORTRAITS ON FACEBEWK

I actually only meant this part, b/c I still believe that's the fluoride is an issue people just choose to ignore and toss aside as theory. Just put in the rest to see what reaction I would get~ Forgive me for derailing, though. I've lost all of my grandparents to cancer, so any news of progression towards a cure is good news. Not to mention the fact that if they all got some form of it, my odds aren't all that great :/