The clue to end cancer may lie in your own body
Scientists claim to have come closer to developing a cure
for cancer using the body's own immune system to fight tumour cells.
Researchers at a British company Immunocore has developed a way of harnessing
the power of the immune system's natural-born killer cells: the T-cells of the
blood which seek out and kill invading pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria.
"Immunotherapy is radically different," said Bent Jakobsen, chief
scientific officer of Immunocore.
"It doesn't do away with the other cancer treatments by
any means, but it adds something to the arsenal that has one unique feature it
may have the potency to actually cure cancer," Jakobsen said. The company
has found a way of designing small protein molecules, which it calls ImmTACs,
that effectively act as double-ended glue, 'The Independent' reported.
ImmTACs are effectively independent T-cell receptors that
are "bispecific", meaning they bind strongly to cancer cells at one
end, and T-cells at the other ¿ so introducing cancer cells to their nemesis,
researchers said. "What we can do is to use that scaffold of the T-cell
receptor to make something that is very good at recognising cancer even if it
doesn't exist naturally," said Jakobsen. "Although T-cells are not
very keen at recognising cancer, we can force them to do so. The potential you
have if you can engineer T-cell receptors is quite enormous. You can find any
type of cell and any kind of target. This means the approach can in theory be
used against any cancer, whether it is tumours of the prostate, breast, liver
or the pancreas," he said.
The key to the success of the technique is being able to
distinguish between a cancer cell and a normal, healthy cell. Immunocore's drug
does this by recognising small proteins or peptides that stick out from the
surface membrane of cancer cells, the report said. Researchers said all cells
extrude peptides on their membranes and these peptides act like a shop window,
telling scientists what is going on within the cell, and whether it is
cancerous.
Source: www.indianexpress.com
15.07.2013
Nearly six million die from smoking every year: WHO
Despite public health campaigns, smoking remains the leading
avoidable cause of death worldwide, killing almost six million people a year,
mostly in low- and middle-income countries, the World Health Organization has
said.
If current trends hold, the number of deaths blamed on
tobacco use will rise to eight million a year in 2030, the WHO said yesterday
in a briefing unveiled at a conference in Panama.
About 80 percent of tobacco-related deaths forecast for 2030
are expected in low- and middle-income countries, the report added. "If we
do not close ranks and ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship,
adolescents and young adults will continue to be lured into tobacco consumption
by an ever-more aggressive tobacco industry," said WHO Director-General Dr
Margaret Chan.
"Every country has the responsibility to protect its
population from tobacco-related illness, disability and death." Among the
dead this year, five million were tobacco users or former users, while more
than 600,000 died from second-hand smoke, according to the WHO.
Tobacco use is believed to have caused the deaths of 100
million people in the 20th century. Barring dramatic change, the tally for this
century could soar to one billion people, the WHO warned.
"We know that only complete bans on tobacco
advertising, promotion and sponsorship are effective," Dr Douglas
Bettcher, the Director of the WHO's Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases
department, told the Panama conference.
"Countries that introduced complete bans together with
other tobacco control measures have been able to cut tobacco use significantly
within only a few years," he said.
The report noted that 2.3 billion people from 92 countries
benefit from some form of smoking restrictions, more than double the number who
did five years ago. However, that figure still represents just a third of the
world's population.
Source: www.indianexpress.com
15.07.2013
The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the innocent
forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget
Thomas Szasz
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