This may be a breakthrough and I am sorry that the source so far is Danish (international articles will probably follow soon), and I am very much aware that the boulevard press is often publishing the news that now the cure for "cancer" is found.
But Danish scientists have published information that a specific malaria-based protein can transport poison into cancer cells without damaging normal tissue.
The preliminary and unconfirmed claims are that 95% of all cancer types are vulnerable to this treatment.
They claim that after testing in laboratories the testing continued with animals and with the same results.
They also claim that we are only 3-4 years from being able to test on humans.
Ali Salanti, professor at Institute for immunology and microbiology at the University of Copenhagen see this as a major breakthrough. His research was done with another Danish scientist, Mads Daugaard, working at University of British Columbia in Canada.
http://jyllands-posten.dk/nyviden/ECE8106890/Danske-forskere-har-opdaget-et-effektivt-våben-i-kampen-mod-kræft/
An article should be published today in the recognized "Cancer Cell".
I do definetely not want to raise any false hope. But let's see what this will lead to.
Best regards,
Lev
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Lev - Name: Lev
- Who do you know with myeloma?: Me
- When were you/they diagnosed?: June 2014
- Age at diagnosis: 57
Re: Malaria-related treatment for cancer
Thanks, Lev, for giving us all a heads up about this news.
The University of Copenhagen now has an English-language press release about the research. We've included it below.
Malaria vaccine provides hope for a general cure for cancer
The hunt for a vaccine against malaria in pregnant women has provided an unexpected side benefit for Danish researchers, namely what appears to be an effective weapon against cancer. The scientists behind the vaccine aim for tests on humans within four years.
Danish scientists from the University of Copenhagen and the University of British Columbia (UBC) face a possible breakthrough in the fight against cancer, which may result in a genuine medical treatment for the dreaded disease.
The hunt for a weapon to fight malaria in pregnant women has revealed that, expressed in popular terms, armed malaria proteins can kill cancer. The researchers behind the discovery hope to be able to conduct tests on humans within four years.
In collaboration with cancer researcher Mads Daugaard from the University of British Columbia in Canada, malaria researcher Professor Ali Salanti from the Faculty of Medical Health and Sciences, UCPH, has revealed that the carbohydrate that the malaria parasite attaches itself to in the placenta in pregnant women is identical to a carbohydrate found in cancer cells.
In the laboratory, scientists have created the protein that the malaria parasite uses to adhere to the placenta and added a toxin. This combination of malaria protein and toxin seeks out the cancer cells, is absorbed, the toxin released inside, and then the cancer cells die. This process has been witnessed in cell cultures and in mice with cancer. The discovery has only just been described in an article in the renowned scientific journal Cancer Cell.
“For decades, scientists have been searching for similarities between the growth of a placenta and a tumor. The placenta is an organ, which within a few months grows from only few cells into an organ weighing approx. two pounds, and it provides the embryo with oxygen and nourishment in a relatively foreign environment. In a manner of speaking, tumors do much the same, they grow aggressively in a relatively foreign environment,” says Ali Salanti from the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Copenhagen.
Ali Salanti’s team is currently testing a vaccine against malaria on humans, and it was in connection with the development of this drug that he discovered that the carbohydrate in the placenta was also present in cancer tumors. Ali Salanti immediately contacted his former fellow student and now cancer researcher, Mads Daugaard, who is head of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathology at the Vancouver Prostate Center at UBC in Canada. In collaboration, the two groups have generated results, which they hope will provide the basis for a drug against cancer.
“We examined the carbohydrate’s function. In the placenta, it helps ensure fast growth. Our experiments showed that it was the same in cancer tumors. We combined the malaria parasite with cancer cells and the parasite reacted to the cancer cells as if they were a placenta and attached itself,” Ali Salanti explains.
Kills cancer cells
In collaboration, the two university research groups have tested thousands of samples from brain tumors to leukemias and a general picture emerges to indicate that the malaria protein is able attack more than 90% of all types of tumors. The drug has been tested on mice that were implanted with three types of human tumours. With non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the treated mice’s tumours were about a quarter the size of the tumours in the control group. With prostate cancer, the tumours disappeared in two of the six treated mice a month after receiving the first dose. With metastatic bone cancer, five out of six of the treated mice were alive after almost eight weeks, compared to none of the mice in a control group.
“We have separated the malaria protein, which attaches itself to the carbohydrate and then added a toxin. By conducting tests on mice, we have been able to show that the combination of protein and toxin kill the cancer cells,” Mads Daugaard explains.
“It appears that the malaria protein attaches itself to the tumor without any significant attachment to other tissue. And the mice that were given doses of protein and toxin showed far higher survival rates than the untreated mice. We have seen that three doses can arrest growth in a tumor and even make it shrink,” PhD student Thomas Mandel Clausen elaborates. He has been part of the research project for the last two years.
It would appear that the only snag is the fact that the treatment would not be available for pregnant women.
“Expressed in popular terms, the toxin will believe that the placenta is a tumor and kill it, in exactly the same way it will believe that a tumor is a placenta,” Ali Salanti states.
In collaboration with the scientists behind the discovery, the University of Copenhagen has created the biotech company, VAR2pharmaceuticals, which will drive the clinical development forward. The research teams working with Ali Salanti and Mads Daugaard are now working purposefully towards being able to conduct tests on humans.
“The earliest possible test scenario is in four years time. The biggest questions are whether it’ll work in the human body, and if the human body can tolerate the doses needed without developing side effects. But we’re optimistic because the protein appears to only attach itself to a carbohydrate that is only found in the placenta and in cancer tumors in humans,” Ali Salanti concludes.
You can read the article in Cancer Cell by clicking on this link.
Original press release:
http://news.ku.dk/all_news/2015/10/malaria-vaccine-provides-hope-for-a-general-cure-for-cancer/
The University of Copenhagen now has an English-language press release about the research. We've included it below.
Malaria vaccine provides hope for a general cure for cancer
The hunt for a vaccine against malaria in pregnant women has provided an unexpected side benefit for Danish researchers, namely what appears to be an effective weapon against cancer. The scientists behind the vaccine aim for tests on humans within four years.
Danish scientists from the University of Copenhagen and the University of British Columbia (UBC) face a possible breakthrough in the fight against cancer, which may result in a genuine medical treatment for the dreaded disease.
The hunt for a weapon to fight malaria in pregnant women has revealed that, expressed in popular terms, armed malaria proteins can kill cancer. The researchers behind the discovery hope to be able to conduct tests on humans within four years.
In collaboration with cancer researcher Mads Daugaard from the University of British Columbia in Canada, malaria researcher Professor Ali Salanti from the Faculty of Medical Health and Sciences, UCPH, has revealed that the carbohydrate that the malaria parasite attaches itself to in the placenta in pregnant women is identical to a carbohydrate found in cancer cells.
In the laboratory, scientists have created the protein that the malaria parasite uses to adhere to the placenta and added a toxin. This combination of malaria protein and toxin seeks out the cancer cells, is absorbed, the toxin released inside, and then the cancer cells die. This process has been witnessed in cell cultures and in mice with cancer. The discovery has only just been described in an article in the renowned scientific journal Cancer Cell.
“For decades, scientists have been searching for similarities between the growth of a placenta and a tumor. The placenta is an organ, which within a few months grows from only few cells into an organ weighing approx. two pounds, and it provides the embryo with oxygen and nourishment in a relatively foreign environment. In a manner of speaking, tumors do much the same, they grow aggressively in a relatively foreign environment,” says Ali Salanti from the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Copenhagen.
Ali Salanti’s team is currently testing a vaccine against malaria on humans, and it was in connection with the development of this drug that he discovered that the carbohydrate in the placenta was also present in cancer tumors. Ali Salanti immediately contacted his former fellow student and now cancer researcher, Mads Daugaard, who is head of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathology at the Vancouver Prostate Center at UBC in Canada. In collaboration, the two groups have generated results, which they hope will provide the basis for a drug against cancer.
“We examined the carbohydrate’s function. In the placenta, it helps ensure fast growth. Our experiments showed that it was the same in cancer tumors. We combined the malaria parasite with cancer cells and the parasite reacted to the cancer cells as if they were a placenta and attached itself,” Ali Salanti explains.
Kills cancer cells
In collaboration, the two university research groups have tested thousands of samples from brain tumors to leukemias and a general picture emerges to indicate that the malaria protein is able attack more than 90% of all types of tumors. The drug has been tested on mice that were implanted with three types of human tumours. With non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the treated mice’s tumours were about a quarter the size of the tumours in the control group. With prostate cancer, the tumours disappeared in two of the six treated mice a month after receiving the first dose. With metastatic bone cancer, five out of six of the treated mice were alive after almost eight weeks, compared to none of the mice in a control group.
“We have separated the malaria protein, which attaches itself to the carbohydrate and then added a toxin. By conducting tests on mice, we have been able to show that the combination of protein and toxin kill the cancer cells,” Mads Daugaard explains.
“It appears that the malaria protein attaches itself to the tumor without any significant attachment to other tissue. And the mice that were given doses of protein and toxin showed far higher survival rates than the untreated mice. We have seen that three doses can arrest growth in a tumor and even make it shrink,” PhD student Thomas Mandel Clausen elaborates. He has been part of the research project for the last two years.
It would appear that the only snag is the fact that the treatment would not be available for pregnant women.
“Expressed in popular terms, the toxin will believe that the placenta is a tumor and kill it, in exactly the same way it will believe that a tumor is a placenta,” Ali Salanti states.
In collaboration with the scientists behind the discovery, the University of Copenhagen has created the biotech company, VAR2pharmaceuticals, which will drive the clinical development forward. The research teams working with Ali Salanti and Mads Daugaard are now working purposefully towards being able to conduct tests on humans.
“The earliest possible test scenario is in four years time. The biggest questions are whether it’ll work in the human body, and if the human body can tolerate the doses needed without developing side effects. But we’re optimistic because the protein appears to only attach itself to a carbohydrate that is only found in the placenta and in cancer tumors in humans,” Ali Salanti concludes.
You can read the article in Cancer Cell by clicking on this link.
Original press release:
http://news.ku.dk/all_news/2015/10/malaria-vaccine-provides-hope-for-a-general-cure-for-cancer/
Re: Malaria-related treatment for cancer
Everything here is of course a bit premature. The first article has just been published. But it is very interesting, and I find it very interesting and do of course have more questions than answers.
This attempt to deliver a cure has one thing in common with another interesting attempt at the Mayo Clinic, that it is related to another sickness. But while the Mayo trial is using the actual sickness, the measles virus, to attack myeloma, this new finding is in it self a cure against a sickness, malaria in the placenta.
And it is interesting that other types of malaria medicine has previously been seen to have some effect on myeloma
"The Neglected Common Thread: Malaria Drugs As Potential Myeloma Therapies," The Myeloma Beacon, July 12, 2014
For now just a lot of questions and thoughts ... and another one is that in recent years many novel treatments are characterized by targeting very specific types of cancer or even more precisely directly targeting very specific chromosomes or proteins. The newspaper and other media representations covering this possible new cure states that the malaria medicine treatment is targeting more than 90% of all cancer types. And even, as I understand without many side effects.
The experiments in vitro (laboratory tests) and early in vivo experiments (in living organisms, here I believe it was mice) seem to confirm the finding that it has general effect against cancer.
The first result of the publishing of this possible cure will hopefully be a lot of repetition of the tests by other scientists to find out whether it is really as revolutionary as it may sound. And we have to remember that it is not the first time we have heard about "the cure" and then later found that it may just be another stop on the long road forward.
And then also: Hoping that 90% does not accidentally leave myeloma within the last 5-10% of cancers that the cure is not fighting.
A good thing though. The scientists behind this has formed a company with the purpose of making sure that if succeeding this cure will be available world wide at low prices and that they specifically state that they want it to be available for everybody who need it, not just the privileged populations in the most wealthy countries.
A question: What are the typical time scales before we know more and before the first real people will be involved in trials.
Best regards
Lev
Here is the abstract from the journal article about the research in Cancer Cell
Highlights
Plasmodium falciparum engineer infected erythrocytes to present the malarial protein, VAR2CSA, which binds a distinct type chondroitin sulfate (CS) exclusively expressed in the placenta. Here, we show that the same CS modification is present on a high proportion of malignant cells and that it can be specifically targeted by recombinant VAR2CSA (rVAR2). In tumors, placental-like CS chains are linked to a limited repertoire of cancer-associated proteoglycans including CD44 and CSPG4. The rVAR2 protein localizes to tumors in vivo and rVAR2 fused to diphtheria toxin or conjugated to hemiasterlin compounds strongly inhibits in vivo tumor cell growth and metastasis. Our data demonstrate how an evolutionarily refined parasite-derived protein can be exploited to target a common, but complex, malignancy-associated glycosaminoglycan modification.
This attempt to deliver a cure has one thing in common with another interesting attempt at the Mayo Clinic, that it is related to another sickness. But while the Mayo trial is using the actual sickness, the measles virus, to attack myeloma, this new finding is in it self a cure against a sickness, malaria in the placenta.
And it is interesting that other types of malaria medicine has previously been seen to have some effect on myeloma
"The Neglected Common Thread: Malaria Drugs As Potential Myeloma Therapies," The Myeloma Beacon, July 12, 2014
For now just a lot of questions and thoughts ... and another one is that in recent years many novel treatments are characterized by targeting very specific types of cancer or even more precisely directly targeting very specific chromosomes or proteins. The newspaper and other media representations covering this possible new cure states that the malaria medicine treatment is targeting more than 90% of all cancer types. And even, as I understand without many side effects.
The experiments in vitro (laboratory tests) and early in vivo experiments (in living organisms, here I believe it was mice) seem to confirm the finding that it has general effect against cancer.
The first result of the publishing of this possible cure will hopefully be a lot of repetition of the tests by other scientists to find out whether it is really as revolutionary as it may sound. And we have to remember that it is not the first time we have heard about "the cure" and then later found that it may just be another stop on the long road forward.
And then also: Hoping that 90% does not accidentally leave myeloma within the last 5-10% of cancers that the cure is not fighting.
A good thing though. The scientists behind this has formed a company with the purpose of making sure that if succeeding this cure will be available world wide at low prices and that they specifically state that they want it to be available for everybody who need it, not just the privileged populations in the most wealthy countries.
A question: What are the typical time scales before we know more and before the first real people will be involved in trials.
Best regards
Lev
Here is the abstract from the journal article about the research in Cancer Cell
Highlights
- The placenta and cancer express a similar type of oncofetal chondroitin sulfate
- Oncofetal chondroitin sulfate is displayed on proteoglycans in cancer
- Recombinant VAR2CSA proteins detect oncofetal chondroitin modifications
- Human cancer can be broadly targeted by malarial VAR2CSA drug conjugates in vivo
Plasmodium falciparum engineer infected erythrocytes to present the malarial protein, VAR2CSA, which binds a distinct type chondroitin sulfate (CS) exclusively expressed in the placenta. Here, we show that the same CS modification is present on a high proportion of malignant cells and that it can be specifically targeted by recombinant VAR2CSA (rVAR2). In tumors, placental-like CS chains are linked to a limited repertoire of cancer-associated proteoglycans including CD44 and CSPG4. The rVAR2 protein localizes to tumors in vivo and rVAR2 fused to diphtheria toxin or conjugated to hemiasterlin compounds strongly inhibits in vivo tumor cell growth and metastasis. Our data demonstrate how an evolutionarily refined parasite-derived protein can be exploited to target a common, but complex, malignancy-associated glycosaminoglycan modification.
-
Lev - Name: Lev
- Who do you know with myeloma?: Me
- When were you/they diagnosed?: June 2014
- Age at diagnosis: 57
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