Hurray for Stanford

[rickoic]

Don't know that this has anything to do with Folding@Home, but it's out of Stanford University.



One drug to rule them all: Researchers find treatment that kills every kind of cancer tumor

By Michael Blaustein

March 27, 2013 | 2:46pm

.


Researchers might have found the Holy Grail in the war against cancer, a miracle drug that has killed every kind of cancer tumor it has come in contact with.

The drug works by blocking a protein called CD47 that is essentially a “do not eat” signal to the body’s immune system, according to Science Magazine.

This protein is produced in healthy blood cells but researchers at Stanford University found that cancer cells produced an inordinate amount of the protein thus tricking the immune system into not destroying the harmful cells.

With this observation in mind, the researchers built an antibody that blocked cancer’s CD47 so that the body’s immune system attacked the dangerous cells.

So far, researchers have used the antibody in mice with human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver and prostate tumors transplanted into them. In each of the cases the antibody forced the mice’s immune system to kill the cancer cells.

“We showed that even after the tumor has taken hold, the antibody can either cure the tumor or slow its growth and prevent metastasis,” said biologist Irving Weissman of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California.

One side effect of the treatment was that healthy cells were subjected to short-term attacks by the mice’s immune system, but the effect was nothing in comparison to the damage done to the cancer cells.

Weissman’s group recently received a $20 million dollar grant to move their research from mouse to human safety testing.

[Humboldt]

Don't know that this has anything to do with Folding@Home, but it's out of Stanford University.



One drug to rule them all: Researchers find treatment that kills every kind of cancer tumor

By Michael Blaustein

March 27, 2013 | 2:46pm

.


Researchers might have found the Holy Grail in the war against cancer, a miracle drug that has killed every kind of cancer tumor it has come in contact with.

The drug works by blocking a protein called CD47 that is essentially a “do not eat” signal to the body’s immune system, according to Science Magazine.

This protein is produced in healthy blood cells but researchers at Stanford University found that cancer cells produced an inordinate amount of the protein thus tricking the immune system into not destroying the harmful cells.

With this observation in mind, the researchers built an antibody that blocked cancer’s CD47 so that the body’s immune system attacked the dangerous cells.

So far, researchers have used the antibody in mice with human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver and prostate tumors transplanted into them. In each of the cases the antibody forced the mice’s immune system to kill the cancer cells.

“We showed that even after the tumor has taken hold, the antibody can either cure the tumor or slow its growth and prevent metastasis,” said biologist Irving Weissman of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California.

One side effect of the treatment was that healthy cells were subjected to short-term attacks by the mice’s immune system, but the effect was nothing in comparison to the damage done to the cancer cells.

Weissman’s group recently received a $20 million dollar grant to move their research from mouse to human safety testing.

Just saw this post.
That is awesome.

[RaisinCain]

Very cool! Sadly this will never happen. It was released in March of 2013 and here we are a year later and nothing. No main stream media coverage- nothing. Big pharma will never let this happen.

[Philip]

I just looked up the status of this trial, as my father-in-law has stage 4 lung cancer (he's already participating in one clinical trial of an experimental drug at Moffitt Cancer Center).

Seems they are trying to get to human trials this year:

For the last year, many people have been working to make clinical trials possible. We are now hopeful that the first human clinical trials of anti-CD47 antibody will take place at Stanford in mid-2014, if all goes well. Clinical trials may also be done in the United Kingdom.

http://stemcell.stanford.edu/CD47/

[YeOldeStonecat]

I just looked up the status of this trial, as my father-in-law has stage 4 lung cancer (he's already participating in one clinical trial of an experimental drug at Moffitt Cancer Center).

Seems they are trying to get to human trials this year:

http://stemcell.stanford.edu/CD47/

Good news!