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Bee
Toxins to Fight Cancer
March 3, 1999. The sting of a bee may eventually be used
to kill cancer cells. Australian scientists are modifying bee venom to
develop cancer treatments with fewer side effects than other drugs used
to fight the disease.
The venom in the bee sting contains mellitin,
a molecule that kills cells by slicing through the cell walls, destroying
the cells. Australian researchers have altered the structure of the
mellitin molecule to remove the part that causes the allergic reaction
while still maintaining its ability to kill cells.
The next step is to target the killing activity
of mellitin to cancer cells only, without harm to healthy cells. They
plan to achieve this by attaching the modified mellitin to an antibody
molecule that specifically recognizes cancer cells. This combination of
a toxin and an antibody is known as an immunotoxin.
Aim
to Make it More Effective Than Chemotherapy
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Larissa Doughty
using a cell culture to grow antibodies which will be joined to
the modified bee venom protein (mellitin) ©CSIRO
Molecular Science
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If the the $1.3 million project succeeds, immunotoxins will generate
a new class of cancer drugs that can attack a wide range of cancer cells.
This approach should overcome the major drawbacks of chemotherapy treatment.
They want to make immunotoxins that can
attack a wide range of cancer cells. This approach should overcome the
major drawbacks of chemotherapy treatment.
Chemotherapy drugs are not specific; they
attack normal cells thereby causing unwanted side effects such as hair
loss, vomiting and weight loss. Such symptoms limit the amount of drug
that can be administered and hence its effectiveness.
The concept of molecules such as immunotoxins
as "magic bullets" for cancer treatment is not new. Scientists
have created a number of immunotoxin drugs with toxins derived from plants
and bacteria. These immunotoxins, however, produce a number of serious
side effects that limit their clinical application.
Mellitin appears to be far less toxic than
the plant and bacterial toxins used in earlier work. New immunotoxin drugs
from it may reduce potential side effects while still retaining the specific
killing of target cancers.
The research project to utilize an active ingredient from bee venom
as a potential cancre drug has been funded by a $670,000 grant from the
Commonwealth Government's Industry Research and Development Board.
Participants in the project, CSIRO,
the Oncology Research Centre at the Prince of Wales Hospital (POWH) and
CSL, will contribute further funds towards the $1.3 million project.
March 30, 1999
PSA
Rising
prostate cancer survivor news
http://www.psa-rising.com ©2000
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