Targeting Cancer
FuturePundit Randall Parker has the scoop on a new gene therapy that selectively kills only cancer cells:
This approach is important because cancer can not be cured without the development of therapeutic agents that have far greater ability than current conventional chemical chemotherapy agents to selectively target cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed. The use of molecular switches that will flip on to deliver therapies only in cancer cells is going to be one of the major ways that cancer is going to be defeated and perhaps even ultimately the best way. There are two parts to such a therapy. The first is the switching part that detects unique signature patterns in cancer cells to know to activate. The other part is what will get done once the activation of the switch has happened. There are many possibilities for the second part. Imagine, for example, an enzyme that gets synthesized in cancer cells that can metabolize inert chemotherapy compounds into toxic forms. Or imagine a protein made from the switch that effectively punches a hole in a cell. Or perhaps the switch would turn on a bigger package of genes that would restore normal cell division regulation. The gene package could include a replacement non-mutated p53 cell divisiion regulating gene to replace the mutated p53 genes found in many types of cancer.
Cool. That reference to a "molecular switch" makes me wonder whether some kind of nanotech/gene therapy hybrid might prove effective in fighting cancer. Step One: gene therapy treatment induces throwing of molecular switch to identify cancer cells. Step Two: nanodevice applies gold nanoshell or other destructive treatment to cancer cells, leaving healthy cells completely unharmed.
Might be a winning combination.