A new role for natural killers (NK) has been discovered by scientists at the University of York. This may lead to improved treatments for chronic infections and cancer.Natural Killer cells are abundant white blood cells that were recognized...
Natural Killer cells are abundant white blood cells that were recognized over 30 years ago as being able to kill cancer cells in the test tube.
Since that time, a role for NK cells in activating other white blood cells (including 'T' lymphocytes and phagocytes) and in directing how the immune system responds to a wide range of infections has also been established.
Because of these properties, NK have been widely regarded as being of benefit in the fight against cancer and infection, and methods to increase NK cell activity underpin a range of new experimental anti-cancer drugs and anti-infectives.
However, a research team in the University of York's Centre for Immunology and Infection and led by Professor Paul Kaye, has now demonstrated that NK cells also make chemicals that inhibit immune responses.
The research has shown that in an experimental model of the tropical disease visceral leishmaniasis, too many NK cells can actually make the disease worse.
They have identified that NK cells produce a chemical called interleukin-10 that can counteract many of the otherwise beneficial effects of these cells.
According to Professor Kaye, %26quot;Other researchers have suggested in the past that NK cells might not always be good for you, but we now have the first direct evidence that this can actually be the case.%26quot;
%26quot;Although we have worked on an infectious disease, the same is likely to be true for NK cells in cancer. So, in practical terms, it means that we need to consider more carefully exactly how we use therapies that affect NK cells, to maximize their beneficial role,%26quot; he said.
The new findings also open up the potential of developing new drugs that specifically target the beneficial properties of NK cells, and which leave their inhibitory properties switched off.
Conversely, in autoimmune diseases, where the immune system is too active, it may be possible to stimulate NK cells to turn it off.
Source-ANI
RAS/L
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2/09/2009
New Role of NK Cells may Lead to Improved Treatment for Cancer
The adenoma-carcinoma sequence C...
The adenoma-carcinoma sequence Colorectal cancer is the 2nd most common cancer in developed countries.A person's lifetime risk of ending up with this tumor is 1 in 20.Virtually all colon cancers arise from a pre-existing polyp, a phenomenon...
Colorectal cancer is the 2nd most common cancer in developed countries. A person's lifetime risk of ending up with this tumor is 1 in 20. Virtually all colon cancers arise from a pre-existing polyp, a phenomenon known as the adenoma-carcinoma sequence.
So here's the deal on colonoscopies. Much as you do not want to go through the icky prep, and much as you do not want someone touring your colon via a tube stuck up your backend, the fact is that colonoscopies are one of the most effective cancer screening tools we have. If a polyp (aka adenoma) is found during the procedure, it's removed on the spot.
Adenoma snagged, cancer averted. It's that simple. I've had mine, go have yours.
_____
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Blocking The Effect Of Inflammation-Causing Cells Lowered Prostate Cancer Cells Invasion
Inflammation is at the root of many ��incurable�� 1st world specific diseases.Why?According to Floyd H. Chilton, Ph.D. more than 50% of all Americans suffer from some kind of Inflammatory Disease .The proof is in the research findings!Science... Inflammation is at the root of many ��incurable�� 1st world specific diseases. Why? According to Floyd H. Chilton, Ph.D. more than 50% of all Americans suffer from some kind of Inflammatory Disease . The proof is in the research findings! ScienceDaily (2008-04-11) �� Recent studies have suggested an association between chronic inflammation and cancers of the prostate, colon, stomach and liver. Now scientists report success in blocking an early step in metastasis of prostate cancer cells by interrupting the communication between the cancer cells and other cells that promote inflammation. The good news is that there are simple, easy to follow diet solutions that can stop, reverse and prevent this debilitating condition. Your health Popularity: 8% [ ? ]
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Scientists deliver toxic genes to effectively kill pancreatic cancer cells
Link: Scientists deliver toxic genes to effectively kill pancreatic cancer cells. Promising cancer research Link: Scientists deliver toxic genes to effectively kill pancreatic cancer cells. Promising cancer research
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Celiac disease patients have a significantly increased risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL)
Ying Gao, M.D., of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues studied 37,869 patients with NHL, 8,323 with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and 13,842 with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who were diagnosed between 1965 and 2004, ... Ying Gao, M.D., of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues studied 37,869 patients with NHL, 8,323 with Hodgkin%26rsquo;s lymphoma, and 13,842 with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who were diagnosed between 1965 and 2004, and also 236,408 matched controls and 613,961 first-degree relatives. Overall, the researchers found that celiac disease patients had a significantly increased risk of NHL (5.35-fold) but not a significantly increased risk of Hodgkin%26rsquo;s lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia. But they found that the risk of NHL significantly decreased in patients diagnosed with celiac disease in 1995-2004 (3.84-fold increased risk) compared with those diagnosed in 1975-1984 (13.2-fold increased risk). The investigators also found that siblings of celiac disease patients had a 2.03-fold increased risk of developing NHL. %26ldquo;Our observation that NHL risk was increased among persons with a sibling affected with celiac disease suggests shared susceptibility for celiac disease and NHL,%26rdquo; the authors conclude. %26ldquo;There is a great need to improve our understanding regarding underlying mechanisms of our findings and to develop better biomarkers for prediction of lymphomagenesis among patients with immune-related and inflammatory conditions.%26rdquo;
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Breast cancer cells switch to ‘survival mode�?to escape death
New research has revealed how breast cancer cells avoid being killed by antiestrogen drugs, such as tamoxifen.Dr Patricia V Schoenlein and colleagues at the Medical College of Georgia found that breast cancer cells that possess estrogen rec...
Dr Patricia V Schoenlein and colleagues at the Medical College of Georgia found that breast cancer cells that possess estrogen receptors have the ability to reorganize themselves and switch to a survival mode called macroautophagy %26ndash; a strategy also used by normal cells when faced with starvation %26ndash; in the presence of antiestrogen drugs. The researchers found that breast cancer cells took just one week to reorganize their cellular components and switch to macroautophagy, a state in which they cannot grow or replicate. The cells were found to remain in survival mode until antiestrogen treatment ended, or until they mutated and became resistant to the drugs, then they would switch back to normal mode and begin growing and dividing again.
Laboratory tests showed that just 20-25% of cancer cells were killed when continuously exposed to antiestrogen drugs. Thus, meaning that approximately 75% of cells survive the treatment, however adding a macroautophagy inhibitor to the treatment %26ldquo;promoted robust cell death.%26rdquo;
%26quot;We believe targeting the autophagosome function will significantly improve the efficacy of hormonal treatment for estrogen-positive breast cancer,%26quot; said Dr Schoenlein in a news release issued by the Medical College of Georgia. The researchers believe that the malaria drug chloroquine may be able to block macroautophagy, and they hope to test its effectiveness in combination with antiestrogen drugs.
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Molecular/Energy Healing: New Theory Sheds Light on Cancer Cells
Cancer; that immutable disease that has eluded the healing powers of modern medicine. Cancerous cells seem to have minds of their own, their DNA brains churning out mutations on a mission to infiltrate the healthy cells and tissues of our b...
Now there is a new theory about cancer. Dr. Heinrich Kremer sees the origin of cancer differently than the mainstream. He terms his new theory Cell Dyssmybiosis. According to Kremer cancerous cells do not originate from DNA mutations, but from a functional process that occurs in the mitochondrion (a cell organelle or "organ of the cell" if you will). The mitochondrion makes energy for the body in the form of ATP. We need lots of ATP to keep living. In fact we use about our bodies weight in ATP each day in order to survive.
The process of making ATP in the mitochondrion is a complicated one and has caused much stress for many a medical, biology or physiology student (I remember those days of seeing hieroglyhpic biochemical equations in my dreams). But what is really interesting is the role of good ole electromagnetic energy (light) in the process. It appears that the complex matrix of reactions that make ATP absorb light.
According to Kremer "in fact a low frequency pulsating electromagnetic field is induced by the constant flow of uncoupled, paramagnetic aligned electrons in the respiratory organelles." hot dog!!
What this means in English is that the source of the light is not sunlight but a field of energy that permeates everything. The likely candidate for this energy source is the zero-point energy field. The zero-point field is a ubiquitous field of energy resulting from the birth and death of particles in our universe.
So what does this have to do with cancer? Well if the chain of reactions producing ATP goes awry then a host of harmful molecules is produced such as free radicals.
Kremer cites a study conducted in 2003 at the Anderson Cancer Research Center of the University of Texas in Houston that examined the effects of curcumin (a spice and bioflavinoid) on cancer cells in animals. The results were that the curcumin inhibited the cancer cells. What is interesting is that curcumin absorbs light that is the same wavelength as an important molecule in the ATP producing process.
Kremer states "In cancer cells curcumin, so to say, bridges the III and IV complex photon switch ��short-circuit�� of the respiratory chain in mitochondria and thus normalizes the information transfer for maintaining modulation of ATP."
The implications of Kremer's theory include the development of a therapeutic regimen based on the light absorbed by substances. These substances (like curcumen) would support the ATP process and more specifically the information exchange that occurs throughout the process.
A very different idea than the DNA mutation theory.
For Kremer's paper click here.
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Grape Seed Extract Triggers Leukemia Cell Death
In a new in vitro experiment, grape seed extract caused human leukemia cells to commit cell suicide (a process known as apoptosis).In past studies, grape seed extract has shown activity in a number of laboratory cancer cell lines, including...
In a new in vitro experiment, grape seed extract caused human leukemia cells to commit cell suicide (a process known as apoptosis).
In past studies, grape seed extract has shown activity in a number of laboratory cancer cell lines, including skin, breast, colon, lung, stomach and prostate cancers. However, until now, the extract had not been tested in hematological cancers such as leukemia. In addition, the precise mechanism of action by which it has demonstrated activity against other cancer lines has never been revealed. Consequently, researchers undertook a new study on grape seed extract to determine what effects grape seed extract has on leukemia cells.
The scientists, who report their findings in Clinical Cancer Research, treated human leukemia cells with varying doses of grape seed extract. Their findings indicated that within 24 hours, 76 percent of leukemia cells had died after being exposed to the higher dose of the extract. The extract did not affect normal cells.
The researchers also investigated the cell signaling pathway associated with use of grape seed extract that led the cancer cells to commit suicide. They found that the extract activates JNK, a protein that regulates the apoptosis pathway. To confirm this finding, they used an agent to inhibit JNK and found that the grape seed was then ineffective. Additionally, they silenced the JNK gene and found that this too canceled out grape seed extract%26rsquo;s ability to cause cell suicide in the leukemia cells, confirming that the extract does indeed work by activating JNK.
%26quot;These results could have implications for the incorporation of agents such as grape seed extract into prevention or treatment of hematological malignancies and possibly other cancers,%26quot; said the study%26quot;s lead author, Xianglin Shi, Ph.D., in a press release issued by the American Association for Cancer Research. %26quot;What everyone seeks is an agent that has an effect on cancer cells but leaves normal cells alone, and this shows that grape seed extract fits into this category.%26quot;
After calling for more studies to confirm the results of the findings, Shi said, %26ldquo;%26quot;This is a natural compound that appears to have relatively important properties
reported by www.griffinmedical.com
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Vaccine Against Cancer - By Tijn Touber- Using Patients' Own "Killer" Cells To Battle Cancer
Six months. That was how long 59-year-old Joe Pacini was expected to live��at least according to the doctors who were treating him for pancreatic cancer. Pacini, who could barely walk, wrote his will and waited for the inevitable end. Then h... Six months. That was how long 59-year-old Joe Pacini was expected to live��at least according to the doctors who were treating him for pancreatic cancer. Pacini, who could barely walk, wrote his will and waited for the inevitable end. Then he got a call from his son, who had attended a lecture by Robert Gorter, a Dutch cancer specialist working in Cologne , Germany . Gorter, who studied at the University of Amsterdam and University of California medical school in San Francisco , had developed a new treatment for cancer that raised hopes for the family.
So Joe Pacini flew from the U.S. to Germany . After a single treatment, he was able to walk a little. Two days later, he no longer needed any pain medication. On the third day, Gorter suggested they might be celebrating his 80th birthday together.
Gorter��s breakthrough came in 1999 when he developed a procedure to cultivate so-called dendritic cells, which play a key role in fighting off cancer cells. The method attracted international attention, causing quite a positive stir among his colleagues at the conference of the American Society for Clinical Oncology��the international symposium for cancer specialists.
He tested his findings in a study involving 171 women with metastasized breast cancer who had undergone many forms of chemotherapy and radiation treatment and were considered hopeless cases. Following Gorter��s treatment, about 10 percent of the patients were in remission��a surprising result in patients considered terminal. In 60 percent of the women, the treatment greatly extended and enhanced the quality of their lives although they did not recover. According to Gorter, no other treatment offers similar results.
But he isn��t one to rest on his laurels. For 35 years he has been working seven days a week, 14 hours a day, to develop new therapies and refine current treatment methods. His patients can call him any time. Whether he��s in San Francisco, where he is a professor at the University of California, or one of the clinics he heads in Cape Town, Istanbul, Cologne or (shortly) Dubai and Shanghai��he is always on hand to help.
Gorter developed the cancer treatment using dendritic cells in co-operation with Professor Wolfgang K%26ouml;stler of the University of Vienna in Austria and Professor Hinrich Peters of the University of G%26ouml;ttingen in Germany . These cells are vital to fighting cancer because they systematically scan all the body��s cells searching for aberrations. Gorter explains, ��When they discover an abnormal cell, they move at lightning speed to the nearest lymph node, where hundreds of thousands of ��killer�� cells are stored like soldiers in a barracks. These cells go out on the attack if they are so instructed by the dendritic cells, like generals commanding an army.��
One dendritic cell can simultaneously inform 5,000 ��killer�� cells of the characteristics of a cancer cell that must be destroyed. The dendritic cells, which look like little octopi, do this by spreading their tentacles. Gorter adds, ��The ��killer�� cells then swarm out and kill every cell with cancerous characteristics. As a result of this process, all the cancer cells that patients produce every day are dead within 24 to 36 hours.��
According to Gorter, cancer often takes root when dendritic cells are malfunctioning. ��We��re all a bit cancerous�� is his way of explaining that everyone has cancer cells in his or her body. ��But things really start to go wrong when the body no longer recognizes or can kill these cells.��
That insight inspired Gorter and his colleagues to develop a method of producing large numbers of healthy, dendritic cells, which are reintroduced into the patient��s system. It works like this: ��We take five tablespoons of blood and isolate the monocytes [undifferentiated or immature white blood cells produced in the bone marrow] that can be developed into dendritic cells. One week later we have 15 to 20 million extremely vital cells that are given back to the patient. These are well tolerated. Many people��even when their cancer has metastasized�� do much better or recover completely. The therapy works on all types of tumours: both solid tumours��as is the case with colon, breast and lung cancer��as well as non-solid tumours such as lymphomas and leukemia.��
The treatment (which costs 2,600 euros or $3,300 U.S. ) is repeated six times with one-month breaks in between. This is why Gorter refers to it as a vaccine: ��When the immune system has to learn something new, or change a particular function, the lesson must be repeated a number of times. The same thing is true with childhood illnesses. You have to repeat the vaccine several times. The patient often shows real signs of recovery after the third or fourth vaccination.��
And indeed, sometimes even after the first treatment, as was the case with Joe Pacini.
When Pacini arrived in Cologne via special transport, he was on his deathbed. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive and difficult types to treat. His Californian doctors had given up hope because 80 percent of his liver had been destroyed. Pacini underwent three days of getting vaccinations containing dendritic cells along with hyperthermia treatments (a method which artificially raises the patient��s body temperature) . After that, he says, ��I was even able to walk up to the third floor of my hotel without help. After the second day here I didn��t take any more pain medication because I was feeling so good.�� Now, three months later, as Pacini returns to Cologne for his second treatment, he feels wonderful: ��I feel so fit I��m walking three to four hours a day.�� A smile lights up his face. ��Yesterday I walked back and forth to Cologne ��s cathedral.��
After the first series of treatments, Pacini��s oncologist in the United States measured his tumour markers��abnormal proteins made only by cancer cells that demonstrate the presence of cancer and its degree of aggressiveness. The doctor was surprised to see a sharp drop in the markers when he had expected a rise. Pacini notes, ��My oncologist said: ��I don��t know what they��re doing, but it��s working.����
Despite promising results like this, research into treatments with dendritic cells is barely getting off the ground. ��There��s not a lot of money to be earned from the research,�� Gorter states. ��You can��t get a patent on it because dendritic cells are autologous [drawn from and reintroduced to a patient��s own body]. Which is why pharmaceutical companies aren��t interested. Classic, random studies have never been done because this type of research is very expensive.�� Gorter worries that his treatment, like other alternative methods, will not be approved by influential authorities like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because these treatments run counter to the pharmaceutical- based philosophy of the medical establishment. He worries that legal charges may even be brought against doctors applying the therapy.
That��s the reason Gorter ended up working in Germany . The flamboyant professor feels more at home in a climate of professional freedom. All of his life he has lived by his own rules: ��I used to wear jeans and shirts with flower prints. But when everyone started wearing them, it was time for a change.�� In Germany he can wear his dicky bow ties and experiment with new therapies without any problem. Gorter: ��In Germany , doctors enjoy a unique, constitutionally protected freedom to practise.�� Recently, in fact, Germany ��s High Court in Karlsruhe ruled unanimously that qualified physicians have complete freedom to treat seriously ill patients as they see fit and that insurers must pay for the prescribed treatments.
this therapeutic freedom means that German doctors are not limited to the standard cancer protocols imposed in other Western countries: operations, radiation or chemotherapy. New treatments can be used alongside conventional ones, and even some traditional healing methods are employed. Gorter, for instance, makes frequent use of hyperthermia or fever therapy, which has been used since ancient times. Hippocrates said: ��Give me a fever and I��ll heal every illness.��
This therapy was rediscovered around 1880 by the American doctor William Coley. While researching the relationship between fever and tumour growth, Coley chanced to find a man who��d had several unsuccessful operations to remove tumours on his face and neck. His condition become further complicated by a serious skin infection that went hand in hand with a high fever. Yet the patient survived the high fever and, even more amazingly, discovered his tumours had disappeared.
Coley looked at the medical literature and discovered this was not an isolated case: As soon as patients developed a high fever, their tumours sometimes vanished. Coley started successfully experimenting with artificial fevers among cancer patients. He did this by giving them bacilli. Sometimes these bacilli even erupted into the worst inoperable tumours, only to disappear within hours.
��Fever therapy works amazingly well��alone and in combination with other therapies,�� Gorter states. ��When you combine chemotherapy with fever therapy you��ll have fewer side effects from the chemo.
��Cancer is a so-called ��cold illness�� and often disappears when the body��s temperature rises,�� he continues. ��The immune system also works optimally when a fever strikes. The only down side of Coley��s therapy was that he couldn��t precisely determine the level of the fever. We can now, thanks to special beds in which patients are wrapped to their necks and the temperature is controlled using infrared lamps, rising to around 40 degrees Celsius [104 degrees Fahrenheit].��
When Gorter calls cancer a ��cold�� illness, he��s not simply referring to the temperature. ��The characteristic of many modern illnesses is that they are cooling, debilitating, hardening and chronic. Until recently, nearly all epidemics��such as tuberculosis, malaria and the flu��were caused by parasites or bacteria. But particularly after World War II, bacteria slipped increasingly into the background. They��re still there, but nowadays no one dies of pneumonia. But what has taken its place are the debilitating, degenerative diseases that are mainly caused by viruses like hepatitis B and C. The distinguishing characteristics of these illnesses are hardening or sclerosis. When viruses are isolated, they take on the form of a crystal; it looks like fine table salt.��
Ninety-nine percent of all cancers also show hardening properties, according to Gorter. ��If you��ve got a little lump in your breast but you can press into it��if it��s a little spongy��doctors say: ��We��ll wait a month and see.�� But when a lump is hard and you regularly see calcification in the mammogram, there is cause for concern and usually a malignancy.��
Gorter says this hardening is not only seen in modern diseases like cancer, hardening of the arteries, multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue syndrome, but also in our values, norms and language use. Gorter observes, ��In our society, you��re not well paid for having a warm heart but for being smart. We have to be cool and efficient and above all we must not show too much warmth and enthusiasm. Those who do are quickly considered a little nuts or over the top. It��s a sign of our times.��
But these are the reasons why softness��or love��and warmth are particularly healing when it comes to cancer. Gorter nearly always asks his patients if there��s something that excites them; if they still have ideals. ��I ask them: ��Do you ever do anything for other people?�� Many look at me and say they��ve been busy working for decades and haven��t done anything all those years to help others.��
Gorter knows from experience the healing power of enthusiasm, love and optimism. When, at the age of 26, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer that had spread to his stomach and lungs, he decided to heal himself. He took very hot baths��something he doesn��t necessarily advise for older patients as the heat can cause strong heart palpitations and low blood pressure as well as severe dizziness. He also started to live life with even more joy and optimism. Now he says he has learned this: ��If something makes you enthusiastic you have a reason to live. Ultimately that is the way to break the vicious circle of hardening and cooling.��
http://www.odemagaz ine.com/article. php?aID=4350
Robert Gorter can be reached via Medical Center Cologne, Hohenstaufenring 30-32, 50674 Keulen, Germany. Phone: +49 (0)221 7886301.
(PLEASE NOTE: DIFFERENT FROM PAPER VERSION OF ODE MAGAZINE)
Email: r.gorter@cologne- model.com.
www.cologne- model.com and www.anthroposophica l-medicine. info
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Early Stem Cell Mutation Linked to Rett Syndrome
A communication release by the Burnham Institute for Medical Research claims that a study by Burnham scientists shows that neural stem cell development may be linked to Rett Syndrome. The study published todayin the early online edition of ... A communication release by the Burnham Institute for Medical Research claims that a study by Burnham scientists shows that neural stem cell development may be linked to Rett Syndrome. The study published today in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reports that mice lacking the myocyte enhancer factor 2C (MEF2C) protein in neural stem cells had smaller brains, fewer nerve cells and showed behaviors similar to those seen in humans with Rett Syndrome. The communique claims that the study represents the first direct link between a developmental disorder of neural stem cells and the subsequent onset of autism.
The research team was led by Stuart A. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., a clinical neurologist and Professor and Director of the Del E. Webb Neuroscience, Aging and Stem Cell Research Center at Burnham who expressed optimism that the results of the study could lead to correction of the mutation in mice and ultimately in humans:
"These results give us a good hint of how to look at Rett Syndrome and potentially other forms of autism in humans," said Dr. Lipton. "Having identified a mutation that causes this defect, we can track what happens. Perhaps we can correct it in a mouse, and if so, eventually correct it in humans."
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