(Press-News.org) Researchers at Western University (London, Canada) have shown how the bacteria primarily responsible for causing strep throat can be used to fight colon cancer. By engineering a streptococcal bacterial toxin to attach itself to tumour cells, they are forcing the immune system to recognize and attack the cancer.
Kelcey Patterson, a PhD Candidate at Western and the lead author on the study, showed that the engineered bacterial toxin could significantly reduce the size of human colon cancer tumours in mice, with a drastic reduction in the instances of metastasis. By using mouse models that are stripped of their immune system, they were able to create a 'humanized mouse' – one that would not only grow human colon cancer cells, but would also support a human immune system, to test the anti-cancer immunotherapy.
The work was directed by John McCormick, PhD, an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute. "Our team has been studying these bacterial toxins called 'superantigens' for their role in bacterial infections. But we are now utilizing the power of these toxins to re-direct the immune system to go after cancer cells." McCormick says their research provides important pre-clinical evidence that this may work in humans. "This work represents a 'next-generation immunotoxin' that we hope will eventually lead to a new class of cancer therapeutic."
The research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Jennifer Dixon Pittaro, Peter Bastedo, David Hess and Mansour Haeryfar all contributed to the paper entitled "Control of established colon cancer xenografts using a novel humanized single chain antibody-streptococcal superantigen fusion protein targeting the 5T4 oncofetal antigen."
McCormick and his colleagues have now received a new grant from the Cancer Research Society to develop different toxin and antibody combinations to fight other types of cancer.
INFORMATION: END
Study shows how streptococcal bacteria can be used to fight colon cancer
2014-05-20
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Parents of overweight kids more likely to give schools failing grades for fighting obesity
2014-05-20
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Parents – especially those of overweight children – give schools a failing grade for efforts to encourage healthy habits that combat childhood obesity, according to a new poll from the University of Michigan.
According to the latest University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health, parents with at least one overweight child (25 percent of all parents in the poll) were more likely to give schools a failing grade of D or F for obesity-related efforts than parents of normal-weight children.
Parents of overweight ...
Simulated learning in medical education improves patient care and outcomes
2014-05-20
MAYWOOD, Ill. -- The use of simulation techniques in medical education, such as lifelike mannequins and computer systems, results in improved patient care, better outcomes and other benefits, according to a study led by a Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine researcher.
William C. McGaghie, PhD, and colleagues analyzed 23 medical education studies that measured the effects of simulation-based mastery learning (SBML). A qualitative synthesis of these studies found that SBML improved outcomes in four areas: the educational laboratory, patient care practices, ...
Cost-saving, coordinated brain care model for older adults attracting nationwide interest
2014-05-20
INDIANAPOLIS -- The patient and caregiver-centered Aging Brain Care program, developed by researchers at the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University Center for Aging Research, is attracting nationwide interest for its ability to improve health outcomes and quality of care for those with cognitive impairment while dramatically lowering costs to patients and health care systems.
On May 22 and 23, a team of physicians and nurse managers from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center will visit Indianapolis and Lafayette, ...
Students swayed by 'relaxing, fun' image of hookah smoking ignore health harms
2014-05-20
PITTSBURGH, May 20, 2014 – Educational campaigns meant to dissuade college students from initiating hookah tobacco smoking may be more successful if they combat positive perceptions of hookah use as attractive and romantic, rather than focusing solely on the harmful components of hookah tobacco smoke, a new University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study found.
The research, supported by the National Cancer Institute, examined the sequence of events around which university students first smoke tobacco from a hookah, also known as a water pipe, in an effort to determine ...
Women repeatedly short-changed in case of premature ejaculation
2014-05-20
Premature ejaculation is one of the most common sexual disorders in men. But it is not just the men who suffer; it also causes increased psychological strain and stress in women, as a new survey conducted by Andrea Burri, a clinical psychologist at the University of Zurich, reveals. Around 40 percent of over 1,500 women polled from Mexico, Italy and South Korea indicated that ejaculation control is very important for satisfactory intercourse. It is not the short duration of the act of lovemaking that is primarily regarded as the main source of sexual frustration by the ...
National survey on long-term care: Expectations and reality
2014-05-20
Chicago, May 19, 2014—The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has released the results of a major survey on long-term care in the United States. The study, the second on this topic done by AP-NORC, provides much-needed data on how Americans are, or are not, planning for long-term care as policy makers grapple with how to plan for and finance high-quality long-term care in the United States.
"Families are essential to providing long-term care so we wanted to explore their role further," said Trevor Tompson, director of the AP-NORC Center. "We conducted ...
Little exercise and heavy use of electronic media constitute a significant health risk for children
2014-05-20
The Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children Study, PANIC, carried out by the Institute of Biomedicine at the University of Eastern Finland shows that low levels of physical activity combined with heavy use of electronic media and sedentary behaviour are linked to an increased risk for type 2 diabetes and vascular diseases already in 6–8 year-old children. The study was published in International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, an esteemed journal in the field of exercise and nutrition.
Heavy use of electronic media has adverse health effects ...
A high-efficiency aerothermoelastic analysis method
2014-05-20
Aerothermoelasticity has become a hot research area for several years around the world. Professor YANG Chao and his group from Beihang University set out to tackle this problem. Their work, entitled "A high-efficiency aerothermoelastic analysis method", was published in Sci China-Phys Mech Astron, 2014, 57(6): 1111-1118.
A hypersonic aircraft generally refers to a hypersonic flight vehicle whose flight Mach number is greater than 5.0 and which can fly in the atmosphere and across the atmosphere. Because of its outstanding performance, aerodynamic heating would clearly ...
Bottom trawling causes deep-sea biological desertification
2014-05-20
A study led by scientists from the Polytechnic University of Marche (Ancona, Italy) involving researchers from the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM, CSIC) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), has determined that fishing trawling causes intensive, long-term biological desertification of the sedimentary seabed ecosystems, diminishing their content in organic carbon and threatening their biodiversity.
Trawling is the most commonly used extraction methods of sea living resources used around the world, but at the same time, it is also one of the main causes of ...
New ESC-EACTS guidelines on myocardial revascularization to be released at EuroPCR 2014
2014-05-20
20 May 2014, Paris, France: EuroPCR 2014 delegates will get a preview of the latest 2014 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) guidelines on myocardial revascularisation on Wednesday, 21 May at 10.30 am.
The guidelines will be a new version following the first edition in 2010. The new taskforce is chaired by Prof Stephan Windecker, President-elect, European Association for Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI), and Prof Philippe Kolh, representing EACTS, who was also co-chair of the previous task ...