AIDS & Cancer research

[Dominic]

AIDS:

New drug blocks HIV from entering cells

A durable new drug that prevents HIV from entering human cells and causes almost no side effects has been developed by a team of researchers at Kumamoto University.

The new drug, code named AK602, was reported by the research team's leader, Hiroaki Mitsuya, at the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in Kobe on Tuesday.

The drug's main feature is that it shuts out the AIDS virus at the point when it tries to intrude into a human cell.

Current AIDS medicines can lose their effectiveness in a few days when the virus changes and develops a resistance to those drugs. But AK602 is different because it reacts to human cells instead of attacking the virus, Mitsuya said.

He said the drug sticks to a protein called CCR5 that acts as an entrance into human cells for the AIDS virus. When the new drug becomes attached to the protein, it can prevent HIV from entering, and thus stop the virus from spreading. The researchers conducted clinical tests on 40 AIDS patients in the United States. AK602 not only proved effective against viruses that had become resistant to other drugs, but it also caused almost no side effects, the team said.

Cancer:
Australian researchers find pineapple crush can fight cancer
Thu Jul 7, 1:12 PM ET



Australian scientists have discovered pineapple molecules can act as powerful anti-cancer agents and said the research could lead to a new class of cancer-fighting drugs.

Scientists at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) said their work centred on two molecules from bromelaine, an extract derived from crushed pineapple stems that is used to tenderise meat, clarify beers and tan hides.

One of the molecules, CCZ, stimulates the body's immune system to target and kill cancer cells, the other, CCS, blocks a protein called Ras, which is defective in 30 percent of all cancers.

QIMR researcher Tracey Mynott said her team had set out to find why the enzyme-rich bromelaine crush had such strong effects on biological material.

"In searching for these components, we discovered the CCS and CCZ proteins and found that they could block growth of a broad range of tumour cells, including breast, lung, colon, ovarian and melanoma," Mynott said in a statement.

While clinical trials are a long way off, Mynott said the research had huge potential.

"The way CCS and CCZ work is different to any other drug in clinical use today," she said. "Therefore, CCS and CCZ will represent a totally new way of treating disease and potentially a whole new class of anti-cancer agent."

QIMR has launched a two-year study to examine the safety of the treatment and means of securing a reliable source of CCS and CCZ. If it succeeds it will seek a commercial partner to develop a drug that could be used in human clinical trials.

[Ben]

what a huge thing it would be if they found a cure for cancer. unfortunatley i lost my uncle to cancer 3 years ago, so i know how much sadness it brings to people.

another thing i'd love to see a cure for would be Huntington's disease. so theres is nothing that can stop or slow it down.

[smeagols_ghost]

There's more money for the drug companys to not find a cure.

Thats why need labs like this one, that are (hopefully) seperate from the big pharmscitcal congloments. They still weild a scary amount of power thou

That's excellent! If you stop the spread, you just have to kill the virus directly. Big step though.

I've lost a couple of family members to cancer and my best mate has lost his mum. I know enough about cancer to know that a cure for cancer is not really possible. We have thousands of cancerous cells in our bodies at any one time, and our immune system usually kills them and reuses the cellular material. The problem is when a cell is left unchecked and is let divide into a group of cells too large for the white blood cells to invade and take care of, a tumour. Your immune system is pretty important then. It's the only thing from stopping you getting cancer! Sure there are improvements in the treatment of cancer all the time but yeah, immunotherapy, like Dom was mentioning with the pineapple compound, is a big part of treatment. There's also radiation therapy, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, laser therapy...

Sorry, I had an assignment on it! he he he

Originally Posted by Ben-Busltn/Dunsbrgh-2004

what a huge thing it would be if they found a cure for cancer. unfortunatley i lost my uncle to cancer 3 years ago, so i know how much sadness it brings to people.

another thing i'd love to see a cure for would be Huntington's disease. so theres is nothing that can stop or slow it down.

Yeh, I lost my Aunty 6 years ago to cancer, so any breakthrough would be monumental.

AIDS on the other hand is only around because people are so ****ing irresponsible, so I feel no pitty for people who share needles or have unprotected sex (specificaly anal sex)
Blood transfusions of course is a different matter, but that only equates to a minor persentage of HIV carriers.

[Ben]

Originally Posted by stevo_rabs

Yeh, I lost my Aunty 6 years ago to cancer, so any breakthrough would be monumental.

AIDS on the other hand is only around because people are so ****ing irresponsible, so I feel no pitty for people who share needles or have unprotected sex (specificaly anal sex)

Second that. I guess anal lovers get what they deserve, they know the risk.