In Cancer Treatment, microRNA trumps Chemotherapy..

For decades, chemotherapy has been the main treatment used to prolong the lives of cancer sufferers, and Immunotherapy, which involves harnessing the body's own immune system to attack cancerous cells in the same way it would attack a virus, is able to completely stop cancer in its tracks in more than half of cases.

However, scientists believe a new kind of treatment could completely transform how we tackle the disease.  Enter microRNAs treatment. 

For those that need a refresher.. 

1. A microRNA (abbreviated miRNA) is a small non-coding RNA molecule (containing about 22 nucleotides) found in plants, animals, and some viruses, which functions in RNA silencing and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression.

For the first time aggressive breast, lung and bladder cancer cells have been turned back into harmless benign cells by restoring the function which prevents them from multiplying excessively and forming dangerous growths.

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Florida, US, said it was like applying the brakes to a speeding car.

Panos Anastasiadis, the senior researcher behind the study, said: "We should be able to re-establish the brakes and restore normal cell function."

The brakes work by injecting "microRNA" directly into tumors, which turns cancerous cells to normal ones.

So far it has only been tested on human cells in the lab, but the researchers are hopeful that the technique could one day be used to target tumors so that cancer could be ‘switched off’ without the need for harsh chemotherapy or surgery.

"We should be able to re-establish the brakes and restore normal cell function,” said Profesor Panos Anastasiadis, of the Department for Cancer Biology.

“Initial experiments in some aggressive types of cancer are indeed very promising.

“It represents an unexpected new biology that provides the code, the software for turning off cancer."

Cancer experts in Britain said the research solved a riddle that biologists had puzzled over for decades, why cells did not naturally prevent the proliferation of cancer.

“This is an unexpected finding,” said Dr Chris Bakal, a specialist in how cells change shape to become cancerous, at the Institute for Cancer Research in London.

“We have been trying to work out how normal cells might be suppressing cancer, and stopping dividing when they form contacts with each other, which has been a big mystery.

“Normal cells touch each other and form junctions then they shut down proliferation. If there is a way to turn that back on then that would be a way to stop tumours from growing.

“I think in reality it is unlikely that you could reverse tumours by reversing just one mechanism, but it’s a very interesting finding.”

Henry Scowcroft, Cancer Research UK’s senior science information manager, said: “This important study solves a long-standing biological mystery, but we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves.

“There’s a long way to go before we know whether these findings, in cells grown in a laboratory, will help treat people with cancer. But it’s a significant step forward in understanding how certain cells in our body know when to grow, and when to stop. Understanding these key concepts is crucial to help continue the encouraging progress against cancer we’ve seen in recent years.”

The researchers hastened to add this isn’t a magic bullet giving us a cure for cancer overnight. This breakthrough has still only been tested on cells in labs, but they're hopeful this unexpected discovery will lead to better treatments in which cancer can be quite literally “switched off”.

The researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Nature Cell Biology, showed some particularly aggressive lung and breast cancer tumours responded surprisingly well.

Source:

• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11821334/Cancer-cells-programmed-back-to-normal-by-US-scientists.html

• http://www.cityam.com/216846/path-curing-cancer-scientists-say-immunotherapy-better-alternative-chemotherapy?ITO=related-content

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroRNA#/media/File:MiRNA.svg

So “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;”

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