More than likely, you know someone who has suffered from or is currently dealing with cancer. It is a disease that has been around far too long and, up until this point, it seems as if finding a treatment that can really help is out of our grasp. Perhaps you could even compare it to the space race of many decades ago. We pushed and pushed to get out there and once we made it so far, the rug is suddenly pulled out from underneath us.
That isn’t to say that there has been no movement in the search for an effective treatment. We live at a time when survival rates are higher than they have ever been and some types of cancer can be treated with a reasonable degree of success. At the same time, however, it still is the second-leading cause of death and millions of cases are diagnosed every year.
Since all of us have been touched by cancer in some way or another, a cure would mean that we are all benefited in some way or another. A group of Israeli scientists feel that they now have a cure for that dreaded disease.
“We believe we will offer in a year’s time a complete cure for cancer,” said Dan Aridor of Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd, the company behind the new treatment.
“Our cancer cure will be effective from day one, will last a duration of a few weeks and will have no or minimal side-effects at a much lower cost than most other treatments on the market,” Aridor said
Unfortunately, we have heard these promises before but it still gives us hope. Dr. Ilan Morad, CEO of the company has named the treatment multi-target toxin (MuTaTo). Consider it like an anti-biotic for cancer.
The cure is associated with ‘phage display’ technology, which is still under development. A Nobel Prize was even given to a group from the US and the UK for their work on phage displays.
The science is complex but it may be able to be explained in layman’s terms.
Phage display allows certain types of cells to be identified. DNA coding can target treatment of peptides, antibodies or proteins, as well as other cellular components.
specific coded peptides are used by MuTaTo to target and kill cancer cells.
“We were doing what everyone else was doing, trying to discover individual novel peptides for specific cancers,” Dr. Morad said.
They are aiming even higher
Morad says the mutating of cancer cells is what makes most treatments ineffective. MuTaTo targets different types of cancer cells, keeping cancer from mutating before it is targeted and killed.
In addition. most cancer treatments affect both cancer and normal cells so the treatment itself is dangerous. New phage technology seems to be different, targeting one type of cell and leaving healthy cells intact. That is why the side effects are greatly reduced.
The company has used the treatment on mice and is just starting to treat humans on a trial basis.
“Our results are consistent and repeatable,” said Aridor.
We are years away from the treatment being available but it does give us something to hold onto.
H/T: Jerusalem Post