University of Alberta scientists discover cheap cancer-killer
Newscientist.com reports that a drug that is commonly used to treat certain rare metabolic disorders has been found by a group of University of Alberta scientists to cause cancer cells to self-destruct. Cancer cells have shut off their mitochondria, and thus don’t get the usual signals sent by mitochondria that tell an abnormal cell to die. This drug turns back on the mitochondria, which causes the cancerous cells to die. This has been tested on both human cells cultured outside of the body, and on rats, no clinical trials on humans have been conducted yet.
Two of the great things about this drug is that it not only has been used for years for the treatment mentioned above, so we know that it’s safe, but there’s no patent on it, meaning that it can be produced very cheaply. Of course, that also is one of the downsides to the drug, as since there’s no patent, pharmaceutical companies “are unlikely to” (read: won’t) fund clinical studies. As such, said studies are probably going to have to be funded by charities/donations, universities, government agencies, etc. The University of Alberta’s DCA research page states that, “the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board are committed to performing clinical trials in the immediate future in consultation with regulatory agencies such as Health Canada.” There are also links on that page (you’ll probably have to scroll down) for if you wish to make donations to the DCA Cancer Research Fund.
If this truly does work on all cancers, it will truly be a godsend. Unless I’m mistaken, no longer will those with cancer need to undergo chemotherapy or have possibly dangerous surgeries to remove the tumors.
– Tasunke
