By Mark Ellis
Malaria researcher Ali Salanti
A Danish scientist and his team hunting for a vaccine against malaria
in pregnant women may have unexpectedly found a cure for cancer. The
scientists behind the vaccine aim for tests on humans within four years.
Cancer and malaria researchers from the University of Copenhagen
(UCPH) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) discovered that
malaria proteins armed with a toxin can kill cancer, according to a
report by UCPH.
Mads Daugaard from the University of British Columbia and malaria
researcher Ali Salanti from UCPH revealed that the carbohydrate that the
malaria parasite attaches itself to in the placenta in pregnant women
is identical to a carbohydrate found in cancer cells.
cancer cell
In the laboratory, scientists added a toxin to the protein that the
malaria parasite uses to adhere to the placenta. This combination of
malaria protein and toxin seeks out the cancer cells, is absorbed, the
toxin is released inside, and then the cancer cells die, according to
the UCPH report.
Using cell cultures and mice with cancer, the researchers tested
thousands of samples from brain tumors to leukemias and found the
malaria protein is able to attack more than 90% of all types of tumors.
With non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the treated mice’s tumors were about a
quarter the size of the tumors in the control group. With prostate
cancer, the tumors disappeared in two of the six treated mice a month
after receiving the first dose. With metastatic bone cancer, five out of
six of the treated mice were alive after almost eight weeks, compared
to none of the mice in a control group.
The discovery was described in a recent article in the renowned scientific journal Cancer Cell.
“For decades, scientists have been searching for similarities between
the growth of a placenta and a tumor. The placenta is an organ, which
within a few months grows from only few cells into an organ weighing
approx. two pounds, and it provides the embryo with oxygen and
nourishment in a relatively foreign environment. In a manner of
speaking, tumors do much the same, they grow aggressively in a
relatively foreign environment,” says Ali Salanti from the Department of
Immunology and Microbiology at UCPH.
Ali Salanti’s team is currently testing a vaccine against malaria on
humans, and it was in connection with the development of this drug that
he discovered that the carbohydrate in the placenta was also present in
cancer tumors.
Ali Salanti immediately contacted his former fellow student and now cancer researcher, Mads Daugaard, who is
Cancer researcher Mads Daugaard
head of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathology at the Vancouver
Prostate Center at UBC in Canada. In collaboration, the two groups have
generated results, which they hope will provide the basis for a drug
against cancer.
“We examined the carbohydrate’s function. In the placenta, it helps
ensure fast growth. Our experiments showed that it was the same in
cancer tumors. We combined the malaria parasite with cancer cells and
the parasite reacted to the cancer cells as if they were a placenta and
attached itself,” Ali Salanti explains.
Destroys cancer cells
“We have separated the malaria protein, which attaches itself to the
carbohydrate and then added a toxin. By conducting tests on mice, we
have been able to show that the combination of protein and toxin kill
the cancer cells,” Mads Daugaard explains.
“It appears that the malaria protein attaches itself to the tumor
without any significant attachment to other tissue. And the mice that
were given doses of protein and toxin showed far higher survival rates
than the untreated mice. We have seen that three doses can arrest growth
in a tumor and even make it shrink,” PhD student Thomas Mandel Clausen
elaborates. He has been part of the research project for the last two
years.
It would appear that the only snag is the fact that the treatment would not be available for pregnant women.
“Expressed in popular terms, the toxin will believe that the placenta
is a tumor and kill it, in exactly the same way it will believe that a
tumor is a placenta,” Ali Salanti states.
In collaboration with the scientists behind the discovery, the
University of Copenhagen has created the biotech company,
VAR2pharmaceuticals, which will drive the clinical development forward.
The research teams working with Ali Salanti and Mads Daugaard are now
working purposefully towards being able to conduct tests on humans.
“The earliest possible test scenario is in four years time. The
biggest questions are whether it’ll work in the human body, and if the
human body can tolerate the doses needed without developing side
effects. But we’re optimistic because the protein appears to only attach
itself to a carbohydrate that is only found in the placenta and in
cancer tumors in humans,” Ali Salanti concludes.
Source: Godreports