To carry out the task, the scientists used T-type white blood cells, and inserted into them a gene that helps them recognize the cancer cells
To carry out the task, the scientists used T-type white blood cells, and inserted into them a gene that helps them recognize the cancer cells. The new gene causes receptors to form on the cell membrane, and these serve as tiny radars that allow the cells to focus on the cancerous tumor. Futuristic nanotechnology at its best. According to the theory, the moment the engineered cells were injected into the mice's bodies, they were supposed to start sniffing for the tumor, locating it and stimulating the mouse's entire immune system against it. But how do you know that this is really what happened?
To know for sure whether the engineered cells really reached the tumor, the scientists added another gene to their nanosubmarines. This gene causes the cells to 'glow' when the mice are scanned with an imaging tool called PET - positron emission tomography. In fact, they've developed a way for their submarines to communicate with the world outside the body, even if that way is limited to shouting "Hey, we're here!"
In the present case, at least, it was enough. One million cells were injected into the bloodstream of each mouse. A million little soldiers, armed with antennae that identify their enemies, the ability to call for help from the immune system around them and radios that allowed them to report their location to researchers. They progressed to the lungs and lymph nodes, reorganized and reassessed their condition, and from there threw themselves into the bloodstream and aggressively scanned the body in pursuit of cancer cells. Within two or three days they were able to locate the tumor and fight it very effectively and reduce its size in all the mice that participated in the experiment. The control mice, on the other hand, were injected with transgenic cells that did not receive the gene that equips them with the tools to detect the tumor - and they had a rapid and deadly development of the cancer. And all this, live and in real time by means of non-invasive scanning. In one word: amazing.
When can we expect similar technology in humans? This future may not be far from being realized. The researchers themselves point out that it is possible to genetically engineer the cells of the cancer patient using a similar method, and inject them back into the body when they are imbued with a spirit of courage and bravery - and of course also with the gene that identifies the tumor cells. But before the celebrations begin, it's worth remembering that there are still a number of factors that could make the new technology fail in humans. First of all, we are much larger than mice, and it may take longer for the engineered cells to locate the tumor. Will this period of time last for days, or maybe months? We will know this only in the first clinical trial.
Genetic engineering, in itself, involves risk in itself. Any intervention in the genetic code of the cells could, even if the chance is low, cause one of the millions of injected cells to go out of control, divide in an uncontrolled way and create a new tumor in the patient's body. This is not a desirable result, but the fear of this has decreased in recent years, after the safety of genetic engineering was demonstrated in several clinical trials on humans. The risk is always there - but the return in this case may justify it.
Even if the treatment eventually reaches the hospitals, it will certainly take several more years at least. But its meanings are groundbreaking in every possible way. We, simple humans, manage to engineer nanotechnological submarines and launch them into our own bodies. They fix the body, communicate with it and send us messages about their presence. In the future, will we be able to maintain such an army of biological 'robots' permanently inside the body? Will the submarines be able to communicate in simpler and more diverse ways, for example by changing the color of a small dot in a small area on the skin, as a signal to detect cancer in the body, or to signal an attack by bacteria?
These questions are only for the future - and for nanotechnology - solutions.
24 תגובות
Gilad, some people it doesn't scare them at all, read the thread below this article:
https://www.hayadan.org.il/protecting_our_privacy-3101102
It's scary to think what such technology together with knowledge about the brain and its operation can do...
Roy:
I agree with the favorable reviews.
Your articles are interesting, educational and thought-provoking
R.H.
This is not a new technology (as you can read in the article, the idea has been around for quite a few years), but it is an important advance, both in terms of the technique and in terms of the concept of tracking cells inside the body.
And I agree - it's far from simple, but I'm optimistic.
Glad you also enjoy reading my blog,
Roy.
Roy, like R.H., I also read your blog and all your articles here, as well as your comments and treatment of the commenters, please continue to write frequently, you are one of the reasons I enter the site
Roy,
If it was that simple, to grow the cells and make them attack cancer then long ago there would be no cancer. The main problem in the whole story is to find specific cancer antigens. All in all, beyond the hype of "nano" and "amazing" there is no real breakthrough or new technology in this article. But it is an important milestone in the ongoing and endless research in the fight against cancer. In any case, I really enjoy reading your blog and the articles, and despite what was written above, I do think there is a "residual soul" here, so good luck and keep it up!
Itzik,
As you said, the chances are that for each patient, it will be necessary to 'program' the submarines against the particular cancer they have. It shouldn't be too hard (at least, no harder than all this technology), since you can take a biopsy of the cancer, grow the cancer cells in the lab, and teach the T cells to recognize them.
Joseph,
Remove worry from your heart. I am fine, and so is my wife. The article was written as part of a project I took upon myself - to write one article per day on the blog. The result is that the side dishes decrease a bit in quality, but not bad - the main dish is still here.
Besides, in my opinion this is enough exciting progress to give up on the side stories.
good week,
Roy.
Hi Itzik, no one claimed that the nano-submarine should not know who it should act against, after all, it was specifically stated in the article that the same fleet of nano-submarines was specially engineered to detect cancer cells only and act against them, so I do not understand your comment on the subject.
I took the trouble to read the original article and according to what I understood is that the T cells were engineered outside the body with the help of a "disabled" virus similar to the AIDS virus and the ability to create receptors was added to them (this ability comes from the recombination of genes responsible for creating receptors in different structures suitable for a multitude of antigens, but this is probably the missing structure) which are specific to cancer cells and eliminate them, the study dealt with skin cancer.
About a million cells have been engineered, which is enough for mice, but the human body needs a thousand times the amount, about a billion cells, to cause a healing process.
Something that also increases the risk of creating cells that are themselves abnormal and even cancerous, even though, to the best of my knowledge, it is possible to use a cytometer to filter out abnormal cells, or if you already use the same method they invented to destroy the abnormal cells of T cells.
And for all the respondents it is not enough to create that nano submarine. She also needs to know who to act against. Like creating a missile and saying "it's fine, he will find the target according to how he understands" this may also work against the body itself.
Carlos, this is exactly what Ray Kurzweil says, that in the coming decades we will develop nano-submarines that will strengthen our body and create a perfect immune system that destroys individual cancer cells even before they become a tumor, and will keep our body completely healthy, this will also allow us to live an eternal life, not just 200 years .
Look here:
https://www.hayadan.org.il/the-singularity-is-near-2106084
I also want to serve in a nano-submarine!
Where do you register?
Why stop here? You can continue in the same way and create an immune system that will not let anything harm the body...then you can create "submarines" that repair cells and organs..."submarines" that update and strengthen the body and die happily at the age of 200
So sorry if I was wrong! But I wasn't wrong about the chocolate ball and the son of the spaghetti monster!
In light - what you noticed above is not a "pudding bowl" but a donut!
What happened to you Roy?
Another wise and instructive article came out of you, but where is the remaining soul? Where is the use of preliminary humor? You stopped explaining to your partner (have you stopped traveling?) etc. I'm getting worried…
In the photo above from right to left:
1. Chocolate ball with coconut!
2. Descendant of the Spaghetti Monster!
3. A bowl of pudding (??)
Avner:
The answer to your question is in the following quote:
"The moment the engineered cells were injected into the bodies of the mice, they were supposed to start sniffing for the tumor, locating it and stimulating the entire immune system of the mouse against it"
To remove doubt, the field excites and intrigues me, I believe that Nano is the future.
Nanotechnology is seen as a future that will change the face of humanity completely.
I'm not a scientist, but I think that in a few years babies will receive the desired genetic change and maybe even the desired chips of knowledge when they are born?
Cyber babies?
really amazing. Perhaps this is indeed the ultimate hope for all cancer patients in the future (meaning a quarter to a third of us, at some age). Of course, until this groundbreaking treatment passes FDA approval, the road is still very long, but in such cases, when there is something completely innovative with extraordinary potential, the FDA has fast tracks. Still, this is probably the best case in at least 5 years.
"To date, scientists in various laboratories have already succeeded in creating 'stupid' nanosubmarines - these are a kind of jars containing poison, which the blood flow leads to the tumor, and they are able to stick to it and poison the cells. Now scientists have succeeded in creating a new, improved and refined breed of nano-submarines, based on genetically engineered white blood cells. These are actively looking for the cancerous growth in the body"
I couldn't understand this sentence, aren't the new nanosubmarines "jars" containing poison that drift in the bloodstream? Do they have any driving force (similar to the famous Shuton) that allows them, unlike the previous generation, to move wherever they want? Don't they stick to the tumor and poison the cells just like the previous generation of nano-submarines did?
If so, how exactly are they different in their operation beyond the part of signaling out about their location in the body?
I did not understand.
It seems to me that a step is missing in the explanation
After all, the body's natural immune system is also supposed to treat the tumor in the same way and the problem is that for some reason those cells do not express their being cancerous by specific identifiers on the membrane and then the immune system does not know that it should treat a cancerous cell (what interest does the cell have in being recognized as cancerous and what exactly Identifies a cell as cancerous?) Sometimes these are identifiers that also exist in healthy cells, but in a different expression ratio and I suspect that this is also a physical location on the surface of the membrane.
So it seems to me that the article is missing the step that actually needs to identify those tumors, their protein expression and then create specific receptors for them so that they can fight the tumor, the approach that is gaining momentum today with personalized medicine for the patient.
It is simply amazing, and there is no doubt that our world is going to change and go through a major revolution in the next 20 years, among other things thanks to this amazing field called nanotechnology. Ray Kurzweil is right - these fields continue to develop at an exponentially accelerating pace, and what seems to us now as a gentle trickle of initial nanotechnology applications will become a tremendous flood in the coming decades, as mentioned above in the field of computing and the connection of this field to brain research.
People still don't understand what an amazing era we live in, and this is just the beginning 🙂
The Singularity Is Near
Very interesting, although one cannot help but feel skepticism in terms of dates - the expected long bureaucracy.
But I loved it. is very.
I also liked: "...by changing the color of a small point in a small area on the skin". A very nice idea.