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Good news for cancer patients: a new method for causing programmed cell death paves the way for the development of cancer treatment

The method is the result of research by researchers from the Hebrew University and the Weizmann Institute of Science

Prof. Assaf Friedler. Photocopy: The Hebrew University
Prof. Assaf Friedler. Photocopy: The Hebrew University

Researchers from the Hebrew University and the Weizmann Institute of Science have developed a method that causes the programmed death of cells (apoptosis). The method paves the way for the development of new approaches to cancer treatment by targeted killing of cancer cells.

Programmed cell death is an essential process in cells. It is a complex process that occurs through networks of proteins that bind to each other. This is an essential defense mechanism of the body against the proliferation of abnormal cells such as cancer cells, but cancer cells usually do not undergo this process due to mutations in the genes that encode the proteins involved in the process. The result is that the cancer cells survive and take over while the healthy cells die.

The study, which was carried out by research student Chen Haner-Katz from the Hebrew University and is the result of a collaboration between Prof. Assaf Friedler from the Institute of Chemistry at the Hebrew University and Prof. Eitan Gross from the Department of Biological Control at the Weizmann Institute, was recently published in the prestigious Journal of Biological Chemistry.

The study examined the interaction between two important proteins involved in the process of cell death. One of the proteins belongs to the BCL-2 protein family, which plays an important role in controlling this process. During the study, the researchers found the region in both proteins responsible for their attachment to each other. The link between the two proteins is a critical step for the start of the process. Following the discovery, the researchers synthetically developed short protein segments (peptides) that recreate the binding regions, and these killed cancer cells of human origin in experiments done in cell cultures.

"Such protein segments could in the future be a basis for designing anti-cancer drugs for cases where the natural mechanism of cell death does not work properly," notes Prof. Friedler, adding "we have only begun to uncover the potential inherent in the interaction between these proteins. This is an innovative goal for the research and development of anti-cancer drugs."

19 תגובות

  1. Yehuda
    Just nonsense, don't take it to heart, they laugh with you.

    By the way, I agree with you - about the smell of Turkish delight!

  2. I wonder if it is actually possible to lower the level of morbidity, it often seems that when a disease disappears, a new one appears
    Who knows, maybe it is only under the control of the masters of the viruses, since they are parasites and what the viruses define in their language as a natural and essential process of culture and evolutionary development, we define as a disease as a plague. In my opinion
    It doesn't seem like we can stop them, we can only change the names of diseases and epidemics.

  3. dear reader
    Maybe you're right about the cancer and I won't get into the debate of what would have happened if I hadn't come up with the idea of ​​joint surgery and checking who's alive and who's dead. In general, I suggest that next to "Schrödinger's cat" the "Crab of Sabdarmish" should find a place of honor for him, and I hope you won't say that they also thought of that first.
    So maybe you have misconceptions about the cancer, but, what I wrote about smelling Turkish delight and the borax is probably true.
    I go to eat
    Shabbat Shalom
    Sabdarmish Yehuda

  4. Well, of course it's jealous. It seems to you that someone thought of such a genius idea besides you: "Take healthy cells and cancerous cells together, apply the healing method to them, and show that the cancerous ones died and the healthy ones did not."
    And in general, without your proposal the research would have been stuck for a good few more years.

  5. I don't eat crabs on Shabbat and the question was just for general knowledge. And I hope that the place for questions on the subject is an article that deals with cancer.
    And as for the rahat-lokum, which is one of the great delicacies of my parents' homeland, Turkey, it has a place of honor in my kitchen (and in my stomach) next to their majesty, the borax, and the excellent sarchicha-sausage, and more, and more, and we'll need a few more gigabytes of memory to describe You are abundant for Turkish reasons.
    But here we deviate greatly from the topic because you will agree with me that the problem is not collinear.
    And the question is:- Did I exaggerate my demand / did I offer to get an idea of ​​the effect of the healing method on the healthy cells? In my humble opinion this is a legitimate request and all the reactions of the detractors are only due to jealousy that I thought about it first.
    Shabbat Shalom
    Sabdarmish Yehuda

  6. By the way, I heard that crabs cause pressure differences... even on Shabbat

  7. Why do I want this? Because I have a simpler method for eliminating cancer cells. The method is to put the patient in a barrel of boiling oil. I promise you that all the cancer cells will die.
    I have a few more methods but don't want to burden you.
    And as for who it is "we didn't", here the answer is simple, this is my message to humanity wherever it is.
    I hope I explained myself well.
    Shabbat Shalom
    Sabdarmish Yehuda
    post Scriptum. Is it allowed to eat crab on Shabbat?

  8. ^
    And I wanted to add: "Why do you want this?"

    And - "Who is "we didn't do it", Yehuda?"

  9. Thanks to the biology student, and it may be the case that more medicine will reach the cancer cells.
    What I would like the researchers to do is to take healthy cells and cancerous cells together, run the healing method on them, and show that the cancerous ones died and the healthy ones did not. Because if both the cancerous and the healthy die, then we have done nothing.
    Shabbat Shalom
    Sabdarmish Yehuda

  10. Another thing, a lot of mucin is found in the area of ​​cancer cells (one of the ways to indicate a cancer cell).
    Good luck to the researchers.

  11. A possible answer to Yehuda - drugs to treat cancer can also damage healthy cells, but the treatment mechanism is based, among other things, on the fact that the metabolic rate of cells within a tumor is high and the rate of cell division is high (in most tumors), which means that there is a demand for more oxygen, nutrients, and the like cells (more blood vessels will reach the tissue), therefore "more medicine" will also reach those cells.

  12. It seems to me that someone here is impersonating

    Probably not much has changed since then...
    :)))

  13. Decades ago, they would advertise in the newspaper every week "a cure for cancer has been found". Of course, nothing came out of all these "medicines", since it was an initial finding from which the chance of developing a medicine was slim.

    Probably not much has changed since then...

  14. Such a joyful optimistic spirit in the title "Good news for cancer patients,,,,,,,
    And weakens greatly, at the end of the article "We have only begun to reveal the potential inherent in interaction..

    It seems to me that someone here lacks understanding, consideration and responsibility

  15. If they succeed in connecting it to (existing) methods for identifying cancer cells, it will be a decisive blow in favor of the fight against cancer

  16. The big question is, when practical treatments will be developed and how much time will pass from laboratory experiments
    From marathons to the beginning of mass use for the treatment of cancer patients?
    I really hope that in our lifetime.

  17. The important question:- What is the effect of this destruction mechanism on healthy cells?
    Why wouldn't this destruction mechanism also destroy healthy cells?
    Good night
    Sabdarmish Yehuda

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