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/ Health News / 2008 / October 2008 / October 3, 2008 Scorpion venom may help fight brain cancer |
Longer sleep duration reduces incidence of coronary artery calcification
How little nano-machines inside the body operate
Racial prejudice costs black workers nearly $115,000 over their lifetime
Sack lunches may not provide adequate nutrients to preschooler
Packing lunch for your child might not be a good idea, for a new study has found that sack lunches may not regularly provide adequate nutrients for the growth and development of young children. ANI
Health-monitoring system helps maintain older adults well-being
Many older adults want to remain active and independent for as long as possible. Now, researchers from University of Missouri suggest that installing health monitoring system can help keep check on the health of the elderly and ensure their privacy. ANI
New drug shows potential to treat angina, other cardiac problems
A compound, designed to prevent chest pains in heart patients, could act as a drug to treat angina and possibly other cardiac pathologies, according to a study on animals. ANI
It may sound like the ultimate poison, but radioactive scorpion venom is being tested as a treatment for malignant brain cancer.
London, Oct 3 : It may sound like the ultimate poison, but radioactive scorpion venom is being tested as a treatment for malignant brain cancer.
The sting of the Middle Eastern scorpion Leiurus quinquestriatus unleashes a cocktail of neurotoxins containing a peptide that is non-toxic to humans but binds to tumour cells.
In tests, the peptide has invaded tumours in breast, skin, brain and lung tissue while leaving healthy cells untouched.
"It's as if the tumours collect it," New Scientist quoted Michael Egan of the company TransMolecular in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as saying.
To determine if the peptide could deliver lethal doses of radioactivity to cancer cells, researchers have now attached radioactive iodine isotopes to it.
In a trial last year, the researchers injected this agent directly into the tumours of 59 people suffering from inoperable brain cancer.
All the patients have now died, but those receiving a higher dose lived for three months longer, on average.
In recent weeks, researchers at the University of Chicago in Illinois have begun injecting TM601 into the bloodstream of people with different types of malignant brain cancer.
This latest trial will allow the company to test whether it can seek out and kill secondary tumours throughout the body, as well as known primary ones.
ANI
