Caltech scientists create process to ‘program’ cancer cell death
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology say they have engineered a fundamentally new approach to killing cancer cells.
The process uses small RNA molecules that can be programmed to attack only cancer-specific cells, which then self-destruct when the molecules change shape.
Researchers point out how this process contrasts with conventional chemotherapy treatment for cancer in which drugs target cell behaviors that are typical but not exclusive to cancer cells. (e.g., rapid cell division, which is common to most cancer cells, but also to normal cells in bone marrow, digestive tract and hair follicles, causing devastating side effects).
The new technology might allow scientists to create drugs that can distinguish between cancer and healthy cells and then destroy the cancer cells, and can also be tailored on a molecular level to individual cancers, according to a release from Caltech.
Niles Pierce, associate professor of applied and computational mathematics and bioengineering at Caltech, developed the technology with a team of colleagues.
In a recent statement, Pierce said that, conceptually, “small conditional RNAs provide a versatile framework for diagnosing and treating disease once cell at a time within the human body,” but added that many years of research would be needed to establish “whether the conceptual promise of small conditional RNAs can be realized in human patients.”
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