Israeli researchers induce cancer cells to ‘commit suicide’
ÎIn a development that could revolutionise cancer treatment, Israeli researchers induced cancer cells to “commit suicide” for the first time.
Dan Peer
The Tel Aviv University research team, led by Professor Dan Peer and PhD student Yasmin Granot Matok, encoded a toxin produced by bacteria into messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules. These mRNA particles were directly delivered to cancer cells, triggering the cells to produce the toxin, which ultimately led to their demise.
The findings of their study were recently published in peer-reviewed Theranostics.
Unlike traditional chemotherapy treatment, the toxins did not harm nearby cells.
“Our idea was to deliver safe mRNA molecules encoded for a bacterial toxin directly to the cancer cells – inducing these cells actually to produce the toxic protein that would later kill them. It’s like placing a Trojan horse inside the cancer cell,” Peer said.
First, the research team encoded the genetic info of the toxic protein produced by bacteria of the pseudomonas family into mRNA molecules — resembling the procedure in which genetic info of COVID-19’s ‘spike’ protein was encoded into mRNA molecules to create the coronavirus vaccine.
The mRNA molecules were then packaged in lipid nanoparticles for delivery to the cancer cells. These LNPs were developed in Peer’s laboratory. To ensure that the instructions for producing the toxin would reach the targeted cancer cell, the lipid nanoparticles were coated with antibodies.
The molecules were tested by injecting them into the tumours of animal models with melanoma skin cancer. The researchers found that after a single injection, between 44-60% of the cancer cells vanished.
“When the cancer cell reads the ‘recipe’ at the other end, it starts to produce the toxin as if it were the bacteria itself and this self-produced toxin eventually kills it. Thus, with a simple injection into the tumour
bed, we can cause cancer cells to ‘commit suicide’ without damaging healthy cells,” Peer explained.
“Moreover, cancer cells cannot develop resistance to our technology as often happens with chemotherapy – because we can always use a different natural toxin.”
wow that’s phenomanal.here they go again helping the world and curing a type of cancer or all. Israel does so much and are always hated by the rest of the world. Just don’t understand.