Stem Cell Vaccination Versus Cancer
February 09 2010   |   Permanent Link
An unexpected potential use for embryonic stem (ES) cells: "One of the most auspicious, yet challenging, avenues for combating malignancies is to enlist the immune system to come to the defense of the patient. However, myriad components of the immune system interact in extraordinarily complex ways with active or dormant neoplastic cells, an interaction matrix that is incompletely understood at best. ... [Researchers] reason that exposure of the immune system to novel tumor-associated antigens might boost an otherwise inadequate immune response into an effective antitumor action. What distinguishes the study is the source of these tumor-associated antigens: human ES and iPS cells. Specifically, the study investigated whether vaccination of mice with human ES or iPS cell lines would trigger an enhanced immunological response against shared antigens expressed by the primitive normal cells and the colon carcinoma cell line CT26 ... vaccination of mice with the human ES cell line H9 induced both strong cellular and humoral immune responses against CT26 colon carcinoma. ... There is a certain irony in the fact that human ES cells, which themselves possess many features of neoplastic cells - including sustained telomerase activity, formation of tumors after injection into mice, and infinite growth - would be exploited against cancer. By analogy, it is like fighting fire with fire."

Ouroboros on Cryonics
February 09 2010   |   Permanent Link
Chris Patil of Ouroboros is a cryonics skeptic: "I'm a cryonics skeptic of the 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence' flavor. As I've said before, I suspect that long-term preservation of the potential for life by freezing or other means is physically possible, but at present I don't think we’re making any significant progress in that direction. Part of the problem is that there's very little serious initiative within the mainstream of academia or industry to build the many, many necessary precursor technologies. Another part is that the problem is really, really hard - harder than the comparatively simple but still unsolved problem of maintaining cellular viability within tissues at low temperatures." From reading what he's written, I think he's either out of the loop on the technology of vitrification, or not convinced that present day vitrification methods as used by Alcor are actually going to preserve fine structure in brain cells (i.e. preserve the data that is the mind). I disagree with him on that last point, if that is his view - the evidence clearly points to the viability of vitrification on that count.

Curing Osteoporosis By Manipulating Serotonin
February 08 2010   |   Permanent Link
A novel approach to the treatment of age-related bone loss is demonstrated: "An investigational drug that inhibits serotonin synthesis in the gut, administered orally once daily, effectively cured osteoporosis in mice and rats ... Serotonin in the gut has been shown in recent research to stall bone formation. The finding could lead to new therapies that build new bone; most current drugs for osteoporosis can only prevent the breakdown of old bone. ... Prior to this discovery, serotonin was primarily known as a neurotransmitter acting in the brain. Yet, 95 percent of the body's serotonin is found in the gut, where its major function is to inhibit bone formation (the remaining five percent is in the brain, where it regulates mood, among other critical functions). By turning off the intestine's release of serotonin, the team was able, in this new study, to cure osteoporosis in mice that had undergone menopause. ... [Researchers] administered the compound orally, once daily, at a small dose, for up to six weeks to rodents experiencing post-menopausal osteoporosis. Results demonstrated that osteoporosis was prevented from developing, or when already present, could be fully cured. Of critical importance, levels of serotonin were normal in the brain, which indicated that the compound did not enter the general circulation and was unable to cross the blood-brain barrier, thereby avoiding many potential side effects."

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