adminAn experimental malaria vaccine could be used to cure nine out 10 cancers and banish this “dreaded” disease to the history books, scientists have claimed. A malaria researcher, Ali Salanti and cancer researcher, Mads Daugaard found this extraordinary breakthrough. The researchers discovered a potential cure whilst working to devise a way of protecting pregnant women from malaria.
Salanti and Dauugard published a journal last week called “Cancer Cell” and said that they are planning for proceeding with human trials in the next four years. The research of the two scientists suggests that the carbohydrate that the malaria parasites attaches itself to in the placenta of pregnant women is the same with that of the cancer cells. Salanti said that their experiment showed that it is identical with the carbohydrate function of the cancer cells. And as they combined the malaria parasite and cancer cells, the parasite reacted to the cancer cells as if it attaches to a placenta.
The study shows that the carbohydrates make the placenta and cancer cells grow faster, hence using the vaccine is like killing the virus directly from the origin. The researchers that contributed to the study believed that with this discovery, they can finally find a cure or learn more about cancer.
Plasmodium Parasite is the cause of Malaria. It infects humans by mosquito bites and kills up to a million people each year, according to UNICEF and it is more dangerous for pregnant women. The parasite of Malaria attacks the placenta of the women.
The researchers found that the malaria parasite uses a specific carbohydrate protein to attach itself to placenta cells within a woman’s uterus. This protein is found in both placenta and cancer cells, where it is thought to allow cells to replicate quickly. The scientists noticed the malaria bug also bonded itself to cancer cells.
They isolated the carbohydrate which sticks malaria to both these types of cells and combined with a chemical “warhead” which is lethal to living tissue. When they produced a potential vaccine, they tested on thousands of samples and were astonished to find that it targeted tumours as well as the mosquito-borne peril. “We have seen that three doses can arrest growth in a tumour and even make it shrink,” said Thomas Mandel of the University of Copenhagen.
Vaccines are generally produced by taking a disease-causing bacteria and reducing its ability to harm humans, before putting this blunted bug into the human bloodstream. This tricks our immune system into building antibodies capable of swiftly killing the real danger bug if it enters the body. “It appears that the malaria protein attaches itself to the tumour without any significant attachment to other tissue,” Mandel added.
“The mice that were given doses of protein and toxin showed far higher survival rates than the untreated mice.”
Four years for human tests
It is hoped the drug will be tested on humans within four years.
“The biggest questions are whether it’ll work in the human body, and if the human body can tolerate the doses needed without developing side effects,” said malaria researcher Professor Ali Salanti. “But we’re optimistic because the protein appears to only attach itself to a carbohydrate that is only found in the placenta and in cancer tumours in humans. However, the drug will not be suitable for treating pregnant women.
“Expressed in popular terms, the toxin will believe that the placenta is a tumour and kill it, in exactly the same way it will believe that a tumour is a placenta,” said malaria researcher Professor Ali Salanti.
Fresh hope:
Doctors could test the new drug in the coming years Pascal Meier, of the Institute of Cancer Research, told the Daily Express the new research “could change the way we will treat cancer patients in future”. Lucy Holmes, from Cancer Research UK, added: “Targeting cancer cells and killing them, while leaving healthy cells unharmed, is a key goal.
“This very early research in mice is promising but needs to be confirmed in trials before we know if it will benefit patients.”
It sounds amazing, but is it true?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. At least for now. But that’s not to say this isn’t important, promising new research. The reports centre on the supposedly serendipitous discovery of a link between an experimental malaria vaccine for pregnant women, and a molecule that sits on the surface of cancer cells.
So what did the study actually show?
What they did
The researchers had originally been trying to develop a vaccine to prevent pregnant women becoming infected with malaria, because they’re particularly prone to the disease.
The malaria parasite infects pregnant women by producing a molecule called VAR2CSA, which binds to another molecule found on the surface of the placenta called chondroitin sulphate.
So to try to prevent this, the researchers had developed a modified, artificial form of VAR2CSA that could stick to the cells of the placenta, protecting them from infection with malaria.
But the study behind the headlines showed something unexpected – it turns out that cancer cells also produce molecules on their surface that are extremely similar to the chondroitin sulphate found on the placenta.
So the researchers wondered if tweaking their experimental malaria drug might turn it into something that could kill cancer cells.
To test this, they further modified their VAR2CSA protein so that it contained a cancer-killing toxin, and added this to cancer cells grown in the lab.
They also tested the vaccine by treating mice with prostate cancer, melanoma and a type of lymphoma.
Their experiments showed that the VAR2CSA was able to stick to, and kill, the cancer cells – but left healthy cells alone.
It’s exciting stuff. But did this research show that this modified malaria vaccine could be a ‘cure’ for nine in 10 cancers?
The short answer is no.
Not nine in 10
What the researchers actually showed was that in the group of cancer cells they studied – which didn’t include all types of cancers – the majority (95 percent) of them also produced chondroitin sulphate on their surface. This means that their experimental VAR2CSA-based molecule could potentially be used to target these cancers in the future. But not without a lot more research.
And the study was done in mice, meaning before it can be used to treat cancer in people, we need to understand more about it, and whether it’s safe to be used in humans. This would also require larger studies to see if the vaccine kills cancer cells in the same way in people while leaving healthy cells alone – and to work out which patients, with which cancers could benefit.
So while this certainly is exciting research, that could one day help cancer patients in the future, at the moment, it is definitely not a “miracle” drug that will cure nine out of 10 cancers.
What does this mean for
Zimbabwe?
Statistics released in June this year by the World Health Organisation show that non-communicable diseases accounted for 138 000 deaths recorded in 2014 with cancer being the single largest killer. Many Zimbabweans have been travelling to India to seek treatment for cancer.
Many of them have been dying there with families facing huge body repatriation costs on top of what they would have already spent on treatment, travel and accommodation. Research professionals in Zimbabwe said a cure for any number of cancers would have a large impact on national health and related spending but said that so far it is too early to tout this new vaccine as a “miracle cure”.
My reading of the article is that research done at the University of Copenhagen yielded some interesting results which were initially misinterpreted as “miracle” drug but later disputed,” said University of Zimbabwe School of Pharmacy director Professor Chiedza C Maponga. On Zimbabwean research into cancer treatment, Professor Maponga said that there is much going on but more can be done.
“The importance of cancer research in Zimbabwe is certainly undisputed and admittedly there isn’t enough of it yet,”
So for now those diagnosed with cancer will have to fight the disease with the existing treatments and hope that in time a cure will be found. – mirror.co.uk/scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/sciencetimes.com/The Herald Review
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter