The Times of India is reporting that a cure for cancer might have been found while scientists were searching for a way to protect pregnant women from malaria.
While hunting for new methods, Danish researchers found that armed malaria proteins, which can attack the body with a vengeance, can also target cancer cells with force.
Scientists say they have combined the bit of protein that the malaria vaccine uses with a toxin. This forceful duo can bury itself into cancerous cells, and release the toxin, killing off the cancer.
Where does this apparently new idea come from? The research and findings are built on a long history in the medical research community of believing there must be similarities between the ways a placenta grows in a pregnant woman, and a cancerous tumor in a body.
“The placenta is an organ, which within a few months grows from only a few cells into an organ weighing approximately two pounds, and it provides the embryo with oxygen and nourishment in a relatively foreign environment,” said Ali Salanti from University of Copenhagen. “In a manner of speaking, tumors do much the same, they grow aggressively in a relatively foreign environment.”
As with most studies, nothing is conclusive yet but tests have been done on mice in laboratory environments and have shown that the new method can have a good degree of success in targeting some forms of cancer.
Tests have yet to see the effects of the process in the human body. Scientists are positive, and hope to begin testing on humans in the next four years. Hopefully they will make new headway-it would be great to have another tool in the box.
Photo credit: crystal light/Shutterstock
