Cancer cells can treat tumors.
New on suggests that many cancer cells are equipped with a congenial of suicide pill: a protein on their surfaces that gives them the skill to release an "eat me" notify to immune cells. The demand now, the researchers say, is to individual out how to coax cancer cells into emitting the motion rather than a dangerous "don't eat me" signal . A burn the midnight oil published online Dec 22 2010 in Science Translational Medicine reports that the cells please out the enticing "eat me" communicate by displaying the protein calreticulin.
But another molecule, called CD47, allows most cancer cells to from killing by sending the antagonistic signal: "Don't nourishment me". In earlier research, Stanford University School of Medicine scientists found that an antibody that blocks CD47 - turning off the notable - could employee battle cancer, but mysteries remained cheap glitter platform. "Many rational cells in the body have CD47, and yet those cells are not gripped by the anti-CD47 antibody," Mark Chao, a Stanford grade grind and the study's lead author, said in a university copy release.