Scientists, by chance, may have taken a huge step forward in their search for a cure for cancer - unexpectedly discovering that the malaria protein could be an effective weapon against cancer.
Danish researchers have long worked to develop a way to protect pregnant women from malaria, which can cause serious problems by affecting the placenta. But in doing so, they found that malaria's harsh proteins can attack cancer, among other things, which could be an important step towards treating the disease.
Scientists took some of the protein that the malaria vaccine uses to build up in the cell, and combined it with a toxin so that after it enters the cancer cells, the toxin can be released and kill them.
The researchers found that in both cases - in the placenta and in the tumor - the malarial protein attaches to the same carbohydrates. According to them, this similarity can be used to treat cancer.
Carbohydrates provide fast growth of the placenta. New research results have shown in detail how carbohydrates perform the same function in tumors - and the malaria parasite attaches to cancer cells in the same way as in the placenta, which means it can kill them.
“For decades, scientists have been looking for similarities between placental growth and tumor growth,” said researcher Ali Salanti of the University of Copenhagen. - The placenta is an organ that begins to grow from just a few cells and gains about two pounds in a few months; it provides the embryo with oxygen and nutrition in a relatively foreign environment. Figuratively speaking, tumors do the same; they develop aggressively in a relatively foreign environment."
This process has already been tested in cells and tested in mice with cancerous tumors, and the research results are described in an article in the journal Cancer Cell. Scientists hope they can begin human trials within the next four years.
“The most difficult question is whether it will work in the human body, and whether a person can tolerate the required doses without developing side effects,” Salanti said. "But we are optimistic because protein appears to only attach to carbohydrates, which can only be found in the placenta and in human cancers."
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In experiments on mice, three different types of tumors from the human body were transplanted to animals. As a result, the lymphoma tumor shrank to a quarter of its original size; managed to completely get rid of prostate cancer in two out of six mice and save life in five out of six mice who had metastatic bone cancer - compared with the control group, where all mice died.
“We isolated a malaria protein that binds to carbohydrates and then added a toxin,” said Mads Daugaard of the University of British Columbia, Canada, who is involved in cancer research. "By doing experiments on mice, we were able to see that the combination of protein and toxin kills cancer cells."