Scientists discover how to change human leukemia cells into harmless immune cells

[Fantastic Anarchist]

An unusual metamorphosis

Postdoctoral scholar Scott McClellan MD, PhD, a lead author of the paper, mentioned that some of the cancer cells in culture were changing shape and size into what looked like macrophages. Majeti concurred with that observation, but the reasons for the changed cells were a mystery until he remembered an old research paper, which showed that early B-cell mouse progenitor cells could be forced to become macrophages when exposed to certain transcription factors — proteins that bind to certain DNA sequences.

“B-cell leukemia cells are in many ways progenitor cells that are forced to stay in an immature state,” Majeti said. So he, McClellan and student Christopher Dove, an MD/PhD student and the paper’s other lead author, did more experiments and confirmed that methods shown to have altered the fate of the mouse progenitor cells years ago could be used to transform these human cancer cells into macrophages, which can engulf and digest cancer cells and pathogens.

There’s big-time interest in differentiation therapies for cancer.
Majeti and his colleagues have some reason to hope that when the cancer cells become macrophages they will not only be neutralized, but may actually assist in fighting the cancer. Like a bloodhound owner who gives the dog a sniff of an object that was associated with the person or animal he wants to track, macrophage cells present recognizable bits of abnormal cells to other immune cells so that they can launch an attack. “Because the macrophage cells came from the cancer cells, they will already carry with them the chemical signals that will identify the cancer cells, making an immune attack against the cancer more likely,” Majeti said.

More at Stanford Medicine

Ain't science grand!

[merrily]

1. A cousin on my mom's side specializes in leukemia and one on my dad's side recently died of it.

Sometimes, life's ironies are very hard to bear, but this is very welcome news.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

2. I'm very sorry about your cousin.

If we could just devote a fraction of what we spend on the military, we'd be ages ahead of where we are now.

Sorry for your cousin.

[merrily]

3. Thank you so much. He was a very good person. I agree about our spending priorities.

[samsingh]

4. i hope this works

[3catwoman3]

5. The husband of one of the pediatricians I work with...

...is a pediatric oncologist. He has been known to say he would be quite happy for his specialty to become obsolete.

[Journeyman]

6. I was invited to tour City of Hope back in the mid-'90s. . .

A client was to be honored for his industry's efforts to fundraise for CoH.

We were told our itinerary at the beginning, first here, then there, then through this place, and ending at Pediatric Oncology.

I can't tell you how much we all dreaded that last stop. All we could think about was children with cancer.

It was the most uplifting hour of the tour.

We met some great kids (which we expected to do), but more than that, we were introduced to the head of the department. He told of how, when he first started working there in the early 1960s, his job consisted (in his words) of "preparing parents for the death of their child." But now, thirty years later, he said with a wide smile, he sends "better than 70% of these children home."

I can only imagine how much better the percentage is today, 20 years later.

As Paul Simon sang on Graceland so many years ago, "These are the days of miracle and wonder."

[BrotherIvan]

7. Amazing

I am so enthusiastic about therapies that harness the power of the body to fight cancer. I remember a NYT article where doctors created a massive fever in a patient who then tested clear when before he was on death's door. I can't find the article, but this one talks about doctors using salmonella and listera to try to induce fevers to fight cancers

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1313773/Can-fever-cure-cancer-Jordan-baffled-doctors-leukaemia-vanished-new-evidence-suggests-remarkable-explanation-.html

It makes so much sense. Our current regime basically decimates the immune system in hopes it will kill the cancer as well. But doctors can't explain why for many, the cancer returns. In the model of teaching the immune system to fight the kind of cancer the body is prone to, the chances are much better that it will not return. And this kind of therapy does not have the long term damage of chemo and radiation. I hope and pray that within my lifetime they find a successful treatment that is not so harsh and debilitating. I don't know anyone who has died of cancer, but know lots of people who have died from the side effects of cancer treatment.

[Historic NY]

8. Amazing I've loss several friends who fought and lost the battle...

to live with leukemia. It will be great to see this gone.

[Octafish]

9. Medicine is pretty great, too.

Thank you for this great news, Fantastic Anarchist.

[greiner3]

10. "Ain't science grand!"

It sure is!

However, I'm wondering what military use this might exhibit.