MoBlog 6/20/11

Human Vaccine Cures Prostate Cancer in Mice

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-06/human-vaccine-cures-prostate-cancer-mice

- Amazing potential... Reported by Popular Science magazine...

- By injecting snippets of complementary DNA from a healthy prostate into viruses, and in turn injecting the viruses into mice with prostate cancer, Mayo Clinic researchers have coaxed the mice's immune systems into eradicating the cancer. CDC

- Mayo Clinic researchers and collaborators from the UK have apparently cured mice with well-established prostate tumors with no visible side effects via a new kind of tumor vaccine

- The findings are preliminary but promising. Geneticists basically assembled a complementary DNA library from healthy prostate tissue and inserted snippets of that genetic code into a swarm of viruses that were introduced to the mice intravenously. This cDNA causes the viruses to produce prostate antigens, basically sending the immune system a distress signal with the prostate’s unique signature on it.

- That’s big news for men, and could be big news for anyone affected by a variety of cancers, including lung, pancreatic, and even brain cancers

 

Virus-Expressed Normal Human cDNA Library Cures Prostate Cancer in Mice

http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/virus-expressed-normal-human-cdna-library-cures-prostate-cancer-in-mice/81245318/

- Same news but reported in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News.

- Researchers have developed a virus-based vaccine expressing a broad spectrum of undefined antigens from normal human prostate tissue that they claim completely eradicates established mouse prostate tumors in experimental animals.

- This is a much more technical and detailed report of the findings as reported in Nature Medicine.

 

House to cut prostate drug research

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/06/18/House-to-cut-prostate-drug-research/UPI-35501308423759/?spt=hs&or=hn

- ZERO, The Project to End Prostate Cancer, says the House Appropriations Committee approved a bill that would reduce by 20 percent the Prostate Cancer Research Program, part of the Department of Defense's Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program for fiscal year 2012.

- Since 2006, funding for the program had been $80 million a year to develop new drugs, but for next year the funding would drop to $64 million, Lockwood says.