Scientists Find Cancer-Destroying Protein

By Amy Coopes (AFP) – Oct 31, 2010

SYDNEY:- Australian and British scientists have uncovered a "death" protein that destroys rogue cells in what could be breakthrough for the fight against cancer, malaria and diabetes, researchers said Monday.

The protein, perforin, targets wayward cells and punches a hole in their membranes to let in killer enzymes, project leader James Whisstock said, adding the discovery "answers a really fundamental mystery of immunity".

"Perforin is our body's weapon of cleansing and death," said Whisstock, from Australia's Monash University.

"It breaks into cells that have been hijacked by viruses or turned into cancer cells and allows toxic enzymes in, to destroy the cell from within," he said. "Without it, our immune system can't destroy these cells."

High-powered microscopes in Australia and at London's Birkbeck College had allowed scientists to examine perforin's structure and function, Whisstock said, revealing a "powerful molecule" that targets malignant or infected cells.

Without perforin -- released by "killer" cells designed to destroy harmful invaders -- the body was unable to fight infections. Studies with mice had linked defective perforin to leukaemia and heightened cell malignancy.

The discovery also had implications for autoimmune diseases such as juvenile type 1 diabetes and for transplant patients, with the protein linked to both the elimination of healthy cells and tissue rejection, added Whisstock.

"Now we know how it works, we can start to fine-tune it to fight cancer, malaria and diabetes," Whisstock said.

Fellow researcher Joe Trapani said the 10-year study found that perforin's structure was similar to bacterial toxins like anthrax and listeria, suggesting that the human body had learned its tactics from diseases themselves.

"Quite remarkably that mechanism is conserved all the way back to bacteria... we've actually pinched it off bacteria at some point (in human evolution) and turned it back against them," said Trapani, from Melbourne's Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

"It's a war conducted between our immune system and bacteria and we're actually fighting using similar weapons," he told AFP, explaining that it was two billion year old blueprint.

Trapani said the discovery had exciting and diverse applications ranging from "stuff in third-world countries with the malaria all the way through to more Western-style medicine with transplantation and so on."

Whisstock said researchers were looking for ways to inhibit and boost perforin and use it to "deliver toxic cargoes into cells by choice", hoping to pave the way for new drugs.

"I have worked on this for a long time and it answers a really fundamental mystery of immunity," Whisstock told ABC radio.

"So I think just from a fundamental science perspective, I think it is really, really important and it is actually also a really cool story."

New Hope For Late Stage Cancer Patients

There is a new hope for cancer patients in Malaysia.

A vaccine widely known for treating late-stage cancer - almost all types of cancer, except leukemia - is now available in the country.

The Human Initiated Therapeutic Vaccine (HITV), which was only available in Japan previously, is able to completely destroy microscopic and tiny nests of cancer cells, thus preventing any future recurrences.
Discovered in 2005 by Dr Kenichiro Hasumi, a Japanese physician and researcher, HITV is an autologus (patient derived) active cell-based immunotherapy for metastatic or late-stage cancer patients.It is based on immunology that harnesses human immune system’s innate and adaptive ability to combat diseases.

Dr Hasumi, founder and chairman of Hasumi International Research Foundation in the United States, has dedicated more than 40 years of his life to find a cure to cancer.
Speaking at a media conference today, Dr Hasumi said the therapy was highly effective for patients suffering from late-stage cancer, when used in combination with radiotherapy.
“The use of tomotherapy (a type of radiation therapy) is important in this protocol. It can target the tumors precisely in one sweep, while reducing the radiation exposure to the surrounding tissues,” he said.
The treatment includes harvesting immune cells from the patient, culturing them in the laboratory to become immature dentritic cells, and then re-introducing them into the patient’s body, through injection into the tumor.HITV course takes about three weeks, with 10 days of actual treatment. Patients will have to be examined with PET-CT scan after the treatment periodically, to monitor the tumors for regression.Five out of nine patients show complete response
While the treatment was only available in Japan, nine Malaysians suffering late stage of various types of cancer have decided to give it a try. Five of them have shown complete response.
They include Goh Sai Wah, 58, a non-smoker who was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer with extensive spread to the spine and bone in May, last year.
She underwent the HITV therapy in Japan on Oct 30, last year and in her follow-up check, six weeks later, almost all cancer cells had disappeared.

Now, 365 days later, and counting, she is very much alive and well.
Dr Hasumi said since late stage cancer was a very difficult stage to cure, he hoped that in future, there would be innovations to cure cancer in the early stages.

HITV therapy costs about RM200,000, if patients decide to have it in Japan.

In Malaysia, it will cost about RM150,000.
The therapy is now available at the Mahameru International Medical Centre but medical practitioners are trying their very best to introduce HITV to all hospitals in the Klang Valley, in an effort to give late-stage cancer patients a new hope in life.

Read more about it here: Anti-cancer application (thestar.com.my dated 23 October 2011)