F.D.A. Panel Recommends Approval for Gene-Altering Leukemia Treatment

[awakening]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/health/fda-novartis-leukemia-gene-medicine.html

Interesting to learn that scientists actually used HIV and it's ability to penetrate T-cells to act as a vehicle for this cancer cure. Now if there could be a way to harness HIV to destroy itself...

[OneTampa]

The Cancer and HIV/AIDS Treatment connection goes back decades to the AZT drug.



Links:

--AZT Was Designed As An Anti-Cancer Drug

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-09-20/news/8602250885_1_azt-genetic-strand-aids-virus

--Remembering the Original AZT Trial

https://www.poz.com/blog/-v-behaviorurldefaul

[awakening]

It's truly a sign in the progress of understanding HIV and retroviruses when we can harness what makes them so insidious and use them for good.

The treatment requires removing millions of a patient’s T-cells — a type of white blood cell often called soldiers of the immune system — and genetically engineering them to kill cancer cells. The technique employs a disabled form of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, to carry new genetic material into the T-cells to reprogram them. The process turbocharges the T-cells to attack B-cells, a normal part of the immune system that turn malignant in leukemia. The T-cells home in on a protein called CD-19 that is found on the surface of most B-cells.

The altered T-cells are then dripped back into the patient’s veins, where they multiply and start fighting the cancer.

[OneTampa]

Also in the news:

http://www.businessinsider.com/video-cancer-spreading-in-mice-help-scientists-detect-earlier-humans-2017-7?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=aol