Healer cells engineered to attack cancer
HOUSTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Texas researchers have created a system to deliver anti-cancer treatments directly to a tumor without hurting surrounding tissue.
The new technique uses the cells that naturally help heal injuries. When the body is wounded it signals mesenchymal stem cells. These cells migrate to the damaged areas, surround them, and morph into the types of cells needed to repair the wound.
Tumors also send signals to these cells but they use them to build connective tissue that structurally supports and nurtures the tumor's growth.
Researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center isolated and cultured mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow. They then introduced a gene that fights cancer into the cells and fed the engineered cells back into the body via intravenous injection. The cells imbed themselves into the tumor and activated the therapeutic gene, attacking the tumor.
The therapy could potentially treat cancer no matter where it has spread.
The study is published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. HEADER:Filter removes mad cow agent from blood
EAST HILLS, N.Y., Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A U.S. filtration manufacturer said it has developed a new filter that removes from blood the infectious agent that causes human mad cow disease.
In a study conducted in Europe, filtration technology produced by Pall Corp. reduced prions in known infected blood samples below detectable levels, the company reported at the recent annual meeting of the AABB, formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks.
Prions are thought to cause a fatal, brain illness known as variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, which humans can contract from consuming beef products contaminated with the mad cow prion.
Concerns about transmission by infected blood were heightened recently by two cases in England where individuals had evidence of vCJD infection that appeared to be linked to blood transfusions. There is no screening test to detect the mad cow or vCJD prion in blood.
Pall said it expects to launch the filtration technology, known as the Leukotrap Affinity Prion Reduction Filter, in Europe in 2005 and will file for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the same year.
The company also is looking into whether the technology could be used to screen cattle for mad cow infection.
Pink locusts swarm Cyprus
NICOSIA, Cyprus, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Cyprus has launched all-out war against millions of pink locusts swarming the island for the first time in nearly 100 years, The Times of London reported.
Similar locusts devastated crops across West Africa in recent months, and clouds of them have also been reported recently in Lebanon.
To protect potato and other crops, Cypriot authorities have begun spraying open areas and offering free EU-approved pesticides to residents. Greenhouses were sealed, and farmers were cautioned against spraying near beehives or flowers.
They look like a "cross between a jumbo shrimp and a grasshopper", one British resident told the newspaper.
Experts believe the swarm spread on winds from North Africa, attracted by unseasonably hot weather and heavy rain. It was 84 degrees Tuesday on the western coast of Cyprus, where the locusts were first seen Sunday.
However, not everyone was unhappy with this week's infestation.
"The outbreak is a potential bonanza for the birds," said Martin Hellicar of BirdLife Cyprus. HEADER:Avian flu found in dead Hong Kong heron
HONG KONG, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Chinese officials confirmed Wednesday a dead heron found at the Hong Kong border had the deadly H5N1 avian flu, the Kyodo agency reported.
The gray heron was found by a railway worker and handed over to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department testing.
"The fact that a bird is found with the virus means there could be bird flu within the area within a 12-mile radius," said Guan Ye, a microbiology professor at Hong Kong University.
It had not been confirmed if the flu was the cause of the heron's death, and no sign of the virus was found at nearby chicken farms.
Also a mystery was where the bird came from, as herons are migratory.
Seven people who came into close contact with the bird were also tested and showed no signs of the virus.
It is the second time a bird tested positive for bird flu in Hong Kong this year. The first was a peregrine falcon found dead in a rural area in January.
Since the beginning of the year, bird flu has killed 32 people in Thailand and Vietnam, as well as millions of chickens and other birds.
