Cancer Cure May Be in Malaria and Unknowingly Discovered
Have you ever imagined discovering a cure for a virtually “unintentional” disease? That's what happened to a team of researchers from Denmark: While trying to find a solution to malaria in pregnant women, they may have discovered a cure for cancer!
But calm down, let's go in stages - after all, you can't guarantee anything for now. Malaria is a disease that attacks the placenta of pregnant women and this poses a great risk to mom and baby. Thus, tests were made with a disease protein to protect pregnant women.
Scientists tried combining this protein with a malaria vaccine and found that in addition to annihilating the disease, they could also kill cancer cells.
Placenta and tumor: similar behavior
The researchers explained that roughly one tumor and one placenta have similar behaviors in the human body: both grow rapidly from a few cells. Because of this, some studies try to explore this similarity.
The recent finding, made only in mice, shows that the protein used in the tests interacts only with carbohydrates that are equal in both placenta and cancer cells. Therefore, theoretically, it would be possible to annihilate the tumor.
Human testing is expected to begin within four years, but it is still possible that undiagnosed side effects may appear in mice. So far, however, the results are very promising and may open the door for further studies to improve this technique.
The news of this finding was published in the journal Cancer Cell this week, just in the month that there is worldwide awareness about the risks of breast cancer - and that ends up generating huge interest in innovations in this area. Let's hope that in the next decade we can report that cancer has been definitely wiped out of the earth.
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What did you think of this discovery? Do you believe the world is really moving towards finding a cure for cancer?
