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Researchers: A kill cancer code is embedded in every cell

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structure of an animal cell/royroydeb (CC BY-SA 4.0)

From ScienceDaily:

A kill code is embedded in every cell in the body whose function may be to cause the self-destruction of cells that become cancerous, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study. As soon as the cell’s inner bodyguards sense it is mutating into cancer, they punch in the kill code to extinguish the mutating cell.

The code is embedded in large protein-coding ribonucleic acids (RNAs) and in small RNAs, called microRNAs, which scientists estimate evolved more than 800 million years ago in part to protect the body from cancer. The toxic small RNA molecules also are triggered by chemotherapy, Northwestern scientists report.

Cancer can’t adapt or become resistant to the toxic RNAs, making it a potentially bulletproof treatment if the kill code can be synthetically duplicated. The inability of cancer cells to develop resistance to the molecules is a first, the scientists said.

“Now that we know the kill code, we can trigger the mechanism without having to use chemotherapy and without messing with the genome. We can use these small RNAs directly, introduce them into cells and trigger the kill switch,” said lead author Marcus E. Peter, the Tomas D. Spies Professor of Cancer Metabolism at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.More.

Research now focuses on why it doesn’t always work and how to fix it in those cases.

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See also: Cell behavior can show “purposeful inefficiency”? What next?

and

Do cells use passwords?

Comments
A system based on accumulating errors created a mechanism for detecting and getting rid of errors.geoffrobinson
November 2, 2018
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This could be great news. And to think that evolution evolved the capacity to kill off the best replicators.Mung
November 1, 2018
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" which scientists estimate evolved more than 800 million years ago" An assertion and speculation. Maybe the words of scientists, but certainly not a scientific statement. "which a taxi driver told me recently evolved more than 800 million years ago" "which an airline pilot told me recently evolved more than 800 million years ago" "which a plumber told me recently evolved more than 800 million years ago" "which a high school teenager told me recently evolved more than 800 million years ago" "which I assert and speculate was designed in from the beginning, however long ago that might be"ayearningforpublius
November 1, 2018
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This is amazing for every one, Furthermore the implications for intelligent design is also incredible I kill switch that is 800 million years old! But if this all works out, which I pray it does, cancer might become a thing of the past !!!AaronS1978
October 31, 2018
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Let's hope they seriously focus in on getting to the real stuff instead of wasting precious time trying to figure out how this whole mechanism appeared through RV+NS.PaoloV
October 31, 2018
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I'll take Cancer Biology for $100 Alex. Alex: This kill switch is in every cell. Latemarch: What is apoptosis.
Cancer can’t adapt or become resistant to the toxic RNAs, making it a potentially bulletproof treatment if the kill code can be synthetically duplicated.
The holy grail of cancer treatment. Notice the big IF.Latemarch
October 31, 2018
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