OF MICE AND MEDICINE

Normally I introduce a blog entry with a picture of Linda but, in view of our recent election, I will use this shot to illustrate that there places on earth where no one gives a fig about

 Donald Trump

Medieval armies relied on the horse.  During the Napoleonic Wars, navies relied on oak trees.  Today in the war against cancer the one indispensable creature is, of course, the mouse.  I have mentioned mice 27 times in the course of this blog.  For instance, early on I introduced you to the  “transgenic glowing reporter mouse”, and later to the “sublethally irradiated nonobese diabetic severe combined immunodeficient mouse” (poor little devil!).  I also have heard of “nude mice”, although what they are good for is a mystery to me.  There must exist huge mouse farms, devoted to breeding and genetically screwing up these miserable rodents.  I would guess that the proprietors of these diabolic (but essential) establishments have dreams wherein, having died, they report to the Pearly Gates, only to discover that St. Peter is a huge white rat with angry pink eyes and a swishing tail.

Well, in Holland right now they are killing vast quantities of “immune-deficient mice”, for the good of humanity.  Dutch investigators have determined that existing ovarian cancer (OVCA) cell lines do not do an adequate job of mimicking the effect of their drug of the moment, on high grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC).  Thus, they have taken to transferring OVCA cells to their mice from actual OVCA patients.  Results from this seemingly cruel but necessary operation they term “Patient-derived tumor xenografts” (PDXs; these guys seem uncommonly fond of acronyms).  Results so far are encouraging, both for OVCA therapy and for prediction.

This article (which is tough going) is of particular interest to me because it deals with epigenetics (which I have written about even more than about mice.)  One form of epigenetic control is to paste a methyl group (CH₃) on a segment of DNA, thereby somehow preventing the expression of a gene.  It appears that HGSOC is accompanied by a distinctive pattern of methylation, and thus can be used as a predictor.  It seems to me that this knowledge also could be used to derive a drug to reverse the effects of methylation – to scrub the DNA double helix free of the little methyl devils, so to speak.

So let’s hope that global warming and sea-level rise don’t first scrub the earth clean of these valuable Dutch labs!

 http://www.science20.com/tushar_tomar/epigenetic_predictors_of_ovarian_cancer-180648