Monday, July 15, 2019

A NEW WEAPON


Linda on top of the world

Many years ago I remember travelling through Hershey, PA, with my whole family.  I remember absolutely nothing about that trip – except the overwhelmingly chocolate odor of Hershey, and fields nearby.  I don’t know how anyone could have lived there – and got anything useful done.  Probably they have somehow scrubbed the gaseous chocolate by now, more’s the pity.  At any rate, very serious work goes on in Hersey, in the form of medical research – some of Penn State’s health labs are located there.  And they have churned out some very promising information about ovarian cancer.

It appears that there is a protein – isocitrate dehydrogenase 1, if you must know -  that is essential for division, and hence multiplication, of cancer cells.  Without it, cells enter a state of “senescence” – that is, they go to sleep and, we hope, never wake up!

  There is a drug already in existence that promotes this happy state.  The young folk at the Hershey lab are hot on its trail.  May their efforts be blessed!

https://news.psu.edu/story/580398/2019/07/11/research/targeting-key-protein-may-keep-ovarian-cancer-cells-spreading









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