Cure for cancer on the horizon?

[Fez Hammersticks]

It may be one of nature's repulsive little blood-sucking parasites, but the humble tick could yield a future cure for cancers of the skin, liver and pancreas, Brazilian researchers have discovered.

They have identified a protein in the saliva of a common South American tick, Amblyomma cajennense, that apparently reduces and can even eradicate cancerous cells while leaving healthy cells alone.

"The component of the saliva of this tick... could be the cure for cancer," she told AFP.

She said she stumbled on the properties of the protein, called Factor X active, while testing the anti-coagulant properties of the tick's saliva -- the way it stops blood thickening and clotting so the tick can keep gorging itself on its host.

The protein shares some characteristics with a common anti-coagulant called TFPI (Tissue Factor Pathway Inhibitor), specifically a Kunitz-type inhibitor which also has been shown to interfere with cell growth.

LINK​

 

[SheedSoNasty]

That would be a real blessing if it works out. Here's hoping for the best.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Really interesting.

 

[BrianFromWA]

Here's hoping PETA doesn't find out ticks were tortured for their saliva.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Here's hoping PETA doesn't find out ticks were tortured for their saliva.

Clever. Very clever.

Sadly, how very true.

 

[Shooter]

This kind of stuff always amazes me. Who would ever think to do research on tick saliva?

 

[barfo]

This kind of stuff always amazes me. Who would ever think to do research on tick saliva?

Oh, don't act like you were never tempted. Every guy wants to play with tick saliva at some point.

barfo

 

[julius]

Here's hoping PETA doesn't find out ticks were tortured for their saliva.

The only PETA I like is Peta Bread.

 

[julius]

The only PETA I like is Peta Bread.

Crap, now I'm hungry. Way to go, ass face.

 

[rocketeer]

This kind of stuff always amazes me. Who would ever think to do research on tick saliva?

i would guess they were doing research to test its anti-coagulant properties.

 

[ebott]

Oh, don't act like you were never tempted. Every guy wants to play with tick saliva at some point.

barfo

Ok, I did, but it was just one time. It was college and I was drunk.

 

[BlazerWookee]

Here's hoping PETA doesn't find out ticks were tortured for their saliva.

They weren't tortured. They were waterboarded. Big difference.

 

[cloudydays]

The only PETA I like is Peta Bread.

one of the best places to eat in Corvallis is the Pita Pit. I HIGHLY recommend it for anyone who happens to be in the town...

 

[crandc]

This kind of stuff always amazes me. Who would ever think to do research on tick saliva?

Scientists who know that evolution gives strange results. The people whom idiots like Rush Limbaugh laugh at. The people who fight for funding when short sighted Bill O'Reilly calls it ridiculous and says who the hell cares about tick saliva?

 

[speeds]

Did anyone learn anything from I Am Legend? A cure for cancer will cause humans to turn into super-strong, hairless vampires. Duh.

 

[yakbladder]

Did anyone learn anything from I Am Legend? A cure for cancer will cause humans to turn into super-strong, hairless vampires. Duh.

I learned that they can really butcher an original movie that was only semi-decent to begin with.

 

[speeds]

I learned that they can really butcher an original movie that was only semi-decent to begin with.

Which one, Omega Man, I Am Omega, or The Last Man on Earth? The franchise has had four shitty iterations.

 

[yakbladder]

Which one, Omega Man, I Am Omega, or The Last Man on Earth? The franchise has had four shitty iterations.

Omega Man..never actually seen (or ever heard of) the others...

 

[speeds]

Omega Man..never actually seen (or ever heard of) the others...

Last Man had Vincent Price. It's super campy but very true to the Matheson novel. The other is a b-horror with Mark Dacascos and is thoroughly awful.

 

[rocketeer]

Scientists who know that evolution gives strange results. The people whom idiots like Rush Limbaugh laugh at. The people who fight for funding when short sighted Bill O'Reilly calls it ridiculous and says who the hell cares about tick saliva?

it's ridiculous to suggest that they were just testing all sorts of random things because "evolution gives strange results". it's perfectly reasonable for them to be testing tick saliva to see if it could help with things like blood clots.

 

[Eastoff]

This kind of stuff always amazes me. Who would ever think to do research on tick saliva?

[video=youtube;HCXqKEs68Xk]"]

 

[mobes23]

None of this is that uncommon. Transmolecular Corp. used radioactive scorpion venom as a cancer therapy. I remember a company in Utah called Cognetix that made several drugs derived from sea snails and I know of another company that uses a chemotoxin derived from a sea slug. There are some crazy cool molecules in nature (and editorially, this is one of the reasons that biodiversity is important.)

 

[Idog1976]

/Sarcasm

Quick wipe out all of these ticks! We're on a mission from god/evolution to wipe out all life on Earth! Look just because we're heading toward a brick wall at 150mph is no reason to hit the brakes, maybe god WANTS us to smash into that wall...

/Sarcasm

This is precisely why I think it's a pretty big freaking deal that we are wiping out species left and right. This is a profound example of why, even from a purely human centric viewpoint, we need to quit annihilating healthy ecosystems because they can yield medicines for us.

DNA is the rarest thing in the Universe that we know of. We have great diversity here on Earth, but are wiping out species for ever. If we don't wise up soon, even if we somehow survive and get off the planet, we will greatly regret the loss of this vast DNA ecyclopedia and all it's potential biotech applications. It's just plain idiocy to waste this incredible resource. We know there are most minerals out in the asteroid fields, water too can be found off planet, gases such as oxygen exist in frozen and gaseous forms. However, thus far in all our exploration of the cosmos we have found life nowhere else. It's madness to continue to wipe it out down here so we can have our big macs and early death by heart attack.

 

[Idog1976]

Here's hoping PETA doesn't find out ticks were tortured for their saliva.

PETA is a loathsome organization. While I feel there is some merit to rights for animals and that factory farming is inhumane and dangerous to us due to being a virus/bacteria breeding ground, I think PETA is a proto-facist organization. The founder is just plain nuts and they represent the worst sort of ideological mindset that uses ends justifies means mentality.

I'm a staunch environmentalist but PETA is a ship of fools at best and a breeding ground for the kind of lefties that actually DO behave like Nazi's.

 

[Mediocre Man]

In before the Obama administration takes credit for this.


In all seriousness, this is great news. I always find this stuff fascinating.

 

[mobes23]

In all seriousness, this is great news. I always find this studd fascinating.

Uh, Mediocre Man, was that just a typo or was that a freudian slip that you find studs fascinating?

 

[Mediocre Man]

Uh, Mediocre Man, was that just a typo or was that a freudian slip that you find studs fascinating?

Maybe both. I mean those wood studs are amazing, how they hold up houses and all.

 

[barfo]

Uh, Mediocre Man, was that just a typo or was that a freudian slip that you find studs fascinating?

Mediocre Man and Secretariat, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g...

barfo