Word: tgf
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Black is also working on an entirely different experiment for treating tumors. Cooperating with molecular biologist Habib Fakhrai, he is trying to enlist the patient's own immune system to attack brain cancers. Tumor cells produce a substance called TGF-beta (transforming growth factor-beta) that both fuels their own growth and tricks the immune system into ignoring their presence. Using genetic engineering, Fakhrai has come up with a genetic "switch," called TGF-beta antisense. When inserted into a tumor cell's genetic machinery, the antisense turns off the cell's ability to produce TGF-beta. Injected into patients, these...
Black now wants to turbocharge TGF-beta gene therapy with dendritic cells, white blood cells that identify foreign proteins for destruction. He proposes to harvest dendritic cells from a patient's blood, expose them to cancer proteins in a test tube and reinject them. The cells would then point out the now familiar proteins to the immune system's killer T cells, which would track them down like bloodhounds that have been exposed to an escaped convict's dirty laundry. "We can completely eradicate glioblastomas in rats using this strategy," says Black. "We want to get these treatments out into...
...reason for such urgency is that no matter how carefully a surgeon cuts out a malignant tumor, the few stray cancer cells that are inevitably left behind will begin to grow again. TGF-beta and dendritic cells, or any one of a dozen other treatments under investigation by Black and others, could lead to the true cure for brain cancer that is Black's long-term goal...
Armed with such powerful weaponry to kill the main body of the enemy, and backed up by new therapies like TGF-beta antisense to hunt down straggler cells, Black believes the audacious course he set for himself in medical school may be attainable. Along with other top neurosurgeons, he may yet find a way to defeat--not just hold off--malignant brain tumors...