Scorpion venom targets cancer cells
Scorpion venom targets cancer cells
2008-10-03Newsfeed
A new treatment for cancer being tested in the US has a sting in the tail - radioactive venom from the scorpion Leiurus quinquestriatus.
A new treatment for cancer being tested in the US has a sting in the tail - radioactive venom from the scorpion Leiurus quinquestriatus.
Its cocktail of neurotoxins includes a peptide that binds to tumour cells in breast, skin, brain and lung tissue while leaving healthy cells untouched.
Researchers at TransMolecular in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, have now attached radioactive iodine to the peptide. The aim is to see if it can be used to deliver killer doses of radioactivity to cancers.
In a trial last year, scientists injected the agent, named TM601, directly into the tumours of 59 people with inoperable brain cancer, New Scientist magazine reports.
All the patients have since died, but those receiving a higher dose lived an average of three months longer.
Recently, researchers at the University of Chicago have started giving the treatment to patients with different types of malignant brain cancer.
"The latest trial will allow the company to test whether TM601 can seek out and kill secondary tumours throughout the body, as well as known primary ones," says New Scientist.
Copyright © The Press Association 2008
