/ l& f0 H3 Z. l! F) s$ X- M! ~0 ^) c3 \5 b. ` Astrobiologists design cancer-fighting model 8 g" y9 t, O9 r' l: gTuesday, 8 February 2011Cosmos Online http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/ne ... ight-against-cancer5 Y7 O; T1 W) m4 \ - {$ R; e" @2 j* u
A new model designed by astrobiologists should give oncologists new hope in the fight against cancers. % s" }/ B( \( m) B" lCredit: Australian National University7 ]2 y: Y* [# S9 X9 j/ o
6 A2 b7 P8 _* Q% w! x3 ?, i8 V% bCANBERRA: In an interplanetary meeting of the minds, astrobiologists and oncologists have worked together to provide new insights into the origins of the deadly cancer disease. - a( d. C f6 z' i$ c) H: P3 t9 v8 Q 3 d+ W5 r1 g9 b; W9 b$ a- d& \% W5 x9 p$ ~Working with the United States’ National Institutes of Health (NIH), a team of specialists from the two fields have come up with some important new understandings of what cancer is. ' o4 h9 @) x+ s. R% h1 F1 b' X/ L4 X8 Q* I* h' P$ T3 B& k
The new model depicts cancer as an atavism – an evolutionary throwback, according to Charles Lineweaver from the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Research School of Earth Sciences at Australian National University in Canberra, who worked with Paul Davies at Arizona State University. " _4 e& k( I. t; g5 r: O3 N! ~+ J7 \1 N4 ^ \7 B! U: L
Cancer yet to evolve into new forms2 C, y$ p) y; B. S* E: l. E
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“Unlike bacteria and viruses, cancer has not developed the capacity to evolve into new forms,” said Lineweaver.; W! L/ n0 J1 E P$ Q- }- L& H
4 C* D& B% c% U! C+ i“In fact, cancer is better understood as the reversion of cells to the way they behaved a little over one billion years ago, when humans were nothing more than loose-knit colonies of only partially differentiated cells.” " m9 o$ n+ q% J/ j# |+ `4 b! O 0 s6 k: \. M4 T1 F+ W; d“We think that the tumours that develop in cancer patients today take the same form as these simple cellular structures did more than a billion years ago,” he said of the research published in the journal Physical Biology.2 q. V4 H" q/ H2 L
1 c' F% ~: R% G0 g1 P4 m2 [Cancer going nowhere evolutionarily * G8 ?3 t+ F& @6 {8 o+ } 5 K4 |$ Z. d$ K9 h3 ~# l+ G: Y8 |Looking at life from the big picture point of view, outside the oncologists’ laboratories, reminds scientists that cancer does not invade the human body, but is in fact already built into our DNA. s6 `% p4 Q: ~7 j; _7 I
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“Our new model should give oncologists new hope,” said Lineweaver. “It suggests that cancer is a limited and ultimately predictable adversary. 3 p$ S; ]4 E" w; ?% Z 6 d4 |1 y# X/ G1 Y1 L! I7 }“Cancer is not going anywhere evolutionarily; it simply starts up in a new patient similar to the way it started in the previous one.” 6 b) m& m% e. s 0 I- q7 [; f5 L$ ~4 B! ^作者: wys7416 时间: 2011-5-23 15:09
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