Canadian Researchers Can Tell Difference between Normal and Cancer Stem Cells

[Guest guest]

McMaster University

Scientists can now differentiate between healthy cells and cancer cells

One of the current handicaps of cancer treatments is the difficulty of

aiming these treatments at destroying malignant cells without killing

healthy cells in the process. But a new study by McMaster University

researchers has provided insight into how scientists might develop

therapies and drugs that more carefully target cancer, while sparing

normal healthy cells

Mick Bhatia, scientific director of the McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer

Research Institute in the G. DeGroote School of Medicine, and

his team of investigators have demonstrated – for the first time – the

difference between normal stem cells and cancer stem cells in humans.

The discovery, published in the prestigious journal Nature

Biotechnology today, could eventually help with the further

customization and targeting of cancer treatments for the individual

patient. It will immediately provide a model to discover drugs using

robotic screening for available molecules that may have untapped

potential to eradicate cancer.

" Normal stem cells and cancer stem cells are hard to tell apart, and

many have misconstrued really good stem cells for cancer stem cells

that have gone bad - we now can tell the ones masquerading as normal

stem cells from the bad, cancerous ones, " said Bhatia.

" This also allows us to compare normal versus cancer stem cells from

humans in the laboratory - define the differences in terms of genes

they express and drugs they respond to. Essentially, we can now use

this to find the " magic bullet " , a drug or set of drugs that kill

cancer stem cells first, and spare the normal healthy ones, " he said.

" McMaster is uniquely positioned for this discovery platform, and this

was the missing ingredient - we have one of the best screening/robotic

platforms, chemical libraries and expertise in professors Brown

and Gerry , who have discovered molecules to combat infectious

disease. Now we can combine it all. This team now aims to kill cancer. "

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This work is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the

Canadian Cancer Society; the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and

the National Cancer Institute of Canada.