UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, April 2, 1996
7A
Cancer vaccine tests may begin
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A vaccine from genetically-engineered cells eradicates tumors in laboratory rats and may be ready for testing on a vicious kind of human brain cancer by this summer, researchers say.
Habib Fakhrai, a cancer scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the vaccine has the effect of removing a biological disguise from cancer cells, thus turning them into targets that are tracked down and killed by the body's own immune system.
Cancers of the brain, breast, lung, colon and prostate all secrete a substance called transforming growth factor-beta, or TGF-B, which suppresses the immune system and protects the cancer, Fakhral said.
Fakhrai is the lead author of a study that will be published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"TFG-B cloaks the cancer cells so they are not recognized by the immune system," said Fakhrai.
“TFG-beta
TFG-beta cloaks the cancer cells so they are not recognized by the immune system."
Habib Fakhral
Cancer scientist
To alert the immune system to the presence of cancer, the UCLA researchers developed a way to prevent tumor cells from making TGF-B.
Using rats with brain cancer, the scientists removed cancer cells and purified the DNA in the tumor. They then made a DNA protein that blocks the genetic process, which leads to secretion of TGF-B.
"We actually created molecules that attach to precursors of TGF-B and instructed them to stop working," said Fakhral.
The new molecules then were used to inoculate a group of rats with cancer. Another group of rats with cancer received only placebo shots.
Among the rats receiving the anti-TGF-B vaccinations, 100 percent survived for the 12 weeks of the experiment, and the cancers were destroyed by the animals' immune system cells. The control rats, which received only the placebo, all died swiftly.
Fakhri said the technique has been approved for human experimentation by a committee at the National Institutes of Health and is now awaiting action by the Food and Drug Administration. Once approved, Fakhri said UCLA researchers plan to offer the experimental therapy to patients with glioblastoma, an invariably fatal brain cancer.
"We hope to be using this vaccine in humans by this summer," said Keith Black, a UCLA neurosurgeon
and a co-author of the study.
"This may prolong the lives of patients with brain cancer," she said. "It may not be a cure, but it could be a significant step forward for these patients."
Carol Kruse, a cancer researcher at the University of Colorado Health Center, said the UCLA cancer vaccine was impressive and may offer real hope for a now lethal cancer.
After the first experiment, the vaccinated rats were injected with 100,000 brain cancer cells, about 20 times the dose that routinely kills laboratory rats. The inoculated rats were not affected, said Fakhrai.
"It seems that once the animals immunity is boosted, they hold onto that benefit and remain immune to the cancer," said Fakhari.
First human trials of the cancer vaccine will be in brain cancer patients with a very poor prognosis. If the vaccine works, said Fakhral, then it may be tried later for other types of cancer that also secrete TGF-B.
Britain seeks to corral mad cows
15,000 animals a week for 6 years would be killed according to plan
The Associated Press
LUXEMBOURG — Britain offered yesterday to destroy 15,000 cows a week for six years to try to calm fears of mad-cow disease. Other European nations said they would help pay for the killings, but refused to lift a ban on British beef exports.
Farm ministers from the 15 European Union nations met in emergency session to seek ways to calm consumer fears that have sent European beef and veal sales plunging.
British Agriculture Minister Douglas Hogg said his government would ensure that dairy cows older than 30 months would be "removed from the food chain" when they can no longer give milk. He said Britain would consider a selective cull of other cattle judged most at risk.
Other nations said the measures were not far-reaching enough for them to meet London's request for an immediate lifting of the worldwide ban on British beef exports imposed by the union last week.
"The embargo should be lifted only when we have absolute guarantees the risk is over," French Agriculture Minister Philippe Vasseur told reporters. Dutch minister Josias van Aartsen said it would be at least six weeks before the ban was lifted.
Britain's European Union partners
indicated they would help cover the huge cost of slaughtering and incinerating animals and compensating farmers. Hogg appealed for the union to pick up 80 percent of the tab, with the British government making up the rest.
"That's up for discussion," Vasseur said. "The cost of these measures is too much for any member state to support; we have to stand together."
The meeting was expected to continue late into the night as the ministers grappled with the details of the British plan.
But Spanish Farm Minister Luis Atienza said no decisions were likely until after the proposals were studied by experts from the union's veterinary committee, which will meet today in Brussels, Belgium.
cation of the disease and the risk to our consumers' health," Atienza told reporters.
"We have to make sure that the measures we take ensure the eradi-
The health scare flared across the continent March 20 when the British government acknowledged there may be a link between mad-cow disease and the equally incurable Creutzfeldt-Jakob brain disease in humans. Previously, the British government had denied any link.
The announcement sent beef sales crashing, first in Britain, then across Europe as consumers worried that their herds may have been infected by British cattle. A small number of mad-cow cases has been detected in other European Union nations.
Beef sales were reported recovering slightly in Britain as supermarkets slashed prices, and the government sought to reassure nervous consumers.
Columbia Mt. Oread Medical Arts Centre
Run for Health Care Access
Saturday, April 13
10K and 2 mile runs
2mile fitness walk
For more information call 842-1221
http://www.lawrence.com/oread 10K
COLUMBIA Mt. Oread Medical Arts Centre
WASHINGTON ACCEPTS NR
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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The University Daily Kansan is accepting applications for the positions of
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National recognition doesn't come to those who wait around.
for the Summer and Fall 1996 semesters.
Applications may be picked up at The Kansan Business Office, 119 Stauffer-Flint or in the Dean's office, 200 Stauffer-Flint. Deadline for Business Manager application submission is Tuesday, April 9 at 12:00 p.m. Deadline for Editor application submission is Wednesday, April 10 at 12:00 p.m.
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