"Treatment of cancer with disease": a new trick to kill cancer cells with Plasmodium
Release date: 2018-04-25
Killing cancer cells with Plasmodium
Researcher Chen Xiaoping "opens another window of cancer treatment with disease and disease"
In the storage room of a laboratory on the 2nd floor of the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, there are more than 10 liquid nitrogen tanks with half a person high. There are rows of tube racks in the tank, and each tube "sleeps" with thousands of malaria parasites that the average person can't avoid. Chen Xiaoping, a researcher at the Guangzhou Institute of Biological Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said with a smile that he has been dealing with malaria parasites for more than 30 years. He has been studying and observing malaria parasites every day. He has already seen "feelings."
The relationship with the malaria parasite dates back to an epidemiological class more than 30 years ago. At that time, "Aura of Light" made Chen Xiaoping spend more than 30 years exploring the "confrontation" relationship between Plasmodium and cancer.
From clinicians to disease control physicians to basic scientific researchers, Chen Xiaoping finally unveiled the puzzle of “drug attack†and found the mechanism and method of treating cancer using Plasmodium.
Abandoning medical research: doing basic research to save people from the source
In 1980, Chen Xiaoping became an infectious doctor after graduating from the Clinical Medicine Department of Guangdong Medical University. In the hospital, he is exposed to a variety of infectious patients every day, the most common of which are hepatitis patients. Looking at these patients from hepatitis to cirrhosis, and then to liver cancer, the disease gradually increased but there is no effective treatment, the young Chen Xiaoping mentally suffered a huge impact. “A medical graduate with confidence and enthusiasm, with a desire to save lives, has found that many diseases cannot be solved medically.†Chen Xiaoping recalls the past and faces the reality. At that time, he determined that “we need More basic research, find the pathogenesis of diseases such as cancer, and then find new treatment methods based on the pathogenesis, in order to save the lives of patients from the source."
With this in mind, after five years as a clinician, Chen Xiaoping took a postgraduate degree in infectious diseases from Zhongshan Medical University and moved from clinical to more basic pathological research.
In 1988, after graduating from graduate school, he went to the Guangzhou Municipal Health and Epidemic Prevention Station (later renamed Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention). Since then, he has completed a Ph.D. in pathogenic biology at Zhongshan Medical University, and has served as director of the Department of Microbiology and Director of the AIDS Research Office at the Center for Disease Control. In 2004, the Guangzhou Institute of Biological Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was formally established, recruiting researchers from all over the world. Chen Xiaoping soon joined and became the first researcher of the institute.
Concentrated research: 30 years of exploration in the classroom
Chen Xiaoping, who is trying to save the sick from the source, went to Zhongshan Medical University. What he didn't expect was that the "inspiration" that was unexpectedly obtained in a class opened up the research and exploration process for more than 30 years.
In an epidemiological class, the teacher hangs a global map of malaria, which shows that malaria is concentrated in mosquito-intensive tropical regions such as Africa. After a few weeks, in the oncology epidemiology class, the teacher hang another tumor map. Chen Xiaoping's brain flashed a glimmer of light, faintly feeling "Where there is more malaria, where the mortality rate of the tumor is low." Will cancer patients get better if they get malaria?
With this "flash", Chen Xiaoping began to pay attention to the relevant data of epidemiology. After joining the Guangzhou Institute of Biological Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2004, Chen Xiaoping began systematically demonstrating the relationship between malaria and cancer.
Together with his Ph.D. students and research assistants, Chen Xiaoping collected data on malaria incidence and cancer mortality worldwide from 1955 to 2008, and worked with a Harvard professor of statistics to build mathematical models for global use. Epidemiological analysis. It was eventually found that there was a significant negative correlation between the incidence of malaria and tumor mortality.
At the same time, Chen Xiaoping began a series of experiments to find the relationship between the incidence of malaria and the mortality of a single tumor. Mouse experiments have shown that Plasmodium infection significantly prolongs the lifespan of solid tumor-bearing mice such as lung cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer.
After more than 10 years of research, the team of Chen Xiaoping discovered the mechanism behind this phenomenon. In the case of mice, after cancer mice are infected with Plasmodium, their immune cells, such as NK cells and T cells, are activated, and these immune cells activate tumor cells after activation. At the same time, "four major diamond cells" (regulatory T cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, cancer-associated fibroblasts, tumor-associated macrophages) that inhibit anti-tumor immune responses in tumor tissues will also Inhibited by Plasmodium infection, it liberates the immunosuppressive microenvironment in tumor tissues and promotes the entry of T cells into the tumor, thereby effectively killing tumor cells. The analogy is that the tumor releases a series of signals that hypnotize the immune system, and the Plasmodium infection strongly awakens and activates the immune system, allowing the immune system to recognize and kill the tumor.
First seen results: treatment of lung cancer patients to study cancer vaccine
In 2016, the research team of Chen Xiaoping and the team of Academician Zhong Nanshan, after obtaining the consent of the patients and their families, used the Plasmodium treatment method for three patients with advanced lung cancer. Two of them had significant efficacy and one was ineffective. One of the treatments was quite surprising: his metastatic lesions in the neck disappeared, and the primary lung lesions changed from the original "crab-like" to "plaque-like", which was subsequently removed by minimally invasive surgery. Lump. Later, Chen Xiaoping team cooperated with Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital to extend the therapy to the treatment of other solid tumors.
Chen Xiaoping said that a total of 10 patients have received treatment, and some patients have achieved remarkable results. Two of them are quite significant, but they still have to be verified in a few years. After that, a large number of clinical samples are accumulated to judge the efficacy. But he believes that this therapy can help more patients in the future.
Right now, genetic modification is another "big thing" that Chen Xiaoping has to do. The Chen Xiaoping team has mastered the gene editing technology of Plasmodium. By editing the Plasmodium gene, it has developed a safe new cancer vaccine and targeted different tumor cells. At present, it has applied for a series of patents.
Talking about the focus and future of the work, Chen Xiaoping said that his current work focuses on clinical trials, and he also needs to focus on cultivating young people. He hopes that the future can really pass the malaria parasite and open another cancer treatment. Fan window.
Innovation testimonials
"The innovation environment is divided into two aspects: the external environment and the internal environment. Now the country's innovation environment is very good, new innovation policies and new mechanisms are introduced, and scientists are allowed to run enterprises. These have created many favorable conditions for scientists.
But I think the internal environment is more important. Innovation is not tinkering, but first identifying a goal, adjusting it in the process of continuous trial and error, and finding a new direction.
Whether as a doctor or a scientist, I believe that the ultimate goal of life sciences is to escort human beings. If this goal is achieved, it is the highest honor. â€
Chen Xiaoping
He graduated from Guangdong Medical University with a major in clinical medicine in 1980. He graduated from Zhongshan Medical University with a master's degree in infectious diseases and a doctorate in pathogenic biology. He is currently a researcher at the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a national key laboratory for respiratory diseases. Responsible person, doctoral tutor and post-doctoral coordinator.
The main research project: the mechanism of plasma exosomes inhibiting angiogenesis of lung cancer in mice infected with Plasmodium; the exploratory study on the treatment of liver tumors by pre-erythrocytic infection of erythrocytes; the conditional knockout of essential genes in red in the double regulation system to construct malaria Study on the live attenuated double-stage live vaccine of protozoa.
research direction
Plasmodium biology
Interaction and Mechanism of Plasmodium and Cancer
"Killing disease" needs to overcome ethical issues
Chen Xiaoping told reporters that there is a precedent for the use of malaria parasites for the treatment of human diseases. But from animal experiments to patients, in addition to a large number of experiments, there are ethical issues.
Chen Xiaoping said that the risks and ethical problems that may arise from "taking disease and disease" and "attacking with poison" are as follows: First, let patients infect benign Plasmodium vivax, and closely monitor the rate of red blood cell infection. The level of infection should be maintained below two-thousandths of a percent, that is, no more than two of the 1000 red blood cells should be infected. At the end of the course of treatment, the patient is given a sufficient amount of antimalarial drug, usually within 3 days to cure the Plasmodium infection. The second is the environmental foundation of Guangzhou. Since the historical records of downtown Guangzhou, there has never been a record of malaria epidemics. Malaria is transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes, and there is no Anopheles mosquito in the urban area of ​​Guangzhou. The environment is safe. Third, the patients currently used for treatment are advanced, and there is no way to test them. This method is used with the consent of patients and their families.
After several ethical defenses organized by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, and after many revisions, the Chen Xiaoping team began to apply this result to the treatment of patients with advanced cancer.
Source: Guangzhou Daily
Soybean phospholipid oil
Jiangsu Chenwei Biology and Technology Co. LTD , https://www.cwsoybean.com