Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Scientists from the University of Würzburg have synthesized a complex sugar molecule which specifically binds to the tumor protein Galectin-1. This could help to recognize tumors at an early stage and to combat them in a targeted manner.
[...] "Among other things, it is known that galectin-1 hides the tumor cells from the immune system," explains Professor Jürgen Seibel of the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany.
Recent studies have shown that when Galectin-1 is blocked, the immune system can recognize the tumor and attack it with T cells.
[...] No wonder, therefore, that galectin-1 has become a major focus of research. Seibel and his colleague Dr. Clemens Grimm is interested in a very specific section of this protein, the so-called carbohydrate recognition domain. They have now designed a complex sugar molecule that fits perfectly into this domain, as the scientists report in journal "ChemBioChem".
"We have equipped the sugar molecule with a docking site, for example, to connect it with a fluorescent dye or an[sic drug," says Seibel. In addition, the scientists have described the binding of their molecule to galectin-1 with high-resolution X-ray structure analyzes.
"Our findings can serve the development of high-affinity ligands of the protein Galectin-1 and thus of new drugs," said Clemens Grimm.
A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. ♩♫♪♩
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday August 17 2017, @04:48PM
It's dosage dependent but has 100% true positive detection rate.
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:26PM
If galectin-1 "hides tumor cells", then it must be ubiquitous. If it were not then the immune system would target it when the cells start causing inflammation. Also, I couldn't even see any text at that link even when allowing javascript.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galectin#Galectins_and_disease [wikipedia.org]
Wow, so because they are ubiquitous so many things are linked to them? It is like they don't understand simple ideas like "criminals drink water, so let's ban water".
(Score: 1) by sonamchauhan on Thursday August 17 2017, @10:47PM
Thanks - this is an interesting article. The research below shows that lactulose [wikipedia.org], a common laxative-medicine, inhibits Galectin-1 - at least, enough to alleviate obesity in rats.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26880535 [nih.gov]
Pharmacological inhibition of galectin-1 by lactulose alleviates weight gain in diet-induced obese rats.
Wonder if plain lactulose [wikipedia.org] supplementation would help cancer. Certainly, 'lactulose amines' - particularly 'allyl lactoside' - are being formally investigated as anticancer agents.
http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/29/1/403.full [iiarjournals.org]
Synthetic lactulose amines: novel class of anticancer agents...
I don't know those terms but amines are ammonia compounds. Interestingly, "Lactulose is also used to reduce the amount of ammonia in the blood of patients with liver disease. It works by drawing ammonia from the blood into the colon where it is removed from the body."
https://www.cancercarewny.com/content.aspx?chunkiid=673955 [cancercarewny.com]
And apparently, there's a "reported lower rate of cancer recurrence in colon cancer patients who were treated with lactulose":
http://suppversity.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/supplement-review-lactulose-isomerized.html [blogspot.com.au]
Maybe lactulose treatment should start earlier for all cancers?
(Side note: http://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/11/12/1043.full.pdf [bmj.com] )