A collaborative medical research team has developed a targeted gene therapy that kills breast cancer stem cells, reducing the chances of recurrence and also increasing the effectiveness of some types of chemotherapy, a Taiwanese researcher involved in the study said yesterday.
The scientists developed an innovative delivery system (C-VISA) of delivering the BikDD — a modified gene that triggers cell suicide — directly to the breast cancer cell or other targeted cancer cells, to eliminate the cancer cells without harming healthy cells, said Hung Mien-chie (洪明奇), a chair professor at China Medical University Hospital’s Center for Molecular Medicine and professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology.
“We can find a way to beat cancer if we know how to kill cancer stem cells,” he told a press conference held by the National Science Council, a financial supporter of the long-term project.
Hung said chemotherapy and radiotherapy kill non-cancerous cells along with cancer cells, causing harmful side effects.
A major obstacle of cancer treatment is that cancer stem cells are often resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, causing difficulties in curing patients from relapsed cancer, he said.
Using “firing missiles” as a figure of speech, Hung said the team developed a missile launching system that can accurately fire at “the target” (cancer cells) they aim for, and the “missile” includes a targeting agent and the bomb (BikDD) — wrapped in fatty balls called liposomes, delivered through intravenous injections.
The target therapy method proved very effective in eliminating pancreatic cancer cells in mice, as well as killing breast cancer stem cells, Hung said.
The combination of VISA-Claudin4-BikDD target therapy (for reducing breast cancer stem cells) with chemotherapy drugs such as lapatinib in lab experiments have also shown increased effectiveness in treating certain types of breast cancer, Hung added.
He said the next step would be to launch clinical trials within two years so that the effects can be tested on humans.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching