Cancer
Tag archives for Cancer
HERVs and HIV-1
Posted by ERV on November 15, 2011 Quick recap of ERVs for new readers of ERV (or long-time readers who have forgotten!)– ERVs are retroviruses that accidentally infected an egg/sperm cell, and became a permanent part of that egg/sperms DNA. That egg/sperm then went on to successfully generate a viable embryo, and because that retrovirus was part of the egg/sperms DNA, it…
CDC recommends HPV vaccine for boys!
Posted by ERV on October 26, 2011 The HPV vaccine is one of my most favoritest vaccines. From a public health perspective, its efficacy is unprecedented. From an immunological perspective, learning how the HPV vaccine works is going to teach us something about our immune system we didnt know before. From a virological and evolutionary perspective, we dont have to be worried…
What do you get when you cross HIV-1 with VSV with mouse antibodies with human CD3 and CD137 with a cancer patients T-cells?
Posted by ERV on September 15, 2011 This study is a case study from this study (lol): Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Modified T Cells in Chronic Lymphoid Leukemia I imagined this scene happened in one of their lab meetings: I didnt go in-depth as to how everything was working before, so I thought I would do it now!
Measles vs Cancer
Posted by ERV on August 29, 2011 Just to make this clear up front: WHAT I AM ABOUT TO WRITE ABOUT IS NOT A ‘CURE’ FOR CANCER. ITS A NEAT IDEA WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO CAPITALIZE ON IN THE FUTURE. ITS COOL! NOT A ‘CURE’. Perfect example of the potential domesticated viruses have to tame deadly diseases! Tumor Cell Marker PVRL4…
Viruses and Prostate Cancer
Posted by ERV on June 21, 2011 No, Im not talking about XMRV Im talking about using genetically modified viruses to treat prostate cancer Broad antigenic coverage induced by vaccination with virus-based cDNA libraries cures established tumors First, just to be clear, I dont know how this works. :-/ I mean, I know how this ‘works’, but I dont know how its…
Using viruses to treat cancer: Backwards Day again!
Posted by ERV on April 4, 2011 I talk about how viruses and endogenous retroviruses can cause cancer (and all kinds of other diseases) all the time here on ERV. But one thing I hope I highlight for you all as well is how the scientific community can use viruses as a tool. We can take advantage of their evolved tricks and…
The undead undead– Virus myths that wont die: SV40
Posted by ERV on February 16, 2011 There are lots of controversies in viral research. Not just woo ones, like whether HIV-1 exists and causes AIDS, but real controversies that have been going on for some time, like whether HIV-1 infects dendritic cells or DCs just carry–>pass on virions. The public hears about the stupid stuff, but dont know (dont care?) about…
Why havent we cured cancer yeeeeeet?
Posted by ERV on February 11, 2011 A neat paper was just published in Nature, where they did complete genome sequencing of the prostate cancer tumors from seven advanced/aggressive prostate cancer patients. The genomic complexity of primary human prostate cancer Why did they want to do this? They hoped to identify some new features of aggressive prostate cancer that could be exploited…
New cancer virus: Merkel Cell Polyomavirus
Posted by ERV on November 17, 2010 About this time last year, I wrote a post on a new cancer virus, XMRV. I had some reservations about that paper I reviewed. I have some reservations about XMRV–>prostate cancer as a whole (Im just not convinced yet. at all.). Its one thing to be skeptical about data, but its another to say ‘Hey,…
Oh no… Cedric died.
Posted by ERV on September 1, 2010 Oh no… Im genuinely crying over this. Cedric the Tasmanian Devil died. Here is the obvious reason for why I loved Cedric: But I loved Cedric for scientific reasons too. I thought he was going to help us save Tasmanian Devils from extinction. Dr. Alex Kreiss is the cute boy in that pic. Dr Kreiss…