What is Old is New Again

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biopearl123
Posts: 1665
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 5:13 pm

What is Old is New Again

Post by biopearl123 » Tue Aug 31, 2021 6:46 pm

There are literally thousands of articles written on the telomere and its role in cancer propagation. You can start in the 1990’s and work forward to see early work in this area. Once Imetelstat was tested in the lab and found to have activity across multiple cell lines (neuroblastoma, thyroid cancer, esophageal, pancreatic, breast, NSCLC, multiple liquid cancers, to name a few), there was great enthusiasm. Okarma paid 40 M for a worthless technology that was supposed to facilitate getting Imetelstat across the blood brain barrier. So what was the problem that prevented translation of Imetelstat from the lab to the clinic? One was the recognition that multiple cell divisions were required to get the telomere short enough to rip the cell apart. The others were delivery of drug, attendant toxicities, emergence of “resistance” (read clonal drift). Imetelstat left the clinic in many of the above indications for many of the above reasons. Yet a quick read of the footnotes in recent researches shows a continued interest in the role of the telomere in solid tumors. It has taken decades of research to develop potential improved delivery systems such as nanoparticles. I hope the November conference will help us see that what is old is new again. bp

huntingonthebluffs
Posts: 246
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2016 12:00 am

Re: What is Old is New Again

Post by huntingonthebluffs » Sat Sep 25, 2021 9:09 pm

I expect you are on target as usual. I believe this could be “back to the future” in spades. There are lots of treatments, drugs and homeopathic / vitamin remedies that will kill cells and/or rev up the immune system. However, what is needed for tumors is more of a rifle shot vs a shotgun delivery otherwise an effective dosage large enough to kill the cancer would likely kill the patient in the process. The delivery component like AuNP including a radioactive element holds promise as the key along with the telomerase inhibitor (i.e. Imetelstat), etc.. How that all might synergize effectively is mind boggling. Seems to me that the drug cocktail has to work fast enough to reduce the amount of cancer cells, and fast enough to prevent “clonal drift” and still manage cytopenias, etc. while not killing the patient. The delivery seems to be more important for addressing solid tumors than hematological cancers but it still hold promise if the TI can utilize something like AuNP to increase cancer cell uptake while adding more punch with combinations maybe even including the radioactive aspect.

It seems to me there must be another whole area of focus to go along with better cancer cell targeting and uptake and that is counteracting excessive cytopenias, etc. In other words if we are able to kill the cancer cells faster, how and what is needed to counteract the intensified war going on in one’s body?

BTW, I find this area of discussion on the ImetelChat board very useful and interesting. It is a path full of promise for possibly getting many to cancer free assuming that is even possible without receiving a stem cell replacement.

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