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news without borders
Aussie scientists kill cancer
cells with ‘trojan horse’
SYDNEY: Australian scientists have
developed a “trojan horse” therapy to
combat cancer, using a bacterially-de-
rived nano cell to penetrate and disarm
the cancer cell before a second nano
cell kills it with chemotherapy drugs.
The “trojan horse” therapy has the
potential to directly target cancer cells
with chemotherapy, rather than the
current treatment that sees chemo-
therapy drugs injected into a cancer
patient and attacking both cancer and
healthy cells.
Sydney scientists Dr Jennifer MacDi-
armid and Dr Himanshu Brahmbhatt,
who formed EnGenelC Pty Ltd in 2001,
said they had achieved 100% survival
in mice with human cancer cells by
using the “trojan horse” therapy in the
past two years.
The scientists plan to start human
clinical trials in the coming months.
Human trials of the cell delivery sys-
tem will start next week at the Peter
MacCullum Cancer Centre at the Royal
Melbourne Hospital and The Austin at
the University of Melbourne.
The therapy, published in the latest
Nature Biotechnology journal, sees
mini-cells called EDVs (EnGenelC
Delivery Vehicle) attach and enter the
cancer cell.
The first wave of mini-cells release
ribonucleic acid molecules, called
siRNA, which switch off the production
of proteins that make the cancer cell
resistant to chemotherapy.
A second wave of EDV cells is
then accepted by the cancer cell and
releases chemotherapy drugs, killing
the cancer cell.
“The beauty is that our EDVs oper-
ate like ‘Trojan Horses’ They arrive at
the gates of the affected cells and are
always allowed in,” said MacDiarmid.
“We are playing the rogue cells at
their own game. They switch-on the
gene to produce the protein to resist
drugs, and we are switching-off the
gene which, in turn, enables the drugs
to enter.”
RNA interference, or RNAi, is
designed to silence genes responsible
for producing disease-causing pro-
teins and is one of the hottest areas
of biotechnology research. RNA was
the basis of the 2006 Nobel Prize in
medicine.
Dozens of biotechnology companies
are looking for ways to manipulate
RNA to block genes that produce
disease-causing proteins involved in
cancer, blindness or AIDS.
Brahmbhatt said that after treat-
ment with conventional drug therapy,
a large number of cancer cells die but
a small percentage of the cells can pro-
duce proteins that make cancer cells
resistant to chemotherapeutic drugs.
“Consequently, follow-up drug
treatments can fail. The tumours thus
become untreatable and continue to
flourish, ultimately killing the patient,”
said Brahmbhatt.
“We want to be part of moving
towards a time when cancers can be
managed as a chronic disease rather
than being regarded as a death sen-
tence,” he said.
The Nature report said the mini-
cells were “well tolerated with no
adverse side effects or deaths in any
of the actively treated animals, despite
repeated dosing”. – Reuters
Iranian-
Partial recount in Iran
Americans
in Los
Angeles
protest
against the
government
TEHERAN: Iran held a partial
of Iran.
recount yesterday of its dis-
puted election won by Presi-
dent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
but one defeated reformist
candidate said annulment of
the poll was “the only way to
regain the people’s trust”.
In a sign that the process
would not put into question
Ahmadinejad’s victory, IRNA
news agency said recount-
ing so far in one Teheran
district gave him more votes
than in the June 12 poll that
unleashed the worst unrest
since the 1979 revolution.
Iranian authorities said
yesterday five out of nine de-
tained British embassy local
staff had been released, while
four others were being held
for questioning. Britain has
rejected accusations that the
embassy helped to foment
the mass rallies.
“We are deeply concerned
at their arrest and their
continued detention. These
arrests are completely unac-
ceptable and unjustifiable,” a
Downing Street spokesman
told reporters.
Witnesses reported an
increased police presence
in some Teheran squares
ahead of the expected an-
nouncement of the recount
outcome today. One witness
China filter software faces
tough sell in digital bazaar
BEIJING : China’s latest
internet controls have been
assailed by rights advocates
and Washington, and yet the
real challenge to its “Green
Dam” plan may be the na-
tion’s own computer market,
an anarchic digital bazaar.
Starting from today, the
government has ordered that
personal computers sold in
China must leave manufac-
turers with Green Dam filter
software intended to block
obscene images and, critics
say, deter political dissent.
Such schemes sound easy
enough for a one-party state,
and this is just the latest
Communist Party initiative
to control the internet, which
has about 300 million users
in China, according to the
China Internet Network
Information Centre.
theSun
said dozens of riot police ve-
hicles were driving towards
southern Teheran.
Pro-reform cleric Mehdi
Karoubi, fourth in the official
count, reiterated his call for
the vote to be annulled in a
letter to Iran’s top legislative
body, the Guardian Council,
which is recounting a ran-
dom 10% of the votes.
“The election’s annulment
is the only way to regain the
people’s trust,” said Karoubi,
in a position shared with
defeated candidate Mirhos-
sein Mousavi, who met on
Sunday with a committee
of the Council in a bid to
resolve a political crisis that
has exposed rifts in Iran’s
ruling establishment.
Iran’s state Press TV
broadcast live from one
Teheran district where a
Guardian Council supervi-
sor was quoted as saying the
recount in this area showed
no major irregularities.
The official told Press TV
that 34 ballot boxes, repre-
senting 10% of the total in
the district, had been opened
under “full and precise su-
pervision”.
“The results were positive,
no irregularities in the results
announced,” the official said.
State media have said 20
But a walk through Zhong-
guancun district Beijing, hub
of the nation’s digital market,
and the hurdles to such
controls seem as numerous
as the shops and hawkers
selling computers, software
and pornography.
For all the domestic and
international uproar about
Green Dam, many retailers
here who will be selling
computers packaged with
it were either oblivious or
dismissive.
“What’s Green Dam?,”
said Wu Baobao, a woman
in her 20s who was selling
Dell laptops in the raucous
Hailong electronics mall.
“When you buy a compu-
ter after July 1 it will come
with the software,” she added
after asking a colleague. “But
don’t worry ... we can take it
| TUESDAY JUNE 30 2009
AFPPIX
people were killed in vio-
lence since the election won
by the hardline president,
and authorities have accused
Mousavi of responsibility for
the bloodshed. He says the
government is to blame.
The government, locked
in a row with the West over
its nuclear programme and
which says the poll was fair,
has blamed the trouble on
foreign powers rather than
popular anger.
Ahmadinejad called for a
judicial inquiry into what he
called the “suspicious” shoot-
ing to death of music student
Neda Agha-Soltan, who be-
came a symbol of opposition
protests after her death was
broadcast on the Internet.
Last week, Britain’s The
Times newspaper identified
one person captured on
Internet videos helping Neda
as a doctor who has since
fled Iran. It quoted the man,
38-year-old Dr Arash Hejazi,
as saying she was killed by a
government militiaman.
The president suggested
that the opposition and Iran’s
enemies abroad aimed to
misuse her death “for their
own political aims and also
to distort the pure and clean
image of the Islamic Republic
in the world”. – Reuters
out easily.” Multi-nationals
have for years fretted about
the inability of the Chinese
government to stamp out pi-
rate software sold for a frac-
tion of the cost of legitimate
copies.
Now that unruly market
may also frustrate censors
and ensure Green Dam ends
up junked or ignored.
“The Green Dam plan is
a serious violation of market
rules,” said Mao Shoulong,
professor of public policy at
Renmin University.
“But in practice the impact
will be limited,” said Mao.
“It’s optional software, and
you can’t easily control such
a fragmented retail sector.
Big companies will follow
orders, but who can just
order around thousands of
small ones?” – Reuters