Thread: Is this possible?

I want to know if it is possible to cure cancer, using a modified form of cells that have Multiple Sclerosis so that the cells would self detonate and commit suicide after a period of time. My name is Ellis Kalomiris, and I am in high school, but nonetheless I still want to make sure that my idea gets out there, even if it can only help one or two people. Please respond.

Originally Posted by digizaruk

I want to know if it is possible to cure cancer, using a modified form of cells that have Multiple Sclerosis so that the cells would self detonate and commit suicide after a period of time.

Can you elaborate a bit more perhaps? How would having exploding cells within a person act against a tumor? How would you modify a cell to give it MS? Why would that make the cell explode?

Again, I'm only fifteen, and I am a freshman in high school, so I might have a little trouble explaining this. Firstly, the cell itself wouldn't explode per say it would merely commit suicide using its lysosomes, which wouldn't actually fight the tumor. Theoretically, what would actually fight the cancerous tumor would be the Multiple Sclerosis, because MS makes an infected cell attack healthy cells, and cancerous tumors, hide within healthy tissue. I don't know how one could modify a cell to give it MS, but I do remember seeing this one episode of NCIS, on TV, where their office had been chemically assaulted with a modified form of a virus, that was later revealed to have a suicide chain in it, that made me think that maybe it would be possible to give an MS-infected cell a suicide chain, and directly inject the cells into the area where the tumor is located, so that the injected cells would combat the cancer, and they wouldn't multiply giving the cancer patient MS, because of the suicide chain. In theory, the least it would do is slow the rate of the cancer. It makes sense to me, but I'm not entirely sure about it myself because of two things: 1.) NCIS is not exactly accurate, and 2.) it came from the mind of a high school freshman. (many of which are very irrational)

P.S. Sorry if the way I originally phrased it had confused you.

Originally Posted by digizaruk

Again, I'm only fifteen, and I am a freshman in high school, so I might have a little trouble explaining this. Firstly, the cell itself wouldn't explode per say it would merely commit suicide using its lysosomes, which wouldn't actually fight the tumor. Theoretically, what would actually fight the cancerous tumor would be the Multiple Sclerosis, because MS makes an infected cell attack healthy cells, and cancerous tumors, hide within healthy tissue. I don't know how one could modify a cell to give it MS, but I do remember seeing this one episode of NCIS, on TV, where their office had been chemically assaulted with a modified form of a virus, that was later revealed to have a suicide chain in it, that made me think that maybe it would be possible to give an MS-infected cell a suicide chain, and directly inject the cells into the area where the tumor is located, so that the injected cells would combat the cancer, and they wouldn't multiply giving the cancer patient MS, because of the suicide chain. In theory, the least it would do is slow the rate of the cancer. It makes sense to me, but I'm not entirely sure about it myself because of two things: 1.) NCIS is not exactly accurate, and 2.) it came from the mind of a high school freshman. (many of which are very irrational)

P.S. Sorry if the way I originally phrased it had confused you.

No problem, and let me say it's great to see a highschooler showing such and interest and trying to draw information together into a new idea.

The thing about MS is that it seems to be caused by our immune system attacking a very specific group of cells in our body (the cells which insulate our nerves). Quite what causes that autoimmune response is not entirely clear, so utilizing that mechanism in therapy is going to first demand that we figure out how the whole process is happening- and you can bet that a great many researchers are working on that question. I have to say though, it seems unlikely to me that it would be useful to have an MS-type autoimmune response happening in a cancer patient, even if it were localized to the area near a tumor and limited in length (as an aside- I've never head of a 'suicide chain', so I suspect that NCIS may have invented something there).

The broad idea you have- that of directing a modified immune response against a tumor- is a good one. It's also one that is being worked on in various forms by researchers elsewhere. Have a read of this Wikipedia article on cancer immunotherapy. It's a nice introduction to the area and there are plenty of links back so you can read up on some of the more basic concepts if you need to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_immunotherapy