Cancer kan vara muterade stamceller, ett ämne i växten Mattram kan blockera en kanal i dem

Mattram innehåller att ämne som eventuellt kan komma till nytta om hypotesen att stamceller ligger bakom cancer visar sig hålla. Ämnet i Mattram verkar kunna hindra stamceller att fungera, men bara de dåliga.

Craig Jordan, a biologist at the University of Rochester Medical Centre, in New York state, is one such. He has discovered that a chemical called parthenolide, found in feverfew, a medicinal plant, kills AML stem cells. Normal stem cells, however, seem to be able to tolerate the drug without difficulty. The reason is that the leukaemia cells are reliant on a biochemical pathway that parthenolide blocks, whereas normal stem cells are not. If all goes well, a trial to test the safety of a modified form of parthenolide will start in a few months.

(Min fetstil)

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Läs mer: Cancer stem cells | The root of all evil? | Economist.com