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Friday, August 23, 2002 | return to: international
Hebrew U. doctors make new cancer weapon
by JERUSALEM (JPS) -- A new technique for tricking cancer cells into "committing suicide" and thus preventing their spread has been, The inability to kill themselves -- known to scientists as apoptosis -- and their uncontrolled multiplication are the two main c
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Levitzki stressed that more work is needed and it would be some time before their work could be implemented to treat cancer patients.
In healthy cells attacked by a virus, a protein known as PKR is activated as the result of RNA replication within the affected cell. This protein causes the cell to destroy itself, thus preventing the spread of the virus.
Normally, PKR hibernates, taking no action unless the cell is "provoked" by an invading virus. But the scientists devised a strategy to "trick" cancer cells into "waking up" their PKR without activating it in normal cells.
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