What Hath Pony Wrought?

derpy-feet replied to your post: Losing friends *hug* you okay? D: wanna talk?

I appreciate the sentiment, child, but I believe now it would be preferable for me to rest. 

Losing friends

Again I am reminded why I make precious few friends. The simplest error causes so much pain. 

((Should I continue?

((I haven’t done so much with this blog in a while. I doubt I have many followers left and most of my RP friends have moved on

OOC: Sometimes

Sometimes I struggle. 

I want to be liked. I am pretty sure I am. But I am ignored as well. 

When I ask, I’m told no. When others ask, they’re told yes. Sometimes, there’s no response at all.

My thoughts turn inwards. Do I want too much attention? Do I ask too much? Am I expecting too much? 

I am always at a loss. There is my normal lack of self worth. It asks why I keep trying.

I never have a good answer.

((Tonight’s Movie: Batman Forever))

((OOC note))

((Yes, I’m still alive. Yes, I have intentions on continuing to post. Just…it’s the end of the semester D: ))

Current Science: Cancer Research

I hope my followers will, again, indulge me in a long post. Very long. Nothing depression, but it could be educational. I apologize for that in advance. 

Leukemia - Painful suck death

Like most cancers, Leukemia is a disease that sucks mightily. There are many different types, causes and survival rates that depend on any number of factors. Basically, your immune system goes haywire in a variety of ways and causes uncontrolled cell replication.

You die from leukemia because there are white blood cells EVERYWHERE. They completely take over your bone marrow, preventing functional red blood cell, platelet, and (ironically) white blood cell production. This leads to, in order, anemia, hemophilia, and a compromised immune system, not dissimilar to AIDS. And that’s just the bone marrow. Your other organs get piled high with them, too. Damage to spleen and liver aren’t uncommon.

Why do they do this? Don’t your white blood cells protect you from invaders? Yes, they do. However, sometimes things can go horribly wrong. First, however, some basics. 

Immune System - The many. The proud. 

Your body has two different types of immune response. Innate (i.e. you are bad therefore I eat you) and specific (think America’s Most Wanted - tracking down known fugitives). Your specific immune response is comprised of two types of cells: B Cells and T Cells.

B cells recognize a pathogen (intruder) based off of an antigen. An antigen is something specific that only a particular pathogen has. A bit like an identifying tattoo or beard, except much much more specific. Once an antigen is recognized, B Cells will replicate and begin spewing antibodies. Antibodies, once bound to a pathogen, target the pathogen for destruction or, in the case of toxins, can neutralize the toxin by itself. 

T cells come in two different types. Killer and Helper. Killer T cells target those cells in your body that are already infected by a virus and destroy them.

Helper T cells are like the generals on a battlefield. They coordinate the innate and specific immune responses and can signal other cells (via cytokines) to do specific tasks. 

Your B cells and helper T cells work together. One can activate the other, a bit like the Wonder Twins or DBZ characters combining their powers. 

They don’t actually merge, but the effect is the same. Upon activation, the shit has hit the fan. There’s an intense reaction that puts your body on the offensive. Have you ever had the flu and felt those aches and pains in your bones? Your bones contain marrow, one of the primary sites for immune cell development. The aches are likely the result of your body bringing all of its offensive and defensive capabilities to bare. 

A fatal misstep

In Leukemia, some of either the B or T cells have sustained damage to their DNA, the instruction molecule of cells. DNA, along with the epigenetic molecules that sit atop DNA, contain all of the instructions a cell needs to perform its duties. While every cell in your body contains the exact same instructions, different cells have different instructions active depending on their task and the current stimuli (either internal or external). 

As with all cancers, this damage to DNA causes a sustained, uncontrollable replication of these damaged cells. Each damaged cell creates more damaged cells.

Cancer Research, So Far

To combat cancer, scientists have developed different treatments to try and kill of the cells with varying degrees of success. A joke in the scientific community is that, if clinicians could just get the cancer onto a petri dish, they’d be able to cure all cancer. Often, promising cures in vitro (on a dish or a test tube) fail miserably in actual living subjects. Your body is extremely chemically active. Finding a compound that is only active inside cancer cells, while ignores other cells and isn’t accidentally transformed by some normal chemical reaction in your body is extremely difficult.

Some promising work has been performed in trying to convince your body’s immune system to take out the cancer. Again, in vitro the idea works. In your body, however, the effect is less than adequate.

Cancer Research, Now

This changed in August of this year. In August, a group of researchers published in the New England Journal of Medicine some amazing results. The researchers were successful in ‘convincing’ a patient’s immune system to go on an all out offensive against their late stage leukemia. Of the three patients that received this treatment, two are in complete remission, even 10 months later. The third had a 70% reduction in the leukemia in their blood.

To explain how they did this, I need to go a little bit farther into biology than your high school biology book probably went. 

All cells have a collection of proteins floating around on their cell membranes. These proteins allow the cell to interact with other cells, take up food and oxygen, expel wastes, and receive signals that would cause a change in behavior. 

B cells, and only B cells, have a protein on their cell membranes called CD19. In the particular leukemia the researchers were trying to attack, the B cells were the culprits. The researchers modified the helper T cells (using modified HIV as a vector to deliver new instructions) such that the T cells would recognize CD19 as something it needed to destroy. Not only that, but to replicate so that it could appropriately marshal a response from the body.

The modified T cells did the job. A week or so after infusion, the patients started to show symptoms of a defensive response. Two weeks in, the patients’ bodies were taking part in a major onslaught. They’d developed what was called ‘tumor lysis syndrome,’ which is a term used to describe what a body goes through when cells (cancer or otherwise) die en masse. Your body has difficult cleaning up so many dead and dying cells all at once. In this case, it meant B cells were being shredded everywhere they could be found.

Shortly thereafter, the patients returned to normal. No leukemia could be found in the blood, in the bone marrow, or in the lymph nodes. Every B cell, damaged or not, had been wiped from the patients’ bodies. Even after 6 months, this was the case as the modified T cells were still present and on the lookout. In one patient, over 2 pounds worth of leukemia had been destroyed. 

Cautious Optimism is warranted

One draw back of this technique is that any cell with the particular protein you’re targeting will be annihilated. Since B cells target pathogens they’ve seen before, any viral or bacterial immunity the patients’ had once been ready to use is now gone. There is a very real chance these patients will have difficulties dealing with infectious diseases. Then again, they won’t shortly die from having their organs clog up with white blood cells. 

Many more tests are required to ensure safety of the treatment, improve its effectiveness, etc…, but this is a huge step in teaching the body to recognize cancer as something to be killed off. 

The raw paper can be viewed here.

Edit: Derp - wrong paper