From: Jeff Davis (jdavis@socketscience.com)
Date: Mon Jan 17 2000 - 00:01:14 MST
On Sat, 15 Jan 2000 19:37:30 -0800
Doug Jones <random@qnet.com> comments about
>>TAPETŪ (Tumor Amplified Protein Expression Therapy), Vion's core platform
>>technology, are highly attenuated bacteria that, in preclinical
>>studies, have demonstrated preferential replication in tumors compared to
>>normal tissues.
saying
>Those bugs will be *damn* hard to maintain at a good level of preparedness,
>unless expression of the tumor killing protein can be switched on & off by
>a separate chemical signal. Without this, the in vitrio cell growth setup
>would kill the host tumor cells before a large batch of bacteria could be
>grown.
Damned sharp of you to pick up on that (almost a) problem, and then find
the solution--which is very nearly the way they have designed it to work.
Actually, the bacteria doesn't make the final cytotoxic drug, and is
therefor not destructive of the in vitro host cells, or for that matter the
in vivo cancer cells. The bacteria makes an enzyme which, within the
confines of the host cancer cell, converts a non-toxic precurser into the
lethal cytotoxic drug. The non-toxic precursor is administered separately,
by conventional injection, when the time is right.
They don't call you a rocket scientist for nothing!
Best, Jeff Davis
"Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
Ray Charles
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