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News: 10/05/05 - Anti-depressants show promise in cancer fight

Fordy

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 24, 2004
Messages
8
British scientists say anti-depressants such as Prozac could be used to treat certain types of cancer.

The researchers say they have also discovered that amphetamine derivatives, such as ecstasy, can kill cancer cells.

The mood-altering drugs work by telling the brain to release feel-good chemicals, including serotonin, by targeting molecules called serotonin transporters.

Now researchers say some cancerous cells have these transporters as well.

Professor John Gordon of Birmingham University says tests have shown dramatic results.

"Essentially we've looked at a group of cancer cells known as lymphoma and found that drugs such as anti-depressants and some amphetamine analogues can stop some of these cells growing, in fact kill some," he said.

Taken from ABC Radio

Fascinating indeed!
 
I am seriously liking the 2nd sentence.

Another thing to tell my mum on the advantages of using ecstasy.

amen.
 
Haha... Yes, but when you look between the broad and fuzzy lines drawn by between Birmingham University and the wider international media... the researchers have the following to say:
Dr Nick Barnes, Reader in Neuropharmacology - “We have been taking cell lines, which are representative of lymphomas, and then we’ve been adding various drugs which target proteins to seratonin, recognising seratonin. And we’ve been identifying whether these drugs can actually stop the tumour cells from dividing, from growing.”

Professor John Gordon - “What we found was among a wide range of different types of Lymphoma that we grow in a test tube, MDMA, which most people know as ecstasy, can actually stop the cells growing. Now that builds on previous studies that we’ve done on Prozac- Prozac seems to do pretty much the same thing. So now we’re finding 2 drugs that are having the same effect and that will give us really good clues as to how they’re working.”

Professor John Gordon - “We’re talking to people about getting the Prozac into formal clinical trials, so hopefully with the right funding behind us we’ll be able to test whether what we see in the test tube really works in patients, because of course that is our ultimate goal.”

Dr Nick Barnes - “The concentrations of Ecstasy required are far too high to use in the patient, indeed they would almost immediately kill the patient, however if we can tease apart the mechanism of action for the ecstasy to stop the tumour cells from growing, away from the psychotropic actions of ecstasy, which is why people abuse the drug, then we may be able to identify a more appropriate drug to stop the lymphoid tissue."

Not that these are insignificant results by any stretch of the imagination - slowing the growth of cancer cells is great. In over half of the cancer (17 lymphoma) samples studied the growth stopped or was significantly slowed by various drugs including the amphetamine derivatives. Prozac’s impact on cancer cells is likely to have the most immediate impact, because it has already been extensively tested and has a good safety record... far more likely than the potential for this research group to re-engineer MDMA to produce a serotonergic drug of sufficient power to limit lymphoma growth without being toxic or psychoactive.

http://www.research-tv.com/stories/health/ecstasy/
Re-Designing Designer Drugs to Stop Cancer
Broadcast Date: Tuesday 10 May 12:15-12:30 GMT
Summary: Prozac, Ecstasy and Cancer Treatment

BigTrancer :)
 
News: Ecstasy can block cancer growth

I just though this would be interesting, though it really serves no practical purpose...


"Ecstasy can block cancer growth


Ecstasy and anti-depressant drugs such as Prozac have the potential to stop cancer cell growth, research has found.

A University of Birmingham team tested the impact of amphetamine derivatives such as Ecstasy and weight-loss pills, and antidepressants including Prozac.

They found the drugs were effective at blocking cancer growth in more than half of lymphoma (white blood cell cancer) samples tested.

It is hoped the FASEBJ Journal study will will lead to new cancer therapies.


The possibility that some of these patients can be treated with antidepressants that have cancer-killing properties is truly remarkable
Dr David Grant
The study focused on 17 samples of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and multiple myeloma.

Cancer growth was slowed down in nine out of the 17 samples when they were exposed to antidepressants, and in 11 out of 17 when exposed to one or both of the amphetamine derivatives.

Researcher Professor John Gordon said: "We think that a range of psychotropic agents that are being used, or sometimes abused, for other reasons will now help us in our fight against all different types of cancer.

"We are excited that drugs like Prozac are effective in killing these types of cancer cells, as these antidepressants are in such wide circulation and have an impressive safety record."

Ecstasy difficulty

However, the researchers stressed that the use of ecstasy was not so straightforward - the dose required to block cancer growth was so high it would kill the patient.

Dr Nick Barnes, who also worked on the study, said he was still hopeful the drug could be one day be used to combat cancer.

"Perhaps by breaking down the actions of this designer drug we can extract its cancer killing properties from more general toxic effects associated with its use.

The research was supported by the Leukaemia Research Fund. Spokesman Dr David Grant welcomed the findings.

He said: "Around 10,000 people are diagnosed with a lymphoma in the UK each year and so the possibility that some of these patients can be treated with antidepressants that have cancer-killing properties is truly remarkable.

"Clearly there is a lot more work to do before this became a reality but it is very exciting that there may be other, much less aggressive ways, of treating this particular cancer."

from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4532569.stm

It would sure be a fun way to cure cancer ;), except:

"However, the researchers stressed that the use of ecstasy was not so straightforward - the dose required to block cancer growth was so high it would kill the patient."

but if you're going to die anyway...
 
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