Brain Cancer Gene Therapy Could Be Improved by Scorpion Venom

An ingredient in the venom of the deathstalker scorpion could help gene therapy become a successful treatment for brain cancer, scientists are reporting. The substance allows therapeutic genes--genes that treat disease--to reach more brain cancer cells than current approaches, according to new findings.

Dr. Miqin Zhang and colleagues from the University of California, (UC) Berkeley (USA), noted that gene therapy--the delivery of therapeutic genes into diseased cells--shows potential for fighting glioma, the most common and most serious form of brain cancer. However, problems in getting genes to enter cancer cells and concerns over the safety and potential side effects of substances used to transport these genes have kept the application from helping patients.

The scientists described the new approach that could solve these problems according to the study in the July 20, 2010, issue of ACS [American Chemical Society] Nano, a monthly journal. Principal ingredients of their gene-delivery system are chlorotoxin, the substance in deathstalker scorpion venom that can slow the spread of brain cancer, and nanoparticles of iron oxide. Each nanoparticle is approximately 1/50,000 the width of a human hair. In tests on lab mice, the scientists demonstrated that their venom-based nanoparticles could stimulate nearly twice the amount of gene expression in brain cancer cells as nanoparticles that do not contain the venom ingredient.

"These results indicate that this targeted gene delivery system may potentially improve treatment outcome of gene therapy for glioma and other deadly cancers,” the investigators noted in their article.

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