Cancer cells can be turned into healthy cells

For the first time in the history of medicine, scientists have been able to reverse the pathological process of cancer cell formation and make them normal again. Scientists assume that the new discovery will help develop completely new methods of treating cancer patients and eliminate the need to use chemotherapy with a host of side effects or surgery, which also cannot provide a 100% guarantee.

The discovery was made at the Mayo Clinic, which is located in Florida. In their work, specialists used breast, bladder, and lung cancer cells. In the process of lengthy trials and errors, they finally managed to "reprogram" malignant cells and force them to return to a normal state, in addition, scientists were able to restore the function that controls cell growth and prevents the development of a cancerous tumor.

Experts compared this process in the body with the way a car brakes when it is moving at high speed.

In the human body, cells are constantly dividing and new ones, as needed, replace old ones that have already "outlived their usefulness". But with the development of cancerous tumors, this process becomes uncontrollable, cells begin to divide incessantly, which leads to the cancer process.

During their research, a group of specialists discovered that the process of holding healthy cells together is regulated by microRNA (this microprocess gives the command to the cells to stop dividing when enough new cells have been produced and replacement is not yet required). MicroRNA starts the process of producing the protein PLEKHA7, which destroys the connections of cells, this protein in the body is a kind of "brake" in the process of cell division, but in the cancer process, the work of microRNA stops.

This fact led the researchers to understand how the cancer process could be reversed – removing microRNA from cells prevented the production of the PLEKHA7 protein, but an interesting discovery was that the pathological process could be reversed if microRNA molecules were introduced directly into cells using pinpoint injections.

Experts have already tested this method on fairly aggressive forms of cancer that occur in humans.

The head of the research group, Professor Panos Anastasiadis, noted that at the beginning of the work, the PLEKHA7 protein was absent or in very low quantities in the cancer cells that were taken for research. When the normal level of protein or microRNA was restored, the "correct" processes were launched in the cells and all malignant cells were reborn as normal ones.

At this stage, scientists are trying to develop new, more effective methods of delivery to the desired points and cells.

As Professor Anastasiadis said, the first experiments showed insufficient effectiveness, but it is quite possible that the new method will be used to treat various types of cancer, with the exception of blood and brain cancer.

But now scientists have a lot of work to do before the method can be tested on human volunteers.

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