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+--- Thread: Psychiatric drug could prevent bowel cancer, researchers say (/thread-10421.html)
Psychiatric drug could prevent bowel cancer, researchers say - C C - Jun 2, 2021
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/06/02/netherlands-clinical-trial-for-bowel-cancer-prevention-begins/8511622649289/
INTRO: Researchers in the Netherlands have started a clinical trial to discover if a commonly used psychiatric drug can boost the fitness of healthy cells in the gut to prevent the development of bowel cancer. Worldwide Cancer Research said Wednesday that the trial will recruit patients with a genetic mutation that means they are 100% certain to develop bowel cancer in their lifetime unless the entire bowel is removed.
Lithium, a commonly used drug for the treatment of several psychiatric disorders, will be used in the trial.
Researchers found, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, that intestinal stem cells with mutations to the APC gene have been shown to have a competitive advantage over their healthy counterparts and frequently outcompete them, leading to unrestricted growth and cancer. The mutant stem cells actively emit signals that sabotage the function of healthy stem cells in the gut.
"We have uncovered the very first steps in the development of bowel cancer. We found that following the occurrence of a mutation in a key gene that regulates stem cells in the intestine, these cells turn into cheaters that actively suppress the normal cells in the environment," senior study author Louis Vermeulen said in a press release.
"Our findings indicate that cells on their way to a full malignancy can actively suppress the stem cells in the vicinity to gain a competitive edge. This is a concept we refer to as supercompetition," said Vermeulen, group leader at the Center for Experimental Molecular Medicine at Amsterdam UMC.
Researchers discovered that lithium prevented mutant stem cells from taking over and forming tumors in mice by rendering healthy stem cells insensitive to the damaging signals... (MORE)
RE: Psychiatric drug could prevent bowel cancer, researchers say - Ostronomos - Jun 4, 2021
Oh wow look at that.