New therapy shows promise for fighting treatment-resistant ca...(nal cancer therapies are ineffective aga...),Health

In their research, Chung and his team developed a therapeutic system that targets HIF-1 human liver cancer cells in the laboratory. A reporter gene was developed that would express human sodium iodide symporter (hNIS) in the cancer cells. This gene would simultaneously track the cancer cells and treat them by allowing them to absorb iodine and radioisotope more easily. To improve imaging of the cancer cells even further, researchers also engineered the reporter gene to turn fluorescent when it encountered HIF-1 liver cancer cells so they could be tracked with optical imaging techniques. The reporter gene was then injected into human liver cancer cells. The results indicated that the system not only killed hypoxic liver cancer cells, but also could eventually be useful for visualizing how HIF-1 activation occurs in these cells.

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