Gene Therapy and Brain Cancer in Rats

Here are a few quick facts. Glioma is a deadly form of brain cancer which currently does not have any effective types of treatments, and biodegradable nano particles were recently used in animals to kill the cancer cells. The article brings up a good point that there have been numerous improvements in cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation but there are so many different types of cancers and these treatments are not always effective. In regards to Glioma gene mutations gave made gene therapy difficult to complete. That is until researchers at the John Hopkins University were able to directly deliver a new therapy to the Glioma Cells using nano-particles. This method of transportation is called intracranial convection-enhanced delivery. The nano-particles were made from polymers and filled with "DNA encoding an enzyme, herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase (HSVtk), which turns a compound with little effect into a potent therapy that kills brain cancer cells"(John Hopkins Medicine 1) The resulting compound is known as ganciclovir and it killed the cancer cells 100% of the time.

One of the added bonuses to these findings is that researchers believe these nano-particles could also deliver anti-tumor genes and could be used to fight against other systematic cancer cells. These findings are amazing but they are not being used for humans yet because more test have to be completed before a clinical trial. Jordan Green, Ph.D, associate professor of biomedical engineering, neurosurgery and ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins believes that the nano particles would be introduced into the human body via surgery on the brain although administering it systematically could be more effective.

We live in an age where new threats to humans and animals arise all the time, yet we continue to find innovative and effective ways to treat or cure whatever comes our way. This is an amazing find which could potentially save many lives.

Genetic Factors in Tameness of Rats

In 1959 Dmitri Belyaev, a Soviet scientist, began experiments in the pursuit to domesticate foxes. Through a series of multiple crosses only involving those foxes who displayed the least amount of timidness and the most amount of "kindness", Dmitri sought after a tame silver fox. It only took 20 generations for 35% of the experimental population to reach an "elite" level, meaning these foxes were not only tame and nonhostile, but were eager for human contact. 

Researchers at the University of Leipzig in Germany followed up these experiments by trying to understand the genetic variables involved of the tameness of animals. Using rats who's ancestors were the start of an experiment started by Dmitri over 40 years ago, researchers carried out the same process of breeding those rats most kind to researchers while also breeding those rats who were most hostile or timid in a separate group. Researchers found that after over 60 generations of breeding, mice from the two groups behaved very differently. The rats of the timid group were apt to running away or attacking upon contact with a researcher, while the rats of the "tame" group were easily handled and were comfortable in human presence. Researchers were able to identify gene regions that were responsible for tameness upon crossing these rats to produce hybrids. It was found that some gene regions contained gene variants that were more active in aggressive rats while some gene regions were more active in the tame rats. More research must be done to determine exactly what genes are in play when domesticating animals and how these genes work. Animals have been domesticated for thousands of years but the genetic factors involved in these domestication processes are still little known which is why more research like this must be done.

Article Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141107091658.htm
Supporting Link: http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1002962