Or are they?
Meet squishy, and a fuzz-covered stinging tree to find out whether elements of their deadly venoms can be turned into something nicer.
GUESTS:
Professor Damian Candusso, Head of School of Creative Practice, Queensland University of Technology.
Professor Irina Vetter, Professorial Research Fellow, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland.
And if you d like to see more of Squishy, Ann and Christina, make sure you tune in to Catalyst this week on the TV and ABC iView!
Discovery may help cancer patients to avoid chemotherapy s debilitating side effects news-medical.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from news-medical.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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A discovery by University of Queensland pain researchers may allow some future cancer patients, including children with leukaemia, to avoid their chemotherapy s worst and most debilitating side effects.
Professor Irina Vetter and Dr Hana Starobova thought turning off the inflammation that is one of the body s natural reactions to the chemotherapy drug vincristine might reduce its accompanying pain and unpleasant symptoms. We found the anti-inflammatory drug anakinra substantially reduced the awful nerve symptoms for which vincristine chemotherapy is known, Professor Vetter said. Importantly, it did not reduce the effectiveness of the chemo.
Anakinra is an existing rheumatoid and juvenile arthritis treatment and the Institute for Molecular Bioscience researchers plan to test it soon on human chemotherapy patients taking vincristine.
Date Time
Chemotherapy with fewer side effects may be on way
A discovery by University of Queensland pain researchers may allow some future cancer patients, including children with leukaemia, to avoid their chemotherapy’s worst and most debilitating side effects.
Professor Irina Vetter and Dr Hana Starobova thought “turning off” the inflammation that is one of the body’s natural reactions to the chemotherapy drug vincristine might reduce its accompanying pain and unpleasant symptoms.
“We found the anti-inflammatory drug anakinra substantially reduced the awful nerve symptoms for which vincristine chemotherapy is known,” Professor Vetter said.
“Importantly, it did not reduce the effectiveness of the chemo.”
An international team including scientists from The University of Queensland , made the discovery by studying the composition of spitting cobra venoms from three groups of snakes Asian spitting cobras, African spitting cobras and rinkhals. Co-authors Professor Irina Vetter and Dr Sam Robinson from UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience are among the team which demonstrated that the defensive mechanism had developed as a dominant genetic trait. “The fangs of these snakes are adapted to spray venom as far as 2.5 metres the venom is aimed directly at the face, specifically the eyes, causing intense pain and can lead to the loss of eyesight,” Dr Robinson said.