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SemogAziul t1_iw34zr3 wrote

Mice and zebrafish are the most common for disease studies. Researchers have the whole genome for zebrafish mapped, so as someone already explained, they can use knockout zebrafish and implant the cancer cells on the specific tissue or they can alter the DNA and make the fish produce the specific cancer cells needed

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Corogue t1_iw6athk wrote

Genuinely curious. If scientists can alter the DNA of an animal to produce cancer cells, can a similar genetic alteration cause the body's immune system to stop cancer cells from multiplying or attack cancer cells?

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robcal35 t1_iw6b5xc wrote

Immune cells require "training". Genetic alterations may be able to increase the number, but does nothing to affect their training to target cancer cells.

If you're curious, check out CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor) cell therapy. This is literally where you are reprogramming and training immune cells to go specifically after cancer cells.

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LachoooDaOriginl t1_iw6zw62 wrote

i like to think of the car t thing as a lil terminator hunting cancer… am i the only one?

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robcal35 t1_iw7fvrd wrote

Hahaha just like the Terminator, sometimes there's some collateral damage

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123frogman246 t1_ix0w78z wrote

If you're in the UK, see if you can watch "War in the blood" - goes behind the scenes of CAR T cell therapy in a couple of patients and one of the academic labs behind developing the therapy

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NotDolledUpForYou t1_iw6elet wrote

Ive done a lot of work on CAR T-cells so in that regard technically yes you can alter the bodies immune system to attack cancer cells, but we do it by taking those white blood cells out the body, altering them and then putting them back, not by changing the bodies genetic makeup itself

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Tlaloc_Temporal t1_iw6usyh wrote

The M-RNA vaccines famously used for CoVID-19 were actually developed to fight cancer like this! The downside is you have to sequence the DNA of each case of cancer, but as sequencing labs get cheaper and more common, there might be a broad-spectrum cure!

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[deleted] t1_iw6dt62 wrote

[removed]

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NotDolledUpForYou t1_iw6enyy wrote

CAR T-cells don't work on the next generation they actually die out in the body so I don't know what you're on about there

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Alpacaofvengeance t1_iw6sr11 wrote

CAR-T cells do proliferate but I agree I don't know what elephants means there

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Gremlinintheengine t1_iw5dd0s wrote

How useful are fish in disease studies, really? Their physiology is so different from us.

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budrose13 t1_iw5owob wrote

Their physiology may seem very different from the outside but the genetic and molecular mechanisms are remarkably similar between zebrafish a humans. It's important to note that the vast majority of medical research is not "physiology" in the sense of studying whole organs or systems but rather molecular. So most research focuses on the genes and proteins involved in causing diseases and these are very similar between humans and zebrafish (about 70% shared genes). For example a gene that when mutated in humans causes heart defects may also cause similar defects in zebrafish (even though they have two chambered hearts while we have 4 chabered). If we mutate or remove that gene from the fish and indeed find that it causes heart defects we can use the fish to try to figure out how it causes those defects and potentially treat it.

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Roy4Pris t1_iw6im64 wrote

This is what aggravates me about nongs who don’t believe we’re related to chimps etc. Yes in the macro we look quite different, but at a metabolic and cellular level we are indistinguishable.

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playawhile t1_iw6x5zu wrote

It's almost like this DNA thing has some sort of... intelligent design behind all of it. Crazy.

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