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Robert Weinberg's The Biology of Cancer has a great chapter on the early history of cancer research and its connection with virology and a chance occurrence lea
by Herodotus38 10y ago
Robert Weinberg's The Biology of Cancer has a great chapter on the early history of cancer research and its connection with virology and a chance occurrence leading to discovery.
There was a chicken breeder who noticed that some of his birds were getting tumors and he brought them to Rous, who exposed healthy bird cells to an extract of the tumor. He was able to figure out that in this case cancer was being transmitted by a virus. Later analysis showed that the virus itself doesn't cause cancer, but that this particular strain was "lucky" and picked up an oncogene (basically took a normal tyrosine kinase gene that is involved in the cell cycle from a chicken and incorporated it into the virus, making cell replication more rapid).
This happens all the time with retroviruses in the wild. I find it interesting because the key to the virus' ability to cause tumors actually lies in using the normal cells' own machinery. Sort of like uncovering an ancient archeological site and decoding a text only to see it is about your civilization!
- contingencies 10y agoSort of like uncovering an ancient archeological site and decoding a text only to see it is about your civilization! Sounds like a great premise for a roguelike :)
- dmoy 10y agoIsn't something roughly like this the premise of Stephen Baxter's manifold trilogy? Idk, it's been awhile...
- tuomosipola 10y agoDon't forget about the dog that decided to become cancer: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/18/contagious-dog-cancer-batteries/ http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/18/contagiou...
- botexpert 10y agoSimilar to bovine leukaemia virus causing around 37% of breast cancer.
- opendomain 10y agoDo you have a source for this claim?
- Herodotus38 10y agoI googled it because I was very skeptical. This is not the paper but the press release to what I think the above commenter was referring to: http://news.berkeley.edu/2015/09/15/bovine-leukemia-virus-breast-cancer/ http://news.berkeley.edu/2015/09/15/bovine-leukemia-virus-br... A PLOS one paper showing evidence of this virus in 59% of breast cancers sampled compared to 29% in non cancerous breast tissue of other women. N size was 239. I think this deserves future study to see why there is this apparent association but the above poster's claim that this shows that it 'causes 39% of breast cancer' is simply not credible at this time.
- botexpert 10y agoMy claim is a bit of a stretch, 37% may be attributable. Mechanistic cause is still a bit shaky. G C Buehring, H M Shen, H M Jensen, D L Jin, M Hudes, G Block. Exposure to Bovine Leukemia Virus Is Associated with Breast Cancer: A Case-Control Study. PLoS One. 2015 Sep 2;10(9):e0134304. G C Buehring, H M Shen, H M Jensen, K Y Choi, D Sun, G Nuovo. Bovine leukemia virus DNA in human breast tissue. Emerg Infect Dis. 2014 May;20(5):772-82. K Alibek, A Kakpenova, A Mussabekova, M Sypabekova, N Karatayeva. Role of viruses in the development of breast cancer. Infect Agent Cancer. 2013 Sep 2;8:32. J Akhter, M A Ali Aziz, A Al Ajlan, A Tulbah, M Akhtar. Breast cancer: is there a viral connection? Adv Anat Pathol. 2014 Sep;21(5):373-81. G C Buehring, S M Philpott, K Y Choi. Humans have antibodies reactive with Bovine leukemia virus. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2003 Dec;19(12):1105-13. J S Lawson, B Heng. Viruses and breast cancer. Cancers (Basel). 2010 Apr 30;2(2):752-72. (Author unknown) Bovine Leukosis Virus (BLV) on U.S. Dairy Operations, 2007.Veterinary ServicesCenters for Epidemiology and Animal Health. APHIS Info Sheet. J F Ferrer, S J Kenyon, P Gupta. Milk of dairy cows frequently contains a leukemogenic virus. Science. 1981 Aug 28;213(4511):1014-6. G C Buehring, P M Kramme, R D Schultz. Evidence for bovine leukemia virus in mammary epithelial cells of infected cows. Lab Invest. 1994 Sep;71(3):359-65.