A scientist, Mr Shane Cronin, himself a native of Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan, may has come up with a new way to assist in the tackling of cancer.
Research undertaken by Mr Cronin and others who works at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the latter one of the leading biomedical research institutes in Europe; indicates that by activating the immune system with the hormone Serotonin, (which sends signals between nerve cells), the human body can fight disease much more effectively.
Scientists at IMBA together with the Boston Children’s Hospital at Harvard, now suggest a completely new way of combating autoimmune diseases and cancer. Mr Cronin, PostDoc at IMBA and first author of the study, explains that activating the immune system means the body can defend itself against cancer cells and invading pathogens.
He states: “What we actually showed in the paper is that by increasing and turning up the amount of BH4, the t-cells were more aggressive and able to fight cancer much more aggressively”.
He continues, “So this has very important clinical implications because the way we can turn BH4 down, we actually developed a brand new novel drug to do this, and also by turning it up, there’s a drug already out there being used for completely different purposes.”
Very Good