My Cat got a Cold

[giftiger_wunsch]

I don't know how our knowledge of biology compares, but I'm starting my second year in October so you probably know more on the subject than me. I was on the common year one for all subjects within the school of biomedical and health sciences, so I studied modules pertaining to physiology, biochemistry, histology, pharmacology, etc.

The main problem with any method of targeting cancer cells is that it's very difficult to differentiate them from healthy cells as any number of mutations could be causing the uncontrolled mitosis to occur, and as you said they can continue to mutate further at an alarming rate. But it appears you've studied the topic in more detail than I have, so you can ponder that one

Another thing I wonder is how the nanobots would go about destroying the cells? The body's cytotoxic lymphocytes (NK Cells and some T-Cells) trigger apoptosis by using perforin to perforate the plasma membrane and releasing proteases into the cell; the products of decomposition by these proteases act as chemical signals to macrophages to destroy the dead cell.

But without a large enough quantity of the correct chemicals (probably hundreds of times the volume of the actual nanobot, depending on its size), how could it hope to be able to trigger apoptosis in affected cells? At best, we might be able to synthesise basic equivalents of the body's cytotoxic cells, which would trigger a whole range of other problems, one of which being rejection. Begs the question: why not just work on modifying real NK cells so that they're not rejected?

 

[Mikebits]

From what I learned, the bots will not destroy the mutations, rather single them out thus enabling physicians to locate them in early stages of development, long before a tumor develops. These bots conduct a recon mission so to speak, based on data fed back by test instruments the physicians can take corrective measures much sooner than when a actual tumor develops.

Early detection will enable doctors to save lives, this will also require regular checkups, but this is a good first step in the fight against cancer.

Other things are also occurring in this field, DNA sequencing and re-sequencing is enabling science to recognize mutations in cells. I think what is key is early identification and identification of tumor type, then personalized medication can be put in place. Current cancer research takes a generic approach and puts the patient at risk from a multiple battery of treatments that target multiple tumor types, all requiring different treatments which lead to many side affects. Correctly targeting the right mutation will reduce patient suffering greatly.

 

[giftiger_wunsch]

The early warning system idea might be more practical, but I wonder how communication would be possible, and how it would be possible to determine where the readings actually occured - knowing that a tumour may be starting to form is only helpful to a limited extent if it's then necessary to wait for it to be bigger before it can be found and removed.