The drugs used to kill cancer cells mostly aim specific cell proteins. But most of them also go out of their way and kill the cells that they don’t intend to.
Science Translational Medicine published some weeks ago about the drug that could help aim better at the cells. It said – “This work is very well done and its great public service. I hope people talk about it. I don’t find any of it surprising, unfortunately.”
Jason Sheltzer who is from Cold Spring Harbor laboratory, New York used the CRISPR to do the gene-disabling. They disabled the use of RNAi and prevented the manufacture of MELK protein in the infected cancer cells.
He also studied how the relevant drug was missing the targeted cancer cells. They missed the target cells but even then the cells died by some other medications. It isn’t a surprise that Jason used CRISPR to target the cells.
He also, along with other researchers, found that the drug used needed to block the protein PBK which enhances the cell division.
Travert Hart of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston says that he is doubtful about the RNAi screening method to test the potential drugs for cancer. He say that the process now is “riddled with falsehoods.”
In this process you have to believe that the downstream effects you because you are off the target cells. You can’t prove otherwise till you have solid data backing your claim. But the biggest achievement in all this is, if you know the drug is finding the intended target cells then, it is working fine.