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OB OY Le VEN? MYSTERY MOUSE VIRUS FOUND IN PROSTATE CANCER PATIENTS HIGH-VOLTAGE ELECTRICITY DOSES KILL CANCER CELLS esearchers say they have LS found a virus in the prostate of some cancer patients—a remarkable discovery that may suggest micro-organisms could play a role in causing this cancer. The virus, closely related to one previously found only in mice, was found in cancerous prostates removed from men with a certain genetic defect. The researchers, with the University of California, San Francisco, and the Cleveland Clinic, presented the findings at an American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in San Francisco. "We have made a _ very fascinating discovery never before seen in humans [of a virus] that is very similar to one found ina mammal that causes cancer," said Dr Eric Klein of the Cleveland Clinic. "But we have not proven this virus causes prostate cancer." This finding has planted nagging suspicions in the minds of scientists that some diseases may play important roles alongside genetics, environment and chance in causing breast, stomach and several other forms of cancer. Researchers are not sure how the mouse virus infected people, but suspect it has been passed on genetically for many generations. "This is a class of virus no one would have looked for in prostate cancer," said A cientists from Old Dominion University and Eastern Virginia Medical School say they've killed melanomas in mice using extremely short, high-voltage doses of electricity. The researchers told the Virginian-Pilot that they've never had a tumour that did not respond to the treatment. Richard Nuccitelli, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Old Dominion, said the method might eventually turn into an effective cancer treatment. The electric bursts often disrupted the blood flow to the tumour cells and shrank their nuclei by 50 per cent, Nuccitelli said. The tumours died after two or three weeks of treatments. Each session involved hundreds of electrical pulses, each less than one one-millionth of a second and carrying 4,000 volts. Nuccitelli said he and his colleagues believe the process works by severely damaging DNA in the cells. The treatment produced no scarring and did not harm adjacent cells. All of the research mice survived, with no ill effects. The scientists said additional research will be needed before they can experiment on people. The research is to appear online in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. (Source: Physorg.com, 13 March 2006, http://www. physorg.com/news11697.html) UCSF researcher Joe DeRisi, who developed the so-called "gene chip" that made the discovery. DeRisi's chip contains 20,000 snippets of vital genetic material from every known virus. It is the same chip that confirmed a previously undiscovered virus in the cold family that caused the SARS outbreak three years ago. "We haven't really been thinking along those lines," said Dr Anthony Zietman, a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. "This is an interesting finding that will take off in a whole new direction." (Source: San Jose Mercury News, 24 Feb 2006, http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/ mercurynews/living/health/13950601.htm) GEORGE Ww. GUSH Commemorative stam F BRAIN CELLS FUSED WITH SILICON CHIP lhe line between living organisms and machines has just become a whole lot blurrier. European researchers have developed "neurochips” in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together. The achievement will one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders, or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons. To create the neurochip, researchers squeezed more than 16,000 transistors and hundreds of capacitors onto a silicon chip just one millimetre square in size. O fear off @Meisten with blood @ Get stuck 6 = NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com