Blog 10.1 Gastric Cancer is Lacto(ferricin) Intolerant

A cow goes, "Moooooolecular Biology"

Scientists have recently found a way to kill human stomach cancer cells using an enzyme found in cow milk called lactoferricin B25, which is a known antimicrobial and anticancer agent. Previously, like other cancers, gastric cancers have usually only been treated at an early stage via chemotherapy. Using lactoferricin B peptide fragments, the B25 fragment was the only peptide found to effectively kill human gastric adenocarcinoma cells. Scientists saw that the cells lost their ability to adhere to walls of the cell plates when lactoferricin B25 was present. A bit later, the cells started to die by, first, both apoptosis (cell suicide) and autophagy, then solely by apoptosis. It was also found that a cleaved key protein called Beclin-1 increased gradually in the presence of the lactoferricin B25. This is a good thing, as Beclin-1 is linked to tumor inhibition, which causes the anticancer effects of lactoferricin to increase. My question to you is this: How do you think scientists will/should go about experimenting with this potential cancer curing peptide (for example: testing on monkeys, testing on mice, or even straight to testing on humans)? If you can, explain why you think they will/should do this.

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