North Carolina State University, Dept. of Entomology
Since my childhood, growing up in rural Arkansas (yes, a paradise for a wide variety of blood-loving organisms) I have believed that the only value of ticks was to get paid for removing them from a neighbor’s dog. In Arkansas, you get paid by weight not by the piece (just kidding, of course). In the August 31st issue of the “Japan Times” I read an article about researchers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, who are working with a protein found in tick saliva. The researchers were initially experimenting with the protein’s anticoagulant properties when they stumbled across the fact that the protein also seems to inhibit tumor growth. Ana Marisa Chudzinski-Tavassi, lead researcher at Instituto Butantan Sau Paulo, said that her team was surprised to find that the protein killed tumorous cells but left normal cells untouched.
“If I treat every day for 14 days an animal’s tumor, this tumor doesn’t develop—it even regresses. The tumor mass shrinks. If I treat for 42 days, you totally eliminate the tumor,” Chudzinski-Tavassi said.
Don’t get your hopes up for an over-the-counter cancer cure anytime in the near future. Although Chudzinski-Tavassi has applied for a patent on the tick protein and is presenting the team’s discoveries to professional organizations around the world, she admits that moving forward will be extremely difficult and time-consuming. She said, “To discover this is one thing. To turn it into a medicine is a whole other thing entirely.”
And on a final note…after reading this article, please do not cover your body in dog ticks, thinking that you can prevent or cure cancer. Not only do ticks carry a number of dangerous diseases, they also tend to prefer to feed in the most delicate and sensitive parts of the body…leaving some painful reminders of their visit. Take my word for it, you don’t want to experience that.
Tags: alternative medical treatment, cancer treatment, humor, medical discovery, ticks
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