UAE | General
Cancer cure from desert
Camels at the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory in Dubai are playing a vital role in developing new ways of diagnosing and treating prostate cancer.
- By Daniel Bardsley, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 February 9, 2007
- Image Credit: Regi Varghese/Gulf News
- Dr Ulrich Wernery feeds camels at the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) in Dubai.
Dubai: Camels at a research centre in Dubai are playing a vital role in developing new ways of diagnosing and treating prostate cancer.
The animals at the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) are being used to generate antibodies that scientists hope will be of use in the detection and treatment of the disease.
In future, similar technology could be used to combat other deadly conditions — even Aids.
The camels, which are former racing animals kept at the CVRL's headquarters in Dubai, are injected with proteins extracted from tumour cells from patients who suffer from prostate cancer.
In response to these proteins, which are called antigens, they produce specific antibodies, proteins created by the body to destroy foreign substances.
These antibodies can then be extracted from the camel and it is hoped that they could eventually be used in the creation of test kits for the detection of prostate cancer and even in the destruction of tumours.
Dr Ulrich Wernery, Scientific Director of the CVRL, said camels were “very good antibody producers'' because the antibodies they make, called nanobodies, are much smaller and more heat resistant than those generated by other animals' bodies.
Antibodies
“Because these antibodies are small — about 40 times smaller than a conventional antibody — they are much better at penetrating tissue,'' he told Gulf News.
For the diagnosis of prostate cancer, the camel antibodies would be mixed with a blood sample of the patient. If there is a reaction or agglutination after mixing, it suggests the patient does have cancer, since the antibodies from the camel would be attaching themselves to tumour cells in that patient's blood.
To treat a patient, purified antibodies could be added to an anti-cancer drug and then injected into a person with prostate cancer. The antibody with the cancer drug will migrate to the tumour cells and destroy them. “We have to inject the camel with the antigen [the foreign substance that causes antibody production] six times and when they have enough antibodies then we take blood from them,'' Dr Wernery said.
The CVRL is co-operating on the project with scientists in the Belgian capital, Brussels, who were the first to detect camel nanobodies, publishing their results in 1993.
Dr Wernery's wife Renate, a scientist at the CVRL, said: “Companies turn to us because we have the best means of creating these nanobodies. We can harvest the antibodies under the best hygienic conditions and prepare them for further work.''
Related Links
Latest news
- Sharjah boy tops Indian board's class 12 exams
- Dubai number plates auction raises Dh27m
- Youngsters dance and raise cash for charity
- Dubai departments upgrade services
- Get yourself a free test for diabetes
- Ensuring a safety net for intellectual property
- Reader's issue addressed
- 5,552 illegals held in Dubai this year
- Man cleared because he took drugs in France
- Man charged with trafficking women
- Auditors to probe Mizin graft case
- Breaking down cultural barriers with photographs
- Abu Dhabi Crown Prince visits Islamic centre
- Transfusion centre launches new toll free number
- Smart e-Gate system launched
Community Reports
-
Mirror, mirror show me the way
Driver on Salam Street had so many boxes and fruits piled into car, he would not be able to view rear or right side mirrors
-
Parents should be more vigilant
Reader's picture highlights risk of negligence by caretakers
-
Warming up to ‘Mobilise the Earth' theme
Dubai school dedicates a whole week to celebrating Earth Day with can-collection drives, sapling plantation and painting competition among others
-
Drivers using mobiles put others' lives at risk
Speeding is dangerous for the driver and other motorists
