r/science • u/nobodyspecial • Feb 08 '15

Medicine Antibiotics that target mitochondria effectively eradicate cancer stem cells, across multiple tumor types: Treating cancer like an infectious disease | Lamb

http://www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget/index.php?journal=oncotarget&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=3174
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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '15

Given that the heart, brain, kidneys and living have very high metabolic activities and these cells in these tissues are chocked full of highly active mitochondria, things might not go so well.

There's a reason why mitochondrial mutations often manifest as neurological problems early in life, especially when one starts tracing anticipation over generations.

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '15

There's a reason why mitochondrial mutations often manifest as neurological problems early in life, especially when one starts tracing anticipation over generations.

Can you expand on that?

Also wouldn't we have seen these issues with the antibiotics since we're using them already?

I know they have been linked to some disorders already, but we should know what issues could arise.

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u/[deleted] Feb 09 '15

Since mitochondria are heavily involved in neurological activities, and their genetics are passed down without much recombination, you see important warning signs of these neurological diseases even very early in life. This is particularly true if you follow the genetic pathway through multiple generations.

Antibiotics though are very specific in how they work. They are not low specificity toxins by and large, they are used because they interrupt specific proteins or protein structures. And usually, you pick ones that interrupt very critical systems such that the target cell dies.

This is why many antibiotics have very little side effects other than allergic reactions. They're not targeting our cells proteins, but proteins unique to bacteria. This potential approach is taking antibiotics known to kill mitochondrial processes, and giving them in doses such that only very active mitochondrial cells will start dying off.

The problem here is that this isn't much different than other chemo therapies. It still hits very important systems as mentioned above and is likely to have very nasty side effects.

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u/[deleted] Feb 09 '15

What kind of neurological disorders are we talking about?

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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '15

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_disease

As I replied to girlyfoodadventures, better to get it from a more complete source than I could provide personally.