Pesticide Inhibits Mesothelioma Cell Growth in Lab Animals
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Pesticide Inhibits Mesothelioma Cell Growth in Lab Animals

ByAlex Strauss

Researchers in Switzerland say a pesticide designed to make grapes and kiwifruit bigger can also slow mesothelioma cell growth.  The EPA approved forchlorfenuron (FCF) in 2004. Farmers use it to help grapes and kiwifruit grow bigger, break less easily, and last longer in cold storage. But new research at the University of Fribourg suggests that the chemical has the opposite effect on mesothelioma cell growth. Mesothelioma cells exposed to FCF are less likely to live and spread. The researchers say this could be a promising step toward a new kind of mesothelioma treatment.  Forchlorfenuron and Mesothelioma Cell Growth The EPA classifies FCF as a plant growth regulator. According to the EPA fact sheet, FCF is a cytokinin which “improves fruit…

Chicken Virus Key to Experimental Mesothelioma Treatment
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Chicken Virus Key to Experimental Mesothelioma Treatment

ByAlex Strauss

An experimental treatment using a modified bird virus may hold promise for people with advanced malignant mesothelioma. Fowlpox is a viral infection that primarily affects chickens and turkeys. It is caused by an avipoxvirus from the Poxviridae family.  Recently, some of the world’s top mesothelioma researchers at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii used an altered form of the Fowlpox virus to successfully stimulate an anti-tumor immune response in mice with mesothelioma cancer. The treatment focused on a protein called survivin which is overexpressed by most human cancers, including mesothelioma, but rarely found in healthy tissues. In an effort to jump-start the immune systems of lab mice into targeting and attacking survivin-producing mesothelioma cells, the…