Feb 2, 2010: Henrietta Lacks

[Adak]

I asked some cancer researchers just that question. They said it would be alright for you to come and find out.

Sometimes they have such a practical way of thinking!

Your appointment is at 10 a.m. on Friday.

Seriously, this kind of stuff always scares the beejesus out of me. Just let something like that get out, and have it be

1) highly contagious, and

2) quickly fatal

and you're looking at a real threat to our species.

[Tuba Loons]

pics or gtfo

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by SPUCK

So what happens when one of these HeLa cells floats up some researcher's nose?

Poop molecules.

[gozar]

Here's another article with more info:
http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0400web/01.html

[xoxoxoBruce]

Excellent link, thanks gozar.

[Pie]

Originally Posted by Adak

Seriously, this kind of stuff always scares the beejesus out of me. Just let something like that get out, and have it be

1) highly contagious, and
2) quickly fatal

and you're looking at a real threat to our species.

Most human immune systems would be able to contain the HeLa cells. They are sufficiently different from our genetic makeup that they would be spotted as intruders and killed off.

Petri dishes and other growth media don't have immune systems.

ETA: they have been worked with since the 1950s when protocols were far laxer, and are considered Biosafety level 2 materials. If these were going to get out of control in the human population, it would have happened a long time ago.

Fight FUD!

ETA2: They have a different number of chromosomes that the standard human. Some researchers have postulated that it is in fact a new species: Helacyton gartleri. Amazing!


ETA3: from MeFi:

Originally Posted by ubersturm

I did a bunch of research on this - a needlestick left me wondering what would have happened if I'd been working with live cells like HeLa. As far as I have been able to tell, there aren't any documented cases of HeLa cells causing a tumor in another living person. Most of the cases of human cancer transmission have either involved close relatives (meaning that the body is more likely to incorrectly read the foreign tumor cells as its own, and fail to mount an immune response against them) or people with suppressed immune systems (especially recipients of donated organs.) There are some cases of mother-to-fetus transmission recorded as well. Henri Vadon is one of the few cases I've been able to find where an unrelated person with a non-compromised immune system got cancer from someone else. Additionally, all these reports involve pretty direct exposure to the living tumor in the person with the original cancer (or samples of the cancer/infected organs); I haven't seen any reports of transmission via cancer strains cultured in lab.

[SPUCK]

Good info pie. Thanks.

[ZenGum]

Doesn't the Human Papiloma Virus cause cervical cancer?

1) highly contagious, and

2) quickly fatal

and you're looking at a real threat to our species.

Certainly, a threat to our economy and civilisation, but as population thins out, it becomes harder and harder for the disease to spread, so probably there would be pockets of survivors here and there. Biological control almost never wipes out a species.

[Adak]

HPV? Not usually. Most people's immune system prevents the virus from taking over cells in that way. The HPV lives on, but doesn't cause much problem.

Some strains of HPV are worse in that respect, than others though.

If you saw the YouTube vid's on "Tree Man", you see a guy who's skin cells were able to be taken over by a strain of HPV, and the result was horrific to say the least.

He just didn't have the normal gene immune response to control the HPV strain he came in contact with.

There are some other virus's which do cause cancer directly, but they're rare. They just found a new one that jumped species from dogs, according to the BBC this month.

The virus's and bacteria I worry about are the one's that we create as biological weapons. Where they splice something that spreads as fast as measles, onto a deadly killer disease.

Fast acting, no known cure. It would make HIV look like peanuts in comparison. Several countries have done significant research into this field.

[ZenGum]

If you're into that sort of thing, look for the sciencegasm thread; I put some links there about new broad spectrum antivirals. Excellent stuff, but a lot of it was done by DARPA .

[Pico and ME]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Doesn't the Human Papiloma Virus cause cervical cancer?



Certainly, a threat to our economy and civilisation, but as population thins out, it becomes harder and harder for the disease to spread, so probably there would be pockets of survivors here and there. Biological control almost never wipes out a species.

Thats reassuring...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

If you're into that sort of thing, look for the sciencegasm thread; I put some links there about new broad spectrum antivirals. Excellent stuff, but a lot of it was done by DARPA .

DARPA funds a lot of research they think might be of benefit to the military, at some time. A great deal of the results find there way into the civilian marketplace.

[ZenGum]

True, I'm hoping this is a Defense Against Dark Arts idea.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Well if you want to worry about something, worry about this.

[ZenGum]

What could possibly go wrong?