Sunday 6 April 2014

Ingenious: Tobacco Plant Species Fights Cancer

Ingenuity or irony, a species of the tobacco plant used to make cigarettes, Nicotania Alata, contain the protein NaD1 that fights cancer (and sounds pretty good at it, too):
NaD1 latches onto cancer cells with its pincer-like structure, causing them to form little balloons on the surface until they explode. But, what makes it an ideal cure is that while it attacks affected cells, it leaves healthy ones untouched. 
Sounds like a miracle drug but it is not expected to leave the laboratories for years. It's good that there is hope, though.

via Engadget.

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