Miracle Cure?

Posted May 8, 2014 0:38 UTC (Thu) by yodermk (subscriber, #3803)
In reply to: Miracle Cure? by nix
Parent article: A note from your editor

I don't understand all the biology of it, but Griffin's claim is that there is an enzyme that releases the cyanide *right at the point of* the cancer cells, and another enzyme that prevents it from killing other cells.

Very fascinating, if true ...

Miracle Cure?

Posted May 8, 2014 3:10 UTC (Thu) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

Which enzyme? We know quite a lot of them pretty well by now and it'll take a very unusual enzyme to reversibly bind cyanide ions and release them in tumor cells.

Besides, tumor cells are much less sensitive to cyanide (it's even sometimes used in lab to kill healthy cells in cell cultures) because they preferably use anaerobic metabolism.

Normal cells are pretty much hardened against cyanide and can de-toxify in one hour a dose that can be lethal if administered momentarily. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiosulfate_sulfurtransferase enzyme is used for it and it's rate-limited by the availability of sulfurous acceptors.