File under “ha-bloody-fucking-ha!”:
To all the bastards who have tried over the years to ban smoking in public places and have driven the price of tobacco up with their whiney little lawsuits (gosh, your honor, no one ever told me that cigarette smoking was bad for you… how could I know that sucking hot smoke in my lungs would hurt me…) and threatened for years to try and put “Big Tobacco” out of business, I offer this little nugget:
The BBC reported today that Tobacco is now being studied in the US as a possible treatment for cancer.
Lemme give all you non-smokers out there a chance to process that, and all you smokers out there a chance to catch your breath.
Is everybody ready?
A lymphoma results when damage to DNA occurs to lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) that basically prevents those cells from dying when they should, causing them to lump together in the lymph nodes as tumors, as well as spread to other areas of the lymphatic system, like bone marrow. Follicular (center cell) non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a b-cell cancer, b-cells being a type of lymphocytes that ordinarily defend against illness. Follicular non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma accounts for 30% of all non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas, which, combined with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, comprise about 5% of all reported cases of cancer, and is most common among 60-to-65-year-old’s. It’s this type of cancer that the new tobacco testing has been focused on (I know, not as poetic as it would’ve been if it had been lung cancer, but the research is still in it’s early stages).
Tobacco ‘could help treat cancer’
The ironic new role for tobacco is the work of researchers from Stanford University in California.
They are using the plants as factories for an antibody chemical specific to the cells which cause follicular B-cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
These antibodies are put into a patient newly-diagnosed with the disease, to “prime” the body’s immune system to attack any cell carrying them.
If successful, this would mean the body would then recognise and destroy the lymphoma cells.
However, every patient’s antibodies are different, and would need to be produced quickly once the diagnosis was made.
The idea is not a new one - attempts have already been made to grow these antibodies inside animal cells, with mixed success.
However, a plant-grown vaccine would be much cheaper and in theory could carry less risk to the patient, as animal cells might hold unknown viruses.
…
The plants are then “infected” with the virus, and as it spreads through the cells, the added gene starts the process of producing large quantities of the antibody.
After just a few days a few leaves are taken, ground up, and the antibody extracted from them.
Only a few plants are needed to make enough vaccine for a patient.
semperfried76 is the last hope for humanity.
Too bad he hates you all.Professor Charles Arntzen, from Arizona State University, said that the sheer speed of the production process could convince patients to wait for their own tailored vaccine rather than undergoing other treatment.
The science people say that there are still experiments to run, research to be done, yadda-yadda-yadda, so don’t get excited… blah-blah-blah…
The point is this- tobacco=good, preachy “truth.com” kids=sophomoric ass-clowns.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
