A group of scientists might have accidentally stumbled into a cure for cancer during a research on ways to combat malaria in pregnant women.
From the result of their findings, malaria could hold the key to a cure for cancer.
Dutch and Canadian experts claim the carbohydrate that the malaria parasite attaches itself to in the placenta of pregnant women is identical to a carbohydrate found in cancer cells, reports Metro UK.
Ali Salanti from University of Copenhagen said: “For decades, scientists have been searching for similarities between the growth of a placenta and a tumor.
“The placenta is an organ, which within a few months grows from only few cells into an organ weighing approx. two pounds, and it provides the embryo with oxygen and nourishment in a relatively foreign environment.
“In a manner of speaking, tumors do much the same, they grow aggressively in a relatively foreign environment.”
It was learnt that the scientists created a malaria protein mixed with a toxin which targets cancer cells.
The researchers disclosed that the cancer cells adsorb the mixture and the malaria kills the cancer.
Meanwhile, the scientists have started experiments on mice with cancer and hopefully, the tests can be carried out on humans in the next four years.
