Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Tel Aviv University Scientists Rein in Lingering Cancer Cells


Tel Aviv University Scientists Rein in Lingering Cancer Cells
By Judy Siegel-Itzkovich June 27, 2018 , 1:05 pm
And give worship to the Lord your God, who will send his blessing on your bread and on your water; and I will take all disease away from among you. Exodus 23:25 (The Israel Bible™)
Illustration of image-guided surgery using probes that light up in the presence of cancerous cells. (Credit: TAU)
Many cancer patients die not from the localized malignant tumor that is removed in surgery but when lingering cancer cells from the tumor spread by metastasis. Now, a team of researchers headed by Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro of the physiology and pharmacology department of at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine believe they have found a way to rein in these bandit cells that could dramatically improve the chances for patients after surgery.

They developed a fluorescent tag of injected polymers that is activated by an enzyme of which the cancer cells produce too much. This smart “Turn-ON” probe for guided imaging surgery is injected into the oncology patient a few hours before an operation to remove the primary tumor. The tag helps the surgeons pinpoint exactly where the cancer – even just a few cells that can’t be identified with an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computerized tomography (CT) scanner – is located. The doctors then can try to remove more cancer cells than was ever possible before.

“In cases of melanoma [the most dangerous skin cancer] and breast cancer, for example, surgeons may think they have removed everything and that the
patient is cancer free. But even if only a few cells remain after surgery, the cancer may recur and spread,” said Satchi-Fainaro, who is president of the Israeli chapter of the Controlled Release Society and co-editor-in-chief of the journal Clinical Cancer Drugs. “Our new technology can guide the surgeon to
completely excise the cancer.”

The team, which included lab students Rachel Blau, Yana Epshtein and Evgeni Pisarevsky, has just published the discovery in the journal Theranostics .

“When the cyanine molecules are held together by the polymer particle, the light waves they emit cancel each other out, and they remain dark,” said Sachi-Fainaru. “But once the nanoparticle reaches a cancerous cell, the connecting polymer is cut. The cyanine molecules move away from each other and shine brightly, but in the surrounding healthy tissue the polymer is not cut, and the area remains dark. Cathepsin cuts the tag from the polymer and turns on its fluorescence at a near-infrared light, guiding the surgeon in real time while taking out the solid tumor so he or she can also avoid cutting out any “non-glowing” healthy tissue.
The TAU technique makes use of near-infrared technology to find proliferating cancer cells. “The probe is a polymer that connects to a fluorescent tag made of molecules of cyanine dye using a ‘linker,’ which is recognized by an enzyme called cathepsin. This substance is overproduced in many cancer types,” she explained.

In professional terms, it means that the smart sensor has high sensitivity (it detects all the cancer cells) and also high selectivity (it does not tag healthy cells). In this way, the surgeon identifies the location of the cancer cells in real time, that is, during the surgery itself. Existing imaging device cannot do this.

The scientists first examined the effect of the probe in the lab on healthy skin and mammary tissue, followed by melanoma and breast cancer cells. They then used mouse models of melanoma and breast cancer to perform routine tumor-removal surgeries and smart probe-guided surgeries.

“The mice that had regular surgery experienced recurrence and metastasis much sooner and more often than those that underwent our smart probe-guided surgery,” noted Satchi-Fainaro. “Most importantly, those which experienced the smart-probe surgery survived much longer.”

Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro, chair of the Dept. of Physiology and Pharmacology at TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine. (Credit: Times of Israel Screenshot/Jonathan Bloom)

The results were very promising: mice analyzed without the sensor were soon diagnosed with metastasis or recurrence of the tumors themselves, and their life expectancy was short; only 40% of the mice in this group survived 120 days after the operation. But when the operation was performed using the new sensor, 80% of them remained healthy after 120 days. Thus, 60% of the mice analyzed the conventional way eventually died from the disease, compared to only 20% of those analyzed using the smart sensor.

The TAU scientist added that the probe may also cut the need for repeated surgeries in patients with cancer cells that remain in the edges of removed tissue. “Altogether, this can lead to the improvement of patient survival rates. We are currently designing and developing additional unique polymeric ‘Turn-ON’ probes for using in  image-guided surgery. We are always looking for ways to improve sensitivity and selectivity, which are paramount to cancer patients’ care,” she concluded.

“We have registered several patents, concluded Sachi-Fainaru, “and now we are negotiating with a number of pharmaceutical companies to advance to clinical trials and later to commercial production that can significantly increase patients’ chances of surviving the disease.”

Burning Man Recreating Mount Sinai for Idolatry


Burning Man Recreating Mount Sinai for Idolatry
Breaking Israel News
Latest News Biblical perspective
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz July 31, 2018 , 2:53 pm
All this serves man for fuel: He takes some to warm himself, And he builds a fire and bakes bread. He also makes a god of it and worships it, Fashions an idol and bows down to it! Isaiah 44:15 (The Israel Bible™)
Temple of Galaxia, Burning Man (Credit: Via architect’s Facebook page)
Thousands of people wearing bizarre costumes dance around a huge burning effigy that represents Celtic human sacrifice. Scattered around the pentagon-shaped camp are various makeshift temples to pagan gods. Moving through the crowds is a huge seven headed serpent. No, this is not science fiction or even a pagan festival held in some far-off land. This is the annual ten-day Burning Man Festival that will be held in the Nevada desert in three weeks.

Every year, the Burning Man Festival takes place in the late summer in Black Rock City – a temporary city erected in the Black Rock Desert of northwest Nevada. First held 32 years ago in 1986 as an intimate artists’ gathering on Baker Beach in San Francisco, the festival now attracts more than 70,000 attendees every year.

Though the organizers claim the festival is not religious in nature, there are several elements that appear regularly at the festival that are firmly rooted in idolatry. A 70-foot long seven-headed red metal dragon on wheels named for the ancient Egyptian god Abraxas, is clearly intended to reference Satan as described in the Christian Book of Revelations. Festivals have also featured a papier-mache sculpture of “Lord Shiva Natarja,” a Hindu god described as “the cosmic ecstatic dancer.”

The festival culminates in the eponymous ceremony in which a large wooden effigy of a man is burned. This ceremony, referred to among Druids as the “wicker man,” is almost universal among pagan cults and evolved as a replacement for human sacrifice. This symbolic element came closer to its origins last year when a 41-year-old man committed suicide by throwing himself into the flames of the Burning Man effigy.
The Burning Man effigy. (Credit: Shutterstock.com)

Rabbi Daniel Asore, a member of the nascent Sanhedrin, noted that the elements of ancient idolatry are clearly present in this modern-day gathering.The camp is carefully designed in a semicircle contained within a pentagon But when viewed from the air, it becomes clear that the angles are connected by lines creating a pentagram, the universal symbol of witchcraft and black magic.

“They are going out to the desert to recreate the giving of the Torah but they have replaced Mount Sinai as the focal point with the symbol of Satan,” Rabbi Asore told Breaking Israel News. “These people are not atheists. They are idolators. The difference between atheism and idolatry is that atheism denies God while idolatry is an attempt to replace God. They are trying to replace God.”

This year, the festival is going to be a strange mix of pagan worship and high-tech with the theme being “I,Robot,” focusing on artificial intelligence (AI). This theme will be reflected in the centerpiece structure, a massive wooden spiral temple dubbed Galaxia dedicated to the Greek goddess, Gaia. Galaxia is a name taken from a science-fiction novel by Isaac Asimov. In New Age mythology, Galaxia is the mother goddess corresponding to the Greek goddess Gaia, but on a higher galactic level. In mythology, Gaia is the personification of the Earth and the source of immortality. The worship of Gaia figures prominently in Neo-paganism.

“Technology is not, by nature, necessarily evil but it is often used as a temptation to distract people from the truth, to tempt them away from God by telling men they are greater than God,” Asore said. “In the case of artificial intelligence, this is clearly true. They will deny that God rules their lives but they welcome artificial intelligence. Even now, we carry around devices which ‘remind’ them of what they must do. It tracks their every movement and even tells them where they should go, when they need to leave, and what roads to take. This is not an aid. This is already bordering on mind-control.”

“The people who create this technology and the people who use it will deny that their intent is mind control. Truly modern people who were atheists would reject pentagrams and idols and believe there is no controlling power. The aspect of mind control comes from the idolatry giving control to dark forces.”

CA Cities Ratchet Up Blacklist Of Businesses Involved In Building Border Wall



Researcher’s note: More liberals abusing their power!
 
CA Cities Ratchet Up Blacklist Of Businesses Involved In Building Border Wall
ByHank Berrien
July 31, 2018
California cities are ratcheting up their efforts to blacklist businesses involved in the border wall President Trump wants to build. Last week, the majority Democratic San Diego City Council voted 3-1 for city officials to draft an ordinance requiring contractors competing for city projects to reveal any work or bids they have submitted for the border wall.

Council President Pro Tem Barbara Bry, a Democrat, stated, "Trump's border wall does nothing to promote San Diego's robust economy and our positive international ties with Mexico. Our region is stronger because of our cross-border exchange with our neighbors to the south,” as reported by The Washington Free Beacon.

Councilman Chris Cate, the Republican who voted against the action, said an ordinance would set a "bad precedent,” adding, "These folks rely on jobs to provide for their families.”

San Diego joins other cities punishing businesses for their work or bids on the prospective wall. Last December, Berkeley voted for the city to refuse to do business with companies helping to build the wall. Mayor Jesse ArreguĂ­n said, “We as a community do not stand for building walls, but breaking down walls. We’re not going to stand for what I think are racist and xenophobic policies that marginalize our immigrant population.”

The same month Berkeley voted, Oakland voted for an ordinance that stated the city would:

Refrain from entering into (formally bid/solicited or informally bid/solicited) all new or amended contracts to purchase all goods/commodities and services (i.e., professional, technical, scientific or financial services, goods, construction labor and materials or other services, or supplies) from businesses that enter into contracts to provide such services, goods, materials or supplies to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

In April, Los Angeles forced contractors to reveal whether they are helping to design, construct, operate, or maintain a "federally funded wall, fence or other barrier along the border between the United States and Mexico."

In March 2017, three California legislators introduced Assembly Bill 946, which would have required California’s pension funds to divest from any company involved in building the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Assemblymen Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) asserted, “Californians build bridges not walls. This is a wall of shame and we don’t want any part of it.”