Costly drugs to treat conditions such as cancer and arthritis could be manufactured more cheaply with a new technique developed by scientists at the University of Edinburgh that uses cell cultures removed from dead cells. Up to now, these medicines have been expensive to make due to the time-consuming, labor-intensive nature of developing them in cell culture.
The University of Edinburgh scientists have streamlined this process using magnetic beads coated with special antibodies that bind to dead cells without harming the remaining healthy cells. A magnet is then used to draw the dead cells out, leaving the living cells to produce beneficial proteins more effectively. Researchers have found that removing dead cells can increase productivity of cell cultures by more than 100 per cent.
Professor Chris Gregory of the University's Centre for Inflammation Research said, "We are essentially mimicking what happens in the body when scavenger cells remove dead and abnormal cells. If the dead cells are not removed, then this affects how healthy cells behave. Gregory added, "Not only will this make the production of drugs more efficient, it will also streamline research into new medicines which use cell culture."
