BRAZIL-SCIENCE-CANCER-TICKS

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY MARC BURLEIGH - Picture taken through a laboratory microscope which shows a protein obtained from ticks salivary glands to be used for melanoma tumorals cells, --a kind of skin cancer--, at the molecular centre of Butantan Institute, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on August 25, 2009. One of nature's repulsive little blood-sucking parasites, the tick, could yield a future cure for cancers of the skin, liver and pancreas, Brazilian researchers have discovered. They have identified a protein in the saliva of a common South American tick, Amblyomma cajennense, that apparently reduces and can even eradicate cancerous cells while leaving healthy cells alone. AFP PHOTO/Mauricio LIMA (Photo by MAURICIO LIMA / AFP) (Photo by MAURICIO LIMA/AFP via Getty Images)