Tag Archives: materials

Regulation of cancer stem cell growth, survival

In this paper, the authors show evidence indicating the presence of autocrine/paracrine EPO in the conditioned medium of cultured breast cancer cells and a functional role of an EPO-EPOR autocrine/paracrine loop in regulating tumor cell invasion and migration, and the stem-ness of breast cancer cells. The data support a novel paradigm wherein autocrine/paracrine EPO may regulate tumorigenesis of breast cancer via stimulating a small percentage of stem-like cancer cells or tumor-initiating cells. This mode of EPO action may explain why some studies reported in literature failed to demonstrate a pro-proliferative and pro-survival role of EPO in cancer cells when whole-populations of cancer cells were analyzed in these studies. source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140106160121.htm

Fundamental differences found between human cancers, genetically engineered mouse models

These genetically engineered mouse models (which usually either overexpress a cancer-causing gene — or "oncogene" — or carry a deletion for a "tumor suppressor" gene) have been extensively used to understand human cancer biology in studies of drug resistance, early detection, metastasis, and cancer prevention, as well as for the preclinical development of novel targeted therapeutics. Cancer is a multistep process that involves a complex interplay between genetic and epigenetic alterations. Epigenetic modifications mediate changes in gene expression without altering the DNA sequence. …

Killer cocktail fights brain cancer

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive form of brain cancer, and current treatments only modestly prolong patient survival. Immune cells called T cells have the capacity to attack and kill tumor cells, but tumors can counteract this attack by creating an environment that dampens T cell activity. T cells have ways of limiting their own activation (and thus autoimmunity), one of which is to express inhibitory cell surface proteins upon activation. In other cancer models, strategies to block these inhibitory proteins have been shown to reinvigorate T cell activation and thus promote tumor regression…