New research published today in the Journal of Biological Chemistry reveals that an enzyme called MMP-8 (matrix metalloproteinase-8) could be acting as a locator to the immune system, which then becomes activated to attack tumours. It was originally thought that the production of MMPs by breast cancer cells worked to promote cancer growth. …
Dr. Shawn Li, PhD, and his team at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, identified that a protein called Numb functions to promote the death of cancer cells by binding to and stabilizing a tumor suppressor protein called p53 -a master regulator of cell death. The scientists found when Numb is reduced or methylated by an enzyme called Set8, it will no longer protect p53. …
The imaging technique, which is detailed in the Journal of Biomedical Optics, is being developed by Kristen Maitland, assistant professor in the university’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. It combines two separate technologies — confocal microscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging — to noninvasively evaluate both the structural changes of tissue as well as molecular changes that take place on a cellular and tissue level…
Dr. Yinfa Ma, Curators’ Teaching Professor of chemistry at Missouri S&T, uses a device called a P-scan, to detect the concentration of certain metabolites called pteredines in urine samples. These biomarkers are present in the urine of all human beings, but abnormally high concentrations can signal the presence of cancer. Ma believes the levels continue to rise as the cancer advances…
"Cells normally monitor the availability of nutrients and will slow down or accelerate their growth and division accordingly. A key monitor of nutrients is a protein called the Target of Rapamycin (TOR), but we do not know the details of how this protein feeds signals downstream to control growth" says Dr. Stephen Michnick, senior author and a University of Montreal biochemistry professor…
Under conditions of oxygen starvation often encountered by tumors, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gums up the cell’s miRNA-processing machinery, an international team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center discovered. "So when hypoxia stresses a cell, signaling by EGFR prevents immature miRNAs from growing up to fight cancer," said senior author Mien-Chie Hung, Ph.D., professor and chair of MD Anderson’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology and holder of the Ruth Legett Jones Distinguished Chair…
"New treatment approaches are very much needed for children with high-risk childhood cancers; that is, those that are metastatic at diagnosis and likely to recur," says senior study author Kimberly Stegmaier of the Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center and the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. "By focusing on an alternative strategy to treating neuroblastoma tumors, we identified a compound class that in early testing in neuroblastoma cells in the laboratory shows promise for treating children with this disease." Beyond the standard approach of using drugs that kill tumor cells, another promising strategy is to identify compounds that promote differentiation, which causes tumor cells to stop dividing and growing. But the benefits of differentiation therapy had not been fully explored. …
Officials investigating a cluster of mysterious illnesses in Alabama have so far found only cold and flu viruses. In tests on seven of the nine patients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found no sign that the illnesses were caused by any single germ, CDC spokeswoman Sharon Hoskins said in an email. Meanwhile, Alabama officials said they had added two more cases to the cluster, which included two earlier deaths. Seven of the cases were reported last week, including the deaths. The two new illnesses were reported this week. Most of the nine were treated at Southeast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan, but one was seen at a hospital in Crenshaw County. Health officials have described the patients as ranging in age from 20 to more than 80. The nine people suffered a flu-like illness with symptoms like fever, cough and shortness of breath. Mysterious illnesses are always unnerving, but the cluster report came at a particularly sensitive time. Health officials have been monitoring two deadly new illnesses that recently surfaced in different parts of the world — one a deadly form of bird flu that has appeared in China, the other a SARS-like coronavirus that seems to have originated in the Middle East. The bird flu has caused 131 illnesses and 32 deaths since the beginning of the year, according to the World Health Organization. The SARS-like virus (called MERS) has been identified as the cause of 44 illnesses, including 22 deaths, the WHO said. Neither seems to be highly contagious so far, and neither illness has been reported in the United States. But in a world of daily international air travel, it's always possible that a concerning new germ will hitchhike on an infected globetrotter and enter this country. The CDC tested the Alabama patients for MERS, for different forms of flu and for more than a dozen other illnesses, the agency spokeswoman said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/23/mystery-illness-in-alabama-mostly-colds-and-flu-tests-show/
Cells in the human body do not function in isolation. Living cells rely on communication with their environment — neighboring cells and the surrounding matrix — to activate a wide range of cellular functions, including reproduction of new cells, differentiation of stem cells into distinct cell types, cell adhesion, and migration of white blood cells to fight bodily infections. This cellular communication occurs on the molecular level and it is reciprocal: a cell receives cues from and also transmits function-activating cues to its neighbors…
Screening for lung cancer using low-dose computed tomography (CT scans) rather than chest X-rays may be a more effective way of detecting the disease, Medscape Today reported. Researchers hope that these results, collected as part of the National Lung Screening Trial, will provide more detailed information about the benefits of various types of lung cancer screening available to patients and physicians. During the study, 26,309 participants received low-dose CT scans, and 26,035 participants underwent chest radiography to detect for signs of lung cancer. Among those who received CT scans, a total of 7,191 participants (27.3 percent) had a positive screening result, compared to 2,387 (9.2 percent) in the chest X-ray group. Overall, lung cancer was diagnosed in 292 participants (1.1 percent) in the CT group compared with 190 (0.7 percent) in the radiography group. Previously, experts had been concerned that the high level of false-positive screenings that occur during CT scans would lead to undue stress, unnecessary testing and high medical bills for patients, Medscape Today reported. However, the new report reveals that the majority of patients who had a positive result after their CT scan only underwent one additional diagnostic test. “In many of the previous analyses people have assumed that there would be three or four or five additional diagnostic tests for every positive screen, and this has ramifications for the cost effectiveness of screening,” study author Dr. William C. Black, professor of radiology at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., told Medscape Today. Black is hopeful that these results will provide a good frame of reference for other lung cancer screening programs. “If patients and their clinicians are trying to decide whether or not to get screened, they can always refer to these results. They will let patients know what they can expect, what are the likely outcomes, not just in terms of dying of lung cancer, which is only going to happen to a small percentage of people who get screened, but also in terms of the false positives and what happens afterwards,” Dr. Black told Medscape Today. People eligible for lung cancer screening include men and women, ages 55 to 74, who have a 30-pack-per year history of smoking, those who have quit smoking in the last 15 years and those who are medically fit for surgery. Click for more from Medscape Today.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/23/lung-cancer-screening-ct-scans-more-effective-than-x-rays/