Tag Archives: animals

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…

New immunotherapy for malignant brain tumors

Animal experiments show that it is relatively easy to treat cancer in the early stages. However, it is far more difficult to successfully treat advanced cancer. Treatment of brain tumors is particularly challenging because regulatory T-cells accumulate in brain tumors and suppress an immune attack. …

Link between allergies, increased risk of blood cancers in women

Notably, the study did not find the same association in men, which suggests a possible gender-specific role in chronic stimulation of the immune system that may lead to the development of hematologic cancers. The findings are published online ahead of the December print issue of the American Journal of Hematology. "To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first study to suggest important gender differences in the association between allergies and hematologic malignancies," wrote first author Mazyar Shadman, M.D., M.P.H., a senior fellow in the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. …

Tiny antisense molecules increase ‘good cholesterol’ levels in obese primates

"We have found that targeting both members of the miR-33 microRNA family with a tiny, 8-nucleotide anti-microRNA can increase HDL levels by almost 40 percent," says Anders Näär, PhD, of the MGH Center for Cancer Research, who led the study. "This sets the stage for new therapeutic strategies to treat cardiovascular disease in humans and provides a template for targeting other disease-associated microRNA families." Major regulators of gene expression, microRNAs are segments made up of 20- to 24-nucleotides that bind to complementary strands of messenger RNA, blocking their translation into proteins. A 2010 study led by Näär identified two related microRNAs — miR-33a and miR-33b — that inhibit a protein called ABCA1, which is essential for both the generation of HDL and for the transport of lipids to the liver. …

Inflammatory skin damage blocked by bleach solution in animal study

The study was conducted on mice. But if shown to work similarly in humans, the inexpensive, widely available household chemical could provide a new way to treat skin damage caused by radiation therapy, excess sun exposure or aging. Dilute bleach baths have been used for decades to treat moderate to severe eczema in humans, but it has not been clear until now why they work…

Compact delivery system for microbeam radiation therapy developed using nanotechnology

In a study published online by Applied Physics Letters, a multidisciplinary team led by Physics Professor Otto Zhou, PhD; Radiation Oncology Associate Professor X. Sha Chang, PhD; and Physics Professor Jianping Lu, PhD, built a device using carbon nanotube-based x-ray source array technology developed at UNC that can generate microbeam radiation with similar characteristics as the beams generated by synchrotron radiation. Researchers from Applied Sciences and Radiology at UNC also participated in this study. Zhou, a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, points to several studies that have shown that microbeam radiation destroyed tumors and increased survival by as much as a factor of ten in brain tumor bearing animals treated with the technique. …

Compound derived from vegetables shields rodents from lethal radiation doses

Their study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests the compound, already shown to be safe for humans, may protect normal tissues during radiation therapy for cancer treatment and prevent or mitigate sickness caused by radiation exposure. The compound, known as DIM (3,3′-diindolylmethane), previously has been found to have cancer preventive properties. "DIM has been studied as a cancer prevention agent for years, but this is the first indication that DIM can also act as a radiation protector," says the study’s corresponding author, Eliot Rosen, MD, PhD, of Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. For the study, the researchers irradiated rats with lethal doses of gamma ray radiation…

New technique in RNA interference cuts time and cost in genetic screens

RNA interference is a natural process by which RNA molecules inhibit gene expression, but it can also be used by scientists to block a gene’s function and look for those that contribute to certain diseases. "For years, fruit flies and worms have been great model organisms because of the ability to carry out rapid genetic screens," says Elaine Fuchs, Rebecca C…