According to the National Cancer Institute, more than a third of all human cancers are driven by mutations in the Ras family of genes. When Ras is activated, it promotes tumor growth but also activates autophagy which helps to sustain that growth. These cancers remodel proteins using the cellular self-cannibalization process known as autophagy to capture and degrade intracellular proteins and protein-containing organelles…
source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140326182240.htm
A new finding by University of Pennsylvania scientists has identified key steps that trigger this disintegration of cellular regulation. Their discovery — that a protein called Exo70 has a split personality, with one form keeping cells under tight control and another contributing to the ability of tumors to invade distant parts of the body — points to new possibilities for diagnosing cancer metastasis. The research, published in the journal Developmental Cell, was conducted by a team of researchers from the School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology; the Perelman School of Medicine’s pathobiology and laboratory medicine, medicine and genetics departments, and China’s Hangzhou Normal University School of Medicine. …
The researchers, from the lab of Charles Dann III, assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dann said the results should help chemists create more effective antifolate drugs, which act by interfering with the ability of folates — also called folic acid or vitamin B9 — to perform tasks that are essential for cell growth. …