Tag Archives: biology

Targeting errant immune system enzyme kills myelodysplastic cells

Reporting their results July 8 in Cancer Cell, researchers say their successful laboratory tests in human MDS cells and mouse models of MDS provide a molecular target for designing new drugs to battle a syndrome with few effective treatments. "There is an urgent need to develop new targeted therapies that can eliminate MDS-initiating clone cells and provide a durable therapeutic response," said Daniel Starczynowski, PhD, lead researcher and a member of the Division of Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center…

Cancer is a result of a default cellular ‘safe mode,’ physicist proposes

In this month’s special issue of Physics World devoted to the "physics of cancer," Paul Davies, principal investigator at Arizona State University’s Center for Convergence of Physical Sciences and Cancer Biology, explains his radical new theory. Davies was brought in to lead the centre in 2009 having almost no experience in cancer research whatsoever. …

Telomere length influences cancer cell differentiation

"Cancer cells may maintain short telomeres to maintain their undifferentiated state," says Hiroyuki Seimiya, a researcher on the study. Telomeres are protective extensions on the ends of chromosomes, which shorten as cells age, like an hourglass running down. They protect the end of the chromosome from deterioration or from fusion with neighboring chromosomes.Without telomeres chromosomes would progressively lose genetic information as cells divide and replicate. Cancer cells have shorter telomeres compared to healthy cells, but they guard their immortality by maintaining these telomeres’ length. …

Protein is involved with colon cancer cell’s ability to invade other cells

Previous research shows that km23-1 is involved in the movement of cancer cells and in the control of specific proteins at the leading edge of moving cells. Kathleen Mulder, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, who discovered the protein, now says km23-1 is used in the cancer cell’s ability to move out of a tumor in the early stages ofinvasion. "km23-1 may be able to help in this process due to its role in the assembly of large groups of proteins favorable to cancer invasion," Mulder said. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States. …

New screening approach quickly identifies small proteins unique to melanoma cells

The new approach is outlined in an article published online by Nature Medicine in May. A previous phase 2 clinical trial showed substantial regression of metastatic lesions in up to 70 percent of melanoma patients who were treated with self-donated tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. "The trial, which involved the adaptive transfer of a patient’s own immune cells, showed a complete tumor regression lasting at least five years in nearly 40 percent of the patients," Teer said. …

New study on popular prostate cancer protein provides insight into disease progression

Researchers have long understood the function of the protein, Caveolin-1 (Cav-1), in prostate cancer, including its role in treatment resistance and disease aggressiveness. However, prior to this study, little was known about the role of Cav-1 within the stroma. The study, published in the Journal of Pathology, found that a decreased level of the Cav-1 protein in the stroma indicated tumor progression — a function opposite to the known role of Cav-1 within a tumor…

Chlamydia promotes gene mutations

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin (MPIIB) now show that Chlamydia infections can cause mutations in the host DNA by overriding the normal mechanisms by which their host prevents unregulated growth of genetically damaged cells that pave the way for the development of cancer. Owing to their intracellular lifestyle Chlamydia depend on various host cell functions for their survival. Chlamydia manipulates the host cell mechanism to favour its growth, however the consequences of such alterations on the fate of host cells remains enigmatic…

Pluripotent stem cells made from pancreatic cancer cells are first human model of the cancer’s progression

Still, researchers and clinicians don’t have a non-invasive way to even detect early cells that portent later disease. ‘There’s no PSA test for pancreatic cancer,’ they say, and that’s one of the main reasons why pancreatic cancer is detected so late in its course. They have been searching for a human-cell model of early-disease progression…