Mutations in the gene that encodes BRCA2 are well known for raising the risk of breast cancer and other cancers. Although the protein was known to be involved in DNA repair, its shape and mechanism have been unclear, making it impossible to target with therapies. …
The scientists at the University’s Centre for Biomolecular Sciences have shed new light on how two proteins found on many human cells are targeted by the human pathogen Neisseria meningitidis which can cause life-threatening meningitis and septicaemia. The proteins, laminin receptor (LAMR1) and galectin-3 (Gal-3) are found in and on the surface of many human cells. Previous research has shown they play diverse roles in a variety of infectious and non-infectious diseases. For example, the LAMR1 is a key receptor targeted by disease-causing pathogens and their toxins and is also a receptor for the spread of cancer around the body and for the development of Alzheimer’s. …
Unlike other mammals used in research, dogs develop cancer spontaneously as humans do and cancer is the most common cause of death in this species. The dog genome has been obtained in recent years, but we still don’t know how is controlled and regulated, what we call the epigenome. This week the team led by Manel Esteller, director of the Program for Epigenetics and Cancer Biology (PEBC) at Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona and ICREA researcher, has characterized the dog’s epigenome and transferred the results to human cancer to understand the changes in appearance of tumors. The finding is published this week in the journal Cancer Research. …
Researchers led by LMU’s Professor Angelika Vollmar and Professor Stephan Sieber of the Technische Universit�t M�nchen have identified a class of chemicals that represent a potential new weapon in the fight against malignant tumors. The compound is itself non-toxic, but it stimulates the killing of rapidly dividing cells by chemotherapeutic drugs. …
In a randomized phase II study, researchers showed that patients whose lung cancers expressed low levels of an enzyme called thymidylate synthase experienced a greater benefit from treatment with the combination of pemetrexed and cisplatin than those whose tumours expressed high levels. “Thymidylate synthase is one of the proteins that is targeted by pemetrexed which is the most widely used chemotherapeutic regimen in the treatment of non-squamous NSCLC,” explains study author Professor Myung-Ju Ahn, from the Section of Hematology-Oncology at Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. “In this study, we tried to evaluate whether expression of thymidylate synthase is a predictive factor for response to pemetrexed plus cisplatin chemotherapy compared with gemcitabine plus cisplatin in non-squamous cell lung cancer patients.” In terms of response rate and progression-free survival, the clinical benefits of the pemetrexed combination compared to other regimen were more prominent in those patients who expressed low levels of the molecule, Ahn said…
Led by Carla Koehler, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry in the UCLA College, the researchers identified a compound called dequalinium chloride, or DECA, that can prevent a metabolic enzyme from going to the wrong location within a cell. Ensuring that the enzyme — called alanine: glyoxylate aminotransferase, or AGT — goes to the proper “address” in the cell prevents PH1. The findings were published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and will appear later in the journal’s print edition. …
Ancient Greek warriors were fed a special diet that better prepared them for the demands of battle on distant fields. Cancer cells that metastasize may do the same thing according to a new study revealing previously unknown differences between cancer cells that continue to grow at the original tumor site, and those that travel to other organs. Given that a cancer cell’s unyielding ability to metastasize is the primary cause of cancer-related death, understanding how they successfully migrate can be lifesaving…
This process, known as metastasis, can cause cancer to spread with deadly effect. “The majority of patients who succumb to cancer fall prey to metastatic forms of the disease,” said Jennifer Cochran, an associate professor of bioengineering who describes a new therapeutic approach in Nature Chemical Biology. Today doctors try to slow or stop metastasis with chemotherapy, but these treatments are unfortunately not very effective and have severe side effects…
“HPV is responsible for almost all cases of cervical and anal cancers, as well as 64 percent of vaginal cancers, 36 percent of penile cancers and 51 percent of vulvar cancers,” said Susan T. Vadaparampil, Ph.D., M.P.H., senior faculty member in the Health Outcomes and Behavior Program at Moffitt. “Women tend to be afflicted by HPV-induced cancer more than men; however, more men have genital and oral HPV infections than women.” These observations helped scientists characterize the biology of HPV infection at each anatomic site and aid in the development of HPV prevention strategies, including the vaccines Cervarix� and Gardasil�. Cervarix and Gardasil are approved for HPV prevention in young females aged 9 to 26 years…
On average, healthy individuals carry about five types of viruses on their bodies, the researchers report online in BioMed Central Biology. …