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Detection of enterovirus infection in insulin producing cells in patients newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes

The discovery provides possibility for both antiviral treatment and vaccine of type 1 Diabetes, according to a press release from The University of Oslo. Type 1 Diabetes affects young people and children. Unlike type 2, type 1 cannot be treated by diet changes and exercise Insulin is needed. Only 29 % of the patients reach the recommended goals for treatment to prevent disabling late diabetes complications. …

Personalized therapy for cancer: Additional applications for FL118

In a study of preclinical models of colorectal cancer, the researchers identified an underlying mechanism for the activation of p53 by FL118. The agent activates the p53 tumor-suppressor protein largely independent of ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM)-dependent DNA damage-mediated p53 activation. ATM-dependent activation of p53 is usually induced by many — if not all — types of DNA-damage drugs, including camptothecin compounds such as irinotecan and topotecan, leading the authors to conclude that FL118’s mechanisms of action are distinct among camptothecin analogues. “While FL118 is an analogue of irinotecan and topotecan, two FDA-approved cancer drugs that are also based on the naturally occurring compound camptothecin, our findings add further evidence that FL118 has novel mechanisms of action that may make it especially potent against solid tumors and especially effective as a well-tolerated, targeted therapy,” said Dr. …

Potential new tool for cervical cancer detection, diagnosis

As rosy a picture as that paints, cervical cancer continues to claim far too many lives. Thousands of American women still die from the disease every year, and hundreds of thousands of other women around the world suffer the same fate — sad, stark statistics that showcase the continued need for more advanced screening methods to catch more cases of the disease early, when it is most treatable. Now a team of researchers from Central South University in China have demonstrated that a technique known as photoacoustic imaging, which is already under investigation for detecting skin or breast cancers and for monitoring therapy, also has the potential to be a new, faster, cheaper and non-invasive method to detect, diagnose and stage cervical cancer with high accuracy. …

If cells can’t move, cancer can’t grow

Using a new super-resolution microscope they’ve been able to see single molecules of the enzyme at work in a liver cancer cell line. Then they’ve used confocal microscopes to see how disrupting the enzyme slows down living cancer cells. The enzyme is DPP9 (dipeptidyl peptidase 9) which the researchers at the Centenary Institute and the Sydney Medical School were first to discover and clone, in 1999. …

Promising new method for rapidly screening cancer drugs

As Rotello and his doctoral graduate student Le Ngoc, one of the lead authors, explain, to discover a new drug for any disease, researchers must screen billions of compounds, which can take months. One of the added keys to bringing a new drug to market, they add, is to identify how it works, its chemical mechanism. “Rapid determination of drug mechanism would greatly streamline the drug discovery process, opening the pipeline of new therapeutics,” Ngoc says. She adds, “Drugs with different mechanisms cause changes in the surface of cells that can be read out using the new sensor system…

Long noncoding RNAs: Novel prognostic marker in older patients with acute leukemia

The researchers investigated patterns of molecules called long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), a class of RNA molecules more than 200 nucleotide units long that are involved in regulating genes. The researchers examined the abundance, or expression, of lncRNAs in patients who were 60 years and older and who had cytogenetically normal (CN) AML. The study is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…

Signaling mechanism could be target for survival, growth of tumor cells in brain cancer

Researchers found that this mechanism — a type of signaling termed constitutive or non-canonical epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling — is highly active in glioblastomas, the most common type of adult brain cancer and a devastating disease with a poor prognosis. When activated in cancer cells, it protects the tumor cells, making them more resistant to chemotherapy treatment. The pathway may also have implications for other types of lung and breast cancers where overexpression of EGFR is a factor. “Abnormal EGFR signaling, a common and key feature of human cancer, is of considerable interest both for a role in the growth of malignant cells and as a target for treatment,” said Dr…

Bacterial biofilms are associated with colon cancer, imaging technique reveals

“This is the first time that biofilms have been shown to be associated with colon cancer, to our knowledge,” says co-author Jessica Mark Welch, a scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Mass. The discovery, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, draws on a novel way to “see” microbial community structure that was developed by Mark Welch and colleagues at the MBL. Called combinatorial imaging, it could potentially be used to clinically diagnose pre-cancerous and cancerous conditions in the ascending colon…

Important gene interaction defined that drives aggressive brain cancer

In a study recently published in the journal Neuro-Oncology, a team of scientists led by Luni Emdad, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., and Paul B. Fisher, M.Ph., Ph.D., provided the first evidence of an important link between a specific microRNA, miR-184, and a cancer promoting gene, SND1, in the regulation of malignant glioma. miR-184 is known to suppress tumor development by regulating a variety of genes involved in cancer growth, while SND1 has been shown to play a significant role in the development of breast, colon, prostate and liver cancers. Through a variety of preclinical experiments, the team demonstrated that increasing the expression of miR-184 slows the growth and invasive characteristics of glioma cells through direct regulation of SND1. …