A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Germany has uncovered a new strategy and new potential drug to target an important signalling protein in cells called Ras, which is faulty in a third of cancers. When the Ras protein travels from the centre of a cell to the cell membrane, it becomes ‘switched on’ and sends signals which tell cells to grow and divide. …
source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140225122506.htm
"We started with all the microRNAs downstream from the EWS/FLI1 fusion and narrowed in on microRNA-22. But then we looked even further downstream from there and found that microRNA-22 works through another gene, KDM3A, to cause this cancer. When we turned down this gene (KDM3A) in lab studies, we observed a profound inhibition of the tumorigenic properties of Ewing Sarcoma cells," says Paul Jedlicka, MD, PhD, CU Cancer Center investigator and assistant professor of pathology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. …
Results of this work are published in the journal Science on 22 November 2013. The intestinal microbiota is made up of 100,000 billion bacteria. It is a genuine organ, since the bacterial species that comprise it carry out functions crucial to our health, such as the elimination of substances that are foreign to the body (and potentially toxic), or keeping the pathogens that contaminate us at bay. …