The researchers published their findings, "Silencing of RB1 and RB2/p130 during adipogenesis of bone marrow stromal cells results in dysregulated differentiation," in the Feb. 1, 2014, issue (online Nov. 25) of the journal Cell Cycle…
For one of our cells to give birth to two daughter cells, it must first replicate its DNA which consists of around 6.4 billion pairs of nucleotides. The double-stranded DNA opens up like a zipper, producing a ‘replication fork’ upon which a group of enzymes move about. Present in different regions in the DNA, the forks move with the progression of the replication. Cell proliferation is controlled in particular by specific genes known as proto-oncogenes…
The team discovered that, when CUX1 is deactivated, a biological pathway is activated that increases tumour growth. Drugs that inhibit the biological pathway are currently being used in the clinic and are in development thus highlighting a potential new targeted therapy for patients with this type of cancer-causing mutation. …
In addition to being essential for maintaining bone health, newer evidence shows that vitamin D serves important roles in other organs and tissue, including the brain. Published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, the UK study showed that middle-aged rats that were fed a diet low in vitamin D for several months developed free radical damage to the brain, and many different brain proteins were damaged as identified by redox proteomics. These rats also showed a significant decrease in cognitive performance on tests of learning and memory. "Given that vitamin D deficiency is especially widespread among the elderly, we investigated how during aging from middle-age to old-age how low vitamin D affected the oxidative status of the brain," said lead author on the paper Allan Butterfield, professor in the UK Department of Chemistry, director of the Center of Membrane Sciences, faculty of Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, and director of the Free Radical Biology in Cancer Core of the Markey Cancer Center. …
Angiogenesis creates new blood vessels in a process that can lead to the onset and progression of several diseases such as cancer and age-related macular degeneration. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a signaling protein produced by damaged cells, which binds to one of its receptors VEGFR-2, located on the surface of blood vessel cells. …
The researchers also found that anti-cholesterol drugs such as statins appear to diminish the effect of this estrogen-like molecule. …
Adult stem cells are tissue-specific regenerative cells that replace diseased or damaged cells in the body’s organs. Drs. Goldstein, Witte and colleagues previously reported in Science that prostate cancer can start in basal type stem cells…
The research, appearing today in Genes & Development and led by CSHL Assistant Professor Chris Vakoc, centers on the way a cancer-promoting gene is controlled. When this oncogene, called Myc, is robustly expressed, it instructs cells to manufacture proteins that contribute to the uncontrolled growth that is cancer’s hallmark. The Myc oncogene is also implicated in many other cancer types, adding to the significance of the new finding…
Animal experiments show that it is relatively easy to treat cancer in the early stages. However, it is far more difficult to successfully treat advanced cancer. Treatment of brain tumors is particularly challenging because regulatory T-cells accumulate in brain tumors and suppress an immune attack. …
In human spermatozoa, these tiny RNAs are epigenetically regulated (by changes in the genome that do not alter the DNA sequence, such as DNA methylation) and play a critical role in male germline development. Importantly, these RNAs have also been detected in human cancer cells. In a work published in the January 2014 issue of Epigenetics, which is entirely devoted to "Non-coding RNAs in Epigenetic Regulation," the researchers asked if in their natural functional context (the normal human testis) these small RNAs undergo aberrant epigenetic regulation, compromising their function and contributing to the transformation of cells into testicular tumor cells. …