Tag Archives: development

Molecular discovery puts cancer treatment in a new perspective

In a joint effort with the National Institutes of Health, a group of researchers from the University of Copenhagen have taken a step closer to being able to design a more effective anticancer treatment by mapping a previously unknown molecular mechanism. The group has been working with proteases, important enzymes which are responsible for maintaining different types of tissues in the body while also being involved in many -diseases, including cancer. Cancer cells can exploit an over-production of proteases to force their way into the body so they can quickly grow and create a space for themselves in which to spread. "So far, we have been unable to treat cancer patients with drugs which can effectively stop cancer cells from spreading, but having now discovered that an important function of proteases has been overlooked, we have the possibility of designing new drugs…

Protein targeted for cancer drug development is essential for normal heart function

The protein, MCL1, is currently the focus of widespread cancer drug development efforts. MCL1 is best known as an inhibitor of death via the cell’s suicide pathway in a process called apoptosis. The protein is elevated in a variety of cancers, and a number of MCL1 inhibitors are in the cancer drug development pipeline worldwide. The protein has also been linked to drug resistance in cancer patients. …

Large UK population study finds no increased cancer risk in children born after assisted conception

Results of the study were presented today at the annual meeting of ESHRE by Dr Carrie Williams from the Institute of Child Health, University College London, UK. This was a large population-based linkage study between the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA, the UK’s regulatory authority for ART clinics) and the UK’s National Registry of Childhood Tumours (NRCT).(1) The HFEA records of all 106,381 children born after assisted conception in the UK from 1992 to 2008 were linked to NRCT records to calculate the number of children who subsequently developed cancer. Once the databases were linked, cancer rates in the ART cohort were compared with population rates, whilst stratifying for potential mediating factors including birth weight, multiple births, treatment type and infertility cause. …

Long term night shifts linked to doubling of breast cancer risk

Shift work has been suggested as a risk factor for breast cancer, but there has been some doubt about the strength of the findings, largely because of issues around the assessment of exposure and the failure to capture the diversity of shift work patterns. Several previous studies have also been confined to nurses rather than the general population. …

Study links cardiac hormone-related inflammatory pathway with tumor growth

The research may lead to the development of new drugs or delivery systems to treat cancer by blocking this receptor, known as natriuretic peptide receptor A (NPRA). The findings appeared online recently in the journal Stem Cells. "Our results show that NRPA signaling by cancer cells produces some molecular factors that attract stem cells, which in turn form blood vessels that provide oxygen and nutrients to the tumor," said the study’s principal investigator Subhra Mohapatra, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine…

Research in fruit flies provides new insight into Barrett’s esophagus

A new study, published June 27, 2013 online in Cell Reports, suggests a different cause, namely a change in stem cell function, for this transformation. Researchers at the Buck Institute manipulated a signaling pathway (BMP-like Dpp) implicated in the development of Barrett’s esophagus. After manipulation, the adult stem cells that normally generate the lining of the esophagus of fruit flies morphed into the type of stem cells that generate stomach cells. "Up until this point, it’s not been clear what this signaling pathway does in stem cells of the gastrointestinal tract, or how it influences the regeneration of various types of epithelial cells in the gut of the fly," said Heinrich Jasper, PhD, a professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and senior author of the study…

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. …