Tag Archives: division

Thwarting protein production slows cancer cells’ malignant march

From yeast to worms to humans, this stress response and its primary regulator, heat shock factor 1 (HSF1), help normal cells adapt to harsh environments, including the presence of heavy metals, high salt concentrations, low oxygen levels, and of course increased temperatures. "In a perverted twist of fate, cancer cells take advantage of this incredibly ancient survival strategy — the heat shock response — to help them survive despite the best efforts of our own natural defenses, and sophisticated therapeutics, to kill them," says Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist. "And trumping all that, we find it not only helps them survive, it helps them thrive!" Across tumor and cancer types, cancer cells rely on the heat shock response and HSF1 to support the production of vast quantities of proteins and the high-energy demands needed to propel malignancy…

Stem cell discovery furthers research on cell-based therapy and cancer

"Scientists have known that Bmi1 is a central control switch within the adult stem cells of many tissues, including the brain, blood, lung and mammary gland," said Ophir Klein, MD, PhD, who directs the Craniofacial and Mesenchymal Biology (CMB) Program and serves as chair of the Division of Craniofacial Anomalies at UCSF. "Bmi1 also is a cancer-causing gene that becomes reactivated in cancer cells." Klein’s research group now has shown that BMI1 plays another role in ensuring that the process of development unfolds normally. The hallmarks of all stem cells are that they are immature, they keep dividing to replenish their numbers almost indefinitely, and they generate new specialized cells to function in the tissues in which they reside, a process called cell differentiation. …

Comprehensive list of gene variants developed for cancer cells from nine tissue types

The NCI-60 cancer cell panel represents nine different types of cancer: breast, ovary, prostate, colon, lung, kidney, brain, leukemia, and melanoma. In this study, the investigators sequenced the whole exomes, or DNA coding regions, of each of NCI-60 cell lines, to define novel cancer variants and aberrant patterns of gene expression in tumor cells and to relate such patterns and variants to those that occur during the development of cancer…

Targeting errant immune system enzyme kills myelodysplastic cells

Reporting their results July 8 in Cancer Cell, researchers say their successful laboratory tests in human MDS cells and mouse models of MDS provide a molecular target for designing new drugs to battle a syndrome with few effective treatments. "There is an urgent need to develop new targeted therapies that can eliminate MDS-initiating clone cells and provide a durable therapeutic response," said Daniel Starczynowski, PhD, lead researcher and a member of the Division of Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center…

Discovered the role of noncoding 5S rRNA in protecting the p53 tumor suppressor gene

The results have been published in the online edition of Cell Reports. Cell growth The ability of cells to grow is directly related to the amount of protein synthesized by ribosomes, the intracellular machinery responsible for translating messenger RNA transcribed from DNA into amino acids containing proteins. …

Molecule considered to be a breast cancer indicator also has a protective function

Researchers from the Centre for Genomic Regulation led by Miguel Beato have, in an article published in the journal Cell Reports, just revealed that one of these molecules (PLK1 kinase), up to now thought to be related to cancer, can also be crucial for the proper functioning of the cell. PLK1 had always been associated with breast cancer due to its role in cell division. …

Research IDs potential treatment for deadly, HIV-related blood cancer

The USC team shows that a class of drugs called BET bromodomain inhibitors effectively targets primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), a type of cancer for which those drugs were not expected to be effective. "It’s a reversal of the paradigm," said Preet Chaudhary, chief of the Nohl Division of Hematology and Blood Diseases at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and principal investigator of the study. "Our results suggest that this new class of drug may be an effective treatment for a wider range of cancers than previously thought." PEL is caused by infection with Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpes virus, the most common cause of cancer among patients with AIDS. The prognosis for PEL is poor, with a median survival of three to six months. …

Study sets guidelines for stem cell transplants in older patients with myelodysplastic syndromes

Using mathematical models to analyze hundreds of MDS cases from around the world, the researchers found reduced intensity transplants of donor stem cells are advisable for patients aged 60-70 who have higher-risk forms of MDS that are likely to turn into leukemia in the near future. For patients with lower-risk MDS, non-transplant treatments are preferable, the model indicates…