The achievement, published in a paper in this week’s early online edition of the journal Cell Stem Cell by a collaboration that included scientists from China, was enabled by the development of "humanized" laboratory mice that contained a functional human immune system capable of mounting a vigorous immune rejection of foreign cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. …
To compare RT utilization by women over different ages, family structures, and regions of residence, I-Wen Pan, Ph.D., formerly Research Scientist at the research group led by Dr. …
The method uses a drug which breaks down the protective barrier surrounding pancreatic cancer tumors, enabling cancer-attacking T cells to get through. The drug is used in combination with an antibody that blocks a second target, which improves the activity of these T cells. Initial tests of the combined treatment, carried out by researchers at the University’s Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, resulted in almost complete elimination of cancer cells in one week. The findings, reported in the journal PNAS, mark the first time this has been achieved in any pancreatic cancer model. …
"Age-related loss of muscle mass is a major contributing factor to falls, broken bones, and the loss of mobility," says co-corresponding author David Glass of Novartis, Cambridge, MA, one of the compound’s developers, along with first author Estelle Trifilieff, also of Novartis. "This study illustrates that we may have a powerful tool to prevent muscle wasting and promote growth." The new compound (BYM338) acts to prevent muscle wasting by blocking a receptor that engages a cellular signaling system that exists to put the brakes on muscle development when appropriate. But sometimes those brakes are activated inappropriately, or are stuck on. "Our goal was to release the brakes," says Glass…
Breast cancer risk rises in postmenopausal women as their body mass index climbs. The study found eating a diet high in tomatoes had a positive effect on the level of hormones that play a role in regulating fat and sugar metabolism. "The advantages of eating plenty of tomatoes and tomato-based products, even for a short period, were clearly evident in our findings," said the study’s first author, Adana Llanos, PhD, MPH, who is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Rutgers University. Llanos completed the research while she was a postdoctoral fellow with Electra Paskett, PhD, at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center — Arthur G. …
"A dramatic increase in sugar uptake could be a cause of oncogenesis," Bissell says. "Furthermore, through a series of painstaking analysis, we have discovered two new pathways through which increased uptake of glucose could itself activate other oncogenic pathways. This discovery provides possible new targets for diagnosis and therapeutics." Working with Bissell, Yasuhito Onodera, a Japanese postdoctoral fellow in her research group who is now an assistant professor in Japan, examined the expression of glucose transporter proteins in human breast cells. The focus was on the glucose transporter known as GLUT3, the concentrations of which Onodera and Bissell showed are 400 times greater in malignant than in non-malignant breast cells…
MDS primarily affects older individuals, with approximately 12,000 new cases diagnosed each year. In MDS, a person’s blood is not able to make one or more types of healthy blood cells — red blood cells, white blood cells or platelets. …
Murray Korc, M.D., the Myles Brand Professor of Cancer Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a researcher at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, and colleagues have shown that the retinoblastoma protein, a tumor suppressor, often malfunctions in pancreatic cancer. That dysfunction enables an inhibitory protein to promote pancreatic cancer growth. The research was published online today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. As a result of the dysfunctional retinoblastoma protein, pancreatic cancer cells lose their ability to be inhibited by transforming growth factor-beta, or TGF-β, which is a key negative regulator of cell proliferation, according to Dr…
The authors say for palliative care to be used appropriately, clinicians, patients, and the general public must learn the fundamental differences between palliative care and hospice care, a distinction that is not well-known. Seven in ten Americans describe themselves as "not at all knowledgeable" about palliative care, and most health care professionals believe it is synonymous with end-of-life care. While both are intended to relieve suffering, hospice care provides care for people in the last phases of an incurable disease so that they may live as fully and comfortably as possible. Palliative care focuses on helping patients get relief from symptoms caused by serious illness and is appropriate at any age or stage in a serious illness…
A new finding by University of Pennsylvania scientists has identified key steps that trigger this disintegration of cellular regulation. Their discovery — that a protein called Exo70 has a split personality, with one form keeping cells under tight control and another contributing to the ability of tumors to invade distant parts of the body — points to new possibilities for diagnosing cancer metastasis. The research, published in the journal Developmental Cell, was conducted by a team of researchers from the School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology; the Perelman School of Medicine’s pathobiology and laboratory medicine, medicine and genetics departments, and China’s Hangzhou Normal University School of Medicine. …