Tag Archives: king

Study of human blood fluke parasites identifies drug resistance mutations

"This is a major advance," said Claudia Valentim, Ph.D., the primary author of the report, who worked at both institutions. "We were able to identify the critical gene by crossing resistant and sensitive worms in the laboratory and then analyzing the genomes of the progeny. This method is commonly used for fruit flies and other laboratory organisms, but has not previously been possible for schistosome parasites." "This really shows the utility of genome sequencing," says Anderson. "The schistosome genome was published in 2009…

Cancer researchers translate new findings to enhance melanoma treatment

Translational researchers from UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) have published results of two back-to-back studies in the journal Cancer Discovery that provide critical insights into two key areas of how tumors resist BRAF inhibitors: the key cell-signaling pathways BRAF-mutant melanoma cells use to learn how to become resistant to inhibitor drugs, and how the limited focus of BRAF inhibitors allows melanoma cells to evolve and develop drug resistance. The studies were published online ahead of print on November 21, 2013…

Oral drug may improve survival in men with metastatic prostate cancer

The study, published on Nov. 19, 2013, in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, adds long-term survival and safety data for the drug tasquinimod, a new candidate for treating advanced and recurrent prostate cancer. “While all subgroups in the clinical trial benefited from tasquinimod, those whose cancer metastasized to their bones had the greatest benefit in terms of delaying the time from the start of treatment to when the cancer progressed,” said lead author Andrew J…

Neanderthal viruses found in modern humans

The researchers compared genetic data from fossils of Neanderthals and another group of ancient human ancestors called Denisovans to data from modern-day cancer patients. They found evidence of Neanderthal and Denisovan viruses in the modern human DNA, suggesting that the viruses originated in our common ancestors more than half a million years ago. This latest finding, reported in Current Biology, will enable scientists to further investigate possible links between ancient viruses and modern diseases including HIV and cancer, and was supported by the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council (MRC). Around 8% of human DNA is made up of ‘endogenous retroviruses’ (ERVs), DNA sequences from viruses which pass from generation to generation…

Study improves detection of biomarkers to predict lung cancer

One of the biggest challenges in oncological medicine is to detect lung cancer earlier enough to allow treatment because now the location of these tumors implies a metastasis in about 75% of cases. This research has confirmed that the presence of a protein called C4d "is associated with a mortality increase of people whose tumors contain it, and also the levels of this marker are reduced after surgical removal of the cancer," said Carlos Camps, also a researcher of the University General Hospital of Valencia Research Foundation. This protein "may be a biomarker for early detection and treatment of lung cancer because it would diagnose those people at increased risk for this disease, but no symptoms," adds the scientist Eloisa Jantus- Lewintre, co-author of the work and belonging to General Hospital Foundation…

Tipping the balance between senescence, proliferation

In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Abdul Mondal and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute evaluated the expression of these two p53 isoforms in T lymphocytes from healthy donors and donors with lung cancer. In healthy patients, the authors observed an age dependent accumulation of senescent cells and that these cells had an increase in p53β compared to Δ133p53. In lung tumor-associated cells, there was a higher level of the Δ133p53 isoform. …

Inflammatory skin damage blocked by bleach solution in animal study

The study was conducted on mice. But if shown to work similarly in humans, the inexpensive, widely available household chemical could provide a new way to treat skin damage caused by radiation therapy, excess sun exposure or aging. Dilute bleach baths have been used for decades to treat moderate to severe eczema in humans, but it has not been clear until now why they work…