Tag Archives: medical

Nanodrug targeting breast cancer cells from the inside adds weapon: Immune system attack

The research team developing the drug — led by scientists at the Nanomedicine Research Center, part of the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute in the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center — conducted the study in laboratory mice with implanted human breast cancer cells. Mice receiving the drug lived significantly longer than untreated counterparts and those receiving only certain components of the drug, according to a recent article in the Journal of Controlled Release. Researchers from the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai, the Division of Surgical Oncology at UCLA, and the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA also participated in the study. …

Study shows MicroRNAs can trigger lymphomas

The six "microRNA" molecules were already known to be overproduced in lymphomas and in many other human cancers, but no one had demonstrated that they can be the prime cause of such cancers — until now. The new study also identified the major biological pathways through which these microRNAs ignite and maintain cancerous growth. "We were able to show how this microRNA cluster can be the main driver of cancer, and so we now can start to think about therapies to combat its effects," said TSRI Assistant Professor Changchun Xiao. Xiao was the senior investigator for the study, which appeared this week in an advance online version of the EMBO Journal, a publication of the European Molecular Biology Organization. …

Way to fight therapy resistant leukemia by blocking DNA repair

Scientists from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center report that their experimental combination treatment strategy — using a small molecular inhibitor along with chemotherapy — was particularly effective at stopping a stubborn leukemia called T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or T-ALL. …

Potential new target to treat malignant pleural mesothelioma

In the September issue of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s journal, the Journal of Thoracic Oncology (JTO), researchers conclude that Ephrin (EPH) B2 seems to play an important role in malignant pleural mesothelioma cell lines and tumors. Using expression arrays, researchers from the New York University Langone Medical Center looked at EPHB2 in 34 malignant pleural mesothelioma tumors , and found it significantly elevated in tumor tissue compared with matched normal peritoneum. They found EPHB2 overexpressed in all malignant pleural mesothelioma cell lines, but not in benign mesothelial cells…

Oxygen – key to most life – decelerates many cancer tumors when combined with radiation therapy

In research examining tissue oxygenation levels and predicting radiation response, UT Southwestern scientists led by Dr. Ralph Mason reported in the June 27 online issue of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine that countering hypoxic and aggressive tumors with an "oxygen challenge" — inhaling oxygen while monitoring tumor response — coincides with a greater delay in tumor growth in an irradiated animal model…

A first in front-line immunity research

In a study published today in Nature Immunology, a team of researchers led by Professor Paul Hertzog, of the Monash Institute of Medical Research (MIMR) and Professor Jamie Rossjohn, of the School of Biomedical Sciences, have characterised for the first time how interferon beta (IFNβ) proteins bind to cells and activate an immune response. …

Compounds outsmart solid tumors’ malfunctioning machinery

This machinery, the proteasome, is deregulated in cancer. Agents called protease inhibitors are viewed as potential anti-cancer therapies, but they indiscriminately curb proteasome activity, which also includes protein recycling. Such strategy is effective to kill cells in aggressive blood cancers but leads to drug resistance and excessive toxicity in solid tumors. Fine-tuning The new strategy may change that…

Strong pregnancy outcomes for survivors of childhood cancer

"Most women think that if they had cancer as a child, then they’ll never have children. It turns out that many of them can get pregnant. It just might be a little harder," said senior author Lisa Diller, MD, chief medical officer of Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s and medical director of the David B…

Kill-switch controls immune-suppressing cells, scientists discover

The discovery of the cell death processes that determine the number of ‘regulatory T cells’ an individual has could one day lead to better treatments for immune disorders. Regulatory T cells are members of a group of immune cells called T cells. Most T cells actively respond to clear the body of infections. …