Tag Archives: miller

Role of gene mutations involved in more than 75 percent of glioblastomas, melanomas

The research is published this month in the online journal PLOS ONE and is authored by Brad Chaires, Ph.D., John Trent, Ph.D., Robert Gray, William Dean, Ph.D., Robert Buscaglia, Shelia Thomas and Donald Miller, M.D., Ph.D. Telomerase is an enzyme largely responsible for the promotion of cell division. Within DNA, telomerase activation is a critical step for human carcinogenesis through the maintenance of telomeres. …

Cancer-fighting cocktail demonstrates promising results as treatment for advanced cervical cancer

The cancer-fighting cocktail, which combines the chemotherapy drug cisplatin with pemetrexed — an agent that stops cancer cells from dividing — showed promising results for advanced, persistent, or recurrent cervical cancer. “We found that pemetrexed combined with cisplatin is less toxic, well tolerated, and should be developed for further treatment of cervical cancer,” said gynecologic oncology specialist Dr. …

Cholesterol sets off chaotic blood vessel growth

The work, led by Yury Miller, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at UC San Diego, will be published in the advance online edition of the journal Nature on May 29. Cholesterol is a structural component of the cell and is indispensable for normal cellular function, although its excess often leads to abnormal proliferation, migration, inflammatory responses or cell death. The researchers studied how the removal of cholesterol from endothelial cells (cells that line the blood vessels) impacts the development of new blood vessels, the process called angiogenesis. According to Miller, removal of excess cholesterol from endothelial cells is essential for restraining excessive growth of blood vessels. …

Your immune system: On surveillance in the war against cancer

"We know that one function of our immune system is to detect and destroy pre-malignant cells before they can become cancer," said lead author Lance D. Miller, Ph.D., associate professor of cancer biology at Wake Forest Baptist. "However, sometimes the immune system becomes unresponsive to the presence of these cells and a tumor develops." This unresponsiveness can be temporary, and the immune system can remain alerted to the fact that there’s a problem. Immune cells can stand post along the borders of the tumor and even infiltrate the tumor core, where they may gain a better position for eventual attack. …