Tag Archives: mla

Blocking antioxidants in cancer cells reduces tumor growth in mice

In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Navdeep Chandel and colleagues from Northwestern University report the effects of a SOD1 pharmacological inhibitor on non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. The inhibitor, called ATN-224, stunted the growth of human NSCLC cells in culture and induced their death. The researchers also found that ATN-224 inhibited other antioxidant proteins, which caused high levels of hydrogen peroxide inside the cells. The ability of cancer cells to produce hydrogen peroxide was required for ATN-224-dependent effects, because hydrogen peroxide activated cell death pathways. …

Barriers to HPF vaccination among teens

HPV vaccine coverage among teenagers has increased since the vaccine was licensed in 2006 but it still remains low compared with other recommended vaccinations. Most HPV infections will clear on their own, but persistent infections can progress to precancers or cancers, including cervical, vulvar, vaginal, penile and anal cancer, as well as cancers of the mouth and throat. Vaccination is recommended for both girls and boys, based on age requirements for the specific vaccines, according to the study background. Dawn M. …

Hallmark for development of testicular tumors found in genes

In human spermatozoa, these tiny RNAs are epigenetically regulated (by changes in the genome that do not alter the DNA sequence, such as DNA methylation) and play a critical role in male germline development. Importantly, these RNAs have also been detected in human cancer cells. In a work published in the January 2014 issue of Epigenetics, which is entirely devoted to "Non-coding RNAs in Epigenetic Regulation," the researchers asked if in their natural functional context (the normal human testis) these small RNAs undergo aberrant epigenetic regulation, compromising their function and contributing to the transformation of cells into testicular tumor cells. …

Linking risk factors, disease origins in breast cancer

The epigenetic changes examined highlight different patterns in DNA methylation, which involves the chemical modification of DNA and acts in the control of gene expression. While DNA methylation is a normal and necessary epigenetic process, breast tumors exhibit altered methylation patterns compared to normal breast tissue. Accordingly, atypical DNA methylation marks are recognized to precede cancer initiation…

Higher than normal levels of Vitamin B12 may indicate cancer risk

To assess the association between high Cbl levels and risk of cancer of any type, Johan Arendt, BSc, of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and the Department of Clinical Biochemistry of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, and colleagues used Danish Medical registries to review the records of 333,667 patients without cancer who had been referred for Cbl testing and to estimate the incidence of cancer in this population from 1998 to 2010. The researchers excluded patients who had a cancer diagnosis before the date of plasma measurement and those who were receiving Cbl therapy. They found that the risk of cancer overall increased with higher Cbl levels, especially during the first year after measurement and for those with levels > 800pmol/L. …

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. …

Epigenetic silencing of tumor suppressor promotes endometrial cancer

Martin Widschwendter from the University College London Women’s Cancer Department and colleagues, the authors of the work, systematically compared methylation patterns in endometrial cancers and normal endometrium. Using a new bioinformatics tool, they identified HAND2 as a differential methylation hotspot in endometrial cancer. By comparing with other already known factors, HAND2 methylation is by far the most common molecular alteration in endometrial cancer. The researchers found that HAND2 methylation is already increased in premalignant endometrial lesions (cancer-prone, abnormal-looking tissue) compared to normal endometrium, and that a high level of methylation predicted a poor response to progesterone treatment (which stops the growth of some pre-cancerous endometrial lesions). …