Tag Archives: molecular

Researchers find shape-shifting stops migrating cancer cells

In research published in the December issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology, investigators reveal how interplay of molecules keeps cancer cells moving forward, and how disturbing the balance of these proteins pushes their shape to change, stopping them in their tracks. Investigators say they have already identified a number of agents — some already used in the clinic for different disorders — that may force shape-shifting in tumor cells. "We are starting to understand mechanistically how cancer cells move and migrate, which gives us opportunities to manipulate these cells, alter their shape, and stop their spread," says the study’s lead investigator, Panos Z. Anastasiadis, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Cancer Biology at Mayo Clinic in Florida. …

Newly discovered ancestral enzyme facilitates DNA repair

Researchers from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by Juan Méndez, head of the DNA Replication Group, together with Luis Blanco, from the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Centre (CBM-CSIC), have discovered how a new human enzyme, the protein PrimPol, is capable of recognising DNA lesions and facilitate their repair during the DNA copying process, thus avoiding irreversible and lethal damage to the cells and, therefore, to the organism. The results are published in the online edition of the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. …

More than skin deep: New layer to the body’s fight against infection

The single cell type that was thought to be behind the skin’s immune defense has been found to have a doppelganger, with researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute showing the cells, despite appearing identical, are actually two different types. Institute scientists Dr Michael Chopin, Dr Stephen Nutt and colleagues from the institute’s Molecular Immunology division have been investigating Langerhans cells, the immune cells that provide the first line of defense against attacks through the skin. Until recently, scientists believed that, because they looked identical, all Langerhans cells were also genetically identical and had the same function…

Deletion of any single gene provokes mutations elsewhere in the genome

Summarized in a report to be published on Nov. 21 in the journal Molecular Cell, the team’s results add new evidence that genomes, the sum total of species’ genes, are like supremely intricate machines, in that the removal of a single, tiny part stresses the whole mechanism and might cause another part to warp elsewhere to fill in for the missing part. …

Researchers study epigenetic mechanisms of tumor metastasis for improved cancer therapy

The term epigenetics refers to the external modifications to DNA that turn genes "on" or "off." These modifications do not change the DNA sequence, but instead, they affect how cells read genes. The researchers propose that epigenetic and other changes mediate the development of cancer progenitor cells. These cells represent the early stage of cancer cell development and can grow rapidly to become full-fledged cancer. …

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…

Telomere length influences cancer cell differentiation

"Cancer cells may maintain short telomeres to maintain their undifferentiated state," says Hiroyuki Seimiya, a researcher on the study. Telomeres are protective extensions on the ends of chromosomes, which shorten as cells age, like an hourglass running down. They protect the end of the chromosome from deterioration or from fusion with neighboring chromosomes.Without telomeres chromosomes would progressively lose genetic information as cells divide and replicate. Cancer cells have shorter telomeres compared to healthy cells, but they guard their immortality by maintaining these telomeres’ length. …