Tag Archives: science

Nanoparticles with protein ‘passports’ evade immune system, deliver more medication to tumors

Cancer Nanotechnology Current approaches to chemotherapy leave patients with severe side effects because anti-cancer drugs meant to destroy tumors inadvertently kill healthy cells in the body. But scientists have recently developed nanoparticles that can ferry toxic medications directly to tumors while sparing healthy tissue. Because of their small size, nanoparticles escape from leaky blood vessels that are characteristic of tumors and accumulate in the cancerous tissue. Tumor cells take up the particles which release their toxic contents once inside. …

New insights on cancer cell signaling

Wnt proteins are a large family of proteins that active signaling pathways (a set of biological reactions in a cell) to control several vital steps in embryonic development. In adults, Wnt-mediated functions are frequently altered in many types of cancers and, specifically, within cell subpopulations that possess stem cell-like properties…

Gene therapy using lentivirus to treat Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome promising

The new research, led by researchers at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan, Italy was published in Science Express. The disorder that weakens the body’s immune system is caused by a mutation in a gene that encodes the protein WASP. The most often used therapy is a bone marrow or stem cell transplant from a matching donor — often a sibling or relative…

Improved outlook for immune-based therapies: Assay identifies T cells most capable of fighting infections and cancers

Scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have developed the first assay for living T cells that can quantify how strongly the cells’ receptors bind to their targeted antigen. Optimal binding strength or "structural avidity" is thought to be the most important predictor of success in adoptive transfer therapies…

Mouse study predicts cancer drug responsiveness in human tumors

UNC scientists used GEMMs to develop biomarkers for challenging molecular subtypes of human breast cancer, those for which there are fewer targets and therapies. Their work helps to further establish genetically engineered mouse models as predictors of human response to therapy. The molecular subtypes of breast cancer that the UNC group focused on — basal-like, luminal B, and claudin-low — are the most challenging types of breast cancer because these are tumors that don’t typically respond to drugs such as Herceptin or aromatase inhibitors. UNC was among the first to characterize these tumor subtypes, and this new report extends the understanding of them. …

Heart failure survivors at greater risk for cancer, study shows

"Heart failure patients are not only at an increased risk for developing cancer, but the occurrence of cancer increases mortality in these patients," explained Dr. Veronique Roger, MD, director of the Mayo Clinic Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery and co-author of the study. …