Tag Archives: upr

Chinese herbal extract may help kill off pancreatic cancer cells

GRP78, a protein that protects cells from dying, is more abundant in cancer cells and tissue than in normal organs and is thought to play a role in helping pancreatic cancer cells survive and thrive. Researchers at the University of Minnesota have found triptolide, an extract of the Chinese herb thunder god vine (Tirpterygium wilforii), suppresses GRP78, eventually leading to pancreatic cancer cell death. For mammals to use the proteins in our bodies, a process called protein folding must occur in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of cells. If proteins are not folded fast enough, unfolded proteins begin to build up and the cell becomes stressed…

Multiple myeloma, myeloid leukemia therapies could be enhanced by experimental drug

“Although dinaciclib has shown promising pre-clinical activity against a variety of tumor cells, and is currently undergoing phase I/II clinical trials in several malignancies, the mechanisms responsible for its anti-tumor activity are not fully understood,” says the study’s lead investigator Steven Grant, M.D., associate director for translational research, co-leader of the Developmental Therapeutics research program and Shirley Carter Olsson and Sture Gordon Olsson Chair in Oncology Research at Massey. …