Latest Cellular processes Stories
Blocking cyclin D1 might help sensitize tumors to radiationScientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have uncovered a new role for a key cancer protein, a finding that could pave the way for more-effective radiation treatment of a variety of tumors.Many cancers are driven in part by elevated levels of cyclin D1, which allow the cells to escape growth controls and proliferate abnormally. In the new research, reported in the June 9 issue of Nature, researchers discovered that cyclin D1 also...
Five distinguished Baylor College of Medicine scientists will receive the annual Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Excellence in Research Awards Tuesday.The scientists will present their research and receive their awards in a special program from 2 to 4 p.m. in Alkek N315.These awards recognize significant and outstanding research accomplishments by scientists at BCM. The recipients present their work during a seminar at which they receive Excellence in Research medallions. The awards also include...
A promising cancer treatment drug can restore function of a heart en route to failure from high blood pressure, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.The drug, a type of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor being evaluated in numerous ongoing clinical trials, has been shown to reverse the harmful effects of autophagy in heart muscle cells of mice. Autophagy is a natural process by which cells eat their own proteins to provide needed resources in times of stress. The new...
Molecular mechanism of selected autophagy elucidatedSalmonella is widely prevalent in the animal kingdom. The reason we do not suffer from severe intestinal infections very often is due to our body's defense system, which manages to digest invading bacteria. This is why, generally speaking, a healthy human being will only fall ill if he consumes more than 100.000 salmonella bacteria via a contaminated food source, such as eggs or meat. An international team of researchers, led by Prof. Ivan...
Whitehead Institute researchers have found that depriving human melanoma cells of the essential amino acid leucine can be lethal to the cells, suggesting a possible strategy for therapeutic intervention.The researchers observed the effect in melanoma cells with a mutation in the RAS/MEK signaling pathway"”the most common mutation found in the deadliest form of skin cancer.Leucine is one of nine essential amino acids humans must ingest, as we are unable to synthesize them. These nine, along...
UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have discovered a protein that guides blood vessel development and eventually might lead to a treatment to keep cancer cells from spreading.The researchers showed in mice that the Ras interacting protein 1 (Rasip1) is so specific and central to so many cellular processes that without it new blood vessels simply cannot form, said Dr. Ondine Cleaver, assistant professor of molecular biology at UT Southwestern and senior author of the study in the April...
SAN DIEGO, April 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Polaris Group (Polaris) announced today that data from preclinical studies of ADI-PEG 20, the Company's pegylated arginine deiminase therapeutic, is synergistic with hydroxychloroquine (ChQ) in a human pancreatic cancer cell line and with tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) in human melanoma cell lines. Both ChQ and TRAIL are known inhibitors of autophagy. These results support the commencement of Phase 1/2 clinical...
Cells, which employ a process called autophagy to clean up and reuse protein debris leftover from biological processes, were the original recyclers. A team of scientists from Paul Greengard's Rockefeller University laboratory have linked a molecule that stimulates autophagy with the reduction of one of Alzheimer's disease's major hallmarks, amyloid peptide. Their finding suggests a mechanism that could be used to eliminate built-up proteins in diseases such as Alzheimer's, Down syndrome,...
Promising strategy moves quickly to human trialsDana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists report they have shrunk or slowed the growth of notoriously resistant pancreatic tumors in mice, using a drug routinely prescribed for malaria and rheumatoid arthritis.The pre-clinical results, which will appear in the April issue of the journal Genes & Development and is currently published on its web site, have already prompted the opening of a small clinical trial in patients with advanced...
An enzyme viewed as an executioner, because it can push cells to commit suicide, may actually short circuit a second form of cell death, researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have discovered.The finding could shift drug discovery efforts, by leading scientists to rethink how proposed anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory drugs that target the enzyme, called caspase 8, are supposed to work. The results are online this week and will be published in the March 17th edition of...
