Category Health/Medical

Targeting a specific enzyme in the muscle could help cancer patients preserve muscle mass and potentially prolong their survival, according to research from UTHealth Houston.

A study led by Yi-Ping Li, PhD, professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, found that an enzyme known as UBR2 plays a critical role in cancer-induced muscle wasting, also called cancer cachexia.

The results were published today in the scientific journal PNAS.

“The findings will fill a key gap in understanding how cancer causes muscle mass and function loss,” said Li, senior author of the study and a faculty member with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate Scho...

Finding valuable therapeutic interventions for prostate cancer has long guided the research of Dr. Feng Yang’s lab at Baylor College of Medicine. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Yang’s team took a close look into what drives the growth of advanced tumors that have become resistant to standard castration therapy. Working with cells in the lab and animal models, they discovered an approach that suppresses the growth of therapy-resistant tumors.

“Advanced prostate cancer is usually treated by blocking the actions of androgen, the male hormone that helps it grow,” said Yang, assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology and a member of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Bay...

UVA Health researchers have discovered a molecule in the brain responsible for orchestrating the immune system’s responses to Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis (MS), potentially allowing doctors to supercharge the body’s ability to fight those and other devastating neurological diseases.

The molecule the researchers identified, called a kinase, is crucial to both removing plaque buildup associated with Alzheimer’s and preventing the debris buildup that causes MS, the researchers found. It does this, the researchers showed, by directing the activity of brain cleaners called microglia...