Category Health/Medical

Targeting metastasis-initiating cells through the fatty acid receptor CD36

A specific protein, CD36 found in the cell membranes of tumour cells, is responsible for taking up fatty acids. This unique CD36 activity and dependence on fatty acids distinguishes metastasis-initiating cells from other tumour cells. The work was published today in the journal Nature. Professor Benitah’s team found CD36 was present on metastatic cancer cells from patients with a range of different tumours including oral tumours, melanoma skin cancer, ovarian, bladder, lung and breast cancer. To confirm its essential role in cancer spread, they added CD36 to non-metastatic cancer cells which then caused the cells to become metastatic.

“Although we have not yet tested this in all tumour types, we can state that CD36 ...

Adipose tissue, with fat droplets in green and blood vessels in red. Credit: The laboratory of Zoltan Arany, MD, PhD, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

A signaling pathway in fat cells may one day provide the key to better treatments for obesity, according to new research by the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Ordinary white adipocytes, stuff themselves with fat molecules to store up energy, and their overloading leads to obesity and related conditions, including diabetes. Brown adipocytes, which are prevalent in children as “baby fat,” but much less so in adults, do virtually the opposite: they burn energy rapidly to generate heat, and thereby protect the body from cold as well as obesity and diabetes.

About 36% of American adults are conside...

Scientists have elucidated a surprising novel mechanism of cascading electron emission caused by the Coulombic interaction between highly excited atoms.

Tohoku University research could have implications for radiation therapy. Physical chemist Kiyoshi Ueda’s team used a free electron laser (FEL) at Japan’s SPring-8 Compact SASE Source test accelerator to investigate how electrons are ‘knocked out’ of neon atom clusters. Intense extreme ultraviolet FEL pulses were directed at the clusters and the resultant energy distribution of electrons knocked out of the clusters was measured using a ‘velocity map imaging spectrometer’.

Electrons inside a material absorb energy when the material is exposed to light. Normally, this energy is used to ‘knock electrons out’ of the material...

High-resolution model of six insulin molecules assembled in a hexamer. Credit: Isaac Yonemoto/Wikipedia

NZ researchers have uncovered a new mechanism that controls the release of insulin in the body, providing hope for those with a genetic susceptibility to type 2 diabetes. The findings show for the first time that a protein, beta catenin is crucial for controlling the release of insulin from the pancreas to maintain stable blood sugar levels. They focused on a variant in a gene called TCF7L2. This variant has been known to science for about 10 years and is the biggest contributing factor for whether people are genetically susceptible to getting type 2 diabetes or not.

“We wanted to understand what happens in the body’s cells that are associated with TCF7L2 and how the processes that go on...