cancer tagged posts

Leading organic chemists synthesize fungal molecule capable of reactivating the self-destruct gene in aggressive cancer cells. Cancers cells use a special technique to propagate; they delete their ‘programmed death’ gene through mutation, ‘forget’ to die when their lifetime is over, and continue to grow instead. A research team has developed a method through which a fungal compound capable of rearming the self-destruct gene in certain cancer cells can be artificially produced in marketable quantities, providing a potential cancer therapeutic strategy.

All human body cells have a certain lifespan, during which they perform their essential duties...

Scientists from the Antibody and Vaccine group at the University of Southampton have discovered a way to transform antibody drugs previously developed to treat autoimmunity into antibodies with powerful anti-cancer activity through a simple molecular “switch.”

This work, published in the journal Cancer Cell, focuses on a molecule called CD40 which is present on the surface of immune cells and controls both autoimmunity and cancer. In autoimmunity, CD40 is thought to be over-stimulated, increasing the chance of the immune system attacking healthy tissues; whereas in cancer, CD40 is believed to be under-stimulated, enabling tumour cells to evade the immune system. Targeting of CD40 with antibody drugs is ongoing in therapeutic interventions for both diseases.

Accordingly, antibody...

Cancer cells avoid an immune system attack after radiation by commandeering a cell signaling pathway that helps dying cells avoid triggering an immune response, a new study led by UTSW scientists suggests. The findings, published in a recent issue of Nature Immunology, could eventually lead to new ways to augment existing treatments to fight this disease.

Researchers have long known that radiation – a mainstay of treatment protocols for many types of cancerous tumors – kills cancer cells in two different ways: The high-energy beams smite some cells directly, and these dead cells leak DNA that triggers a tumor-fighting immune response through proteins known as interferons (IFNs)...

A new ‘toolkit’ to repair damaged DNA that can lead to ageing, cancer and Motor Neurone Disease (MND) has been discovered by scientists at the Universities of Sheffield and Oxford.

Published in Nature Communications, the research shows that a protein called TEX264, together with other enzymes, is able to recognise and ‘eat’ toxic proteins that can stick to DNA and cause it to become damaged. An accumulation of broken, damaged DNA can cause cellular ageing, cancer and neurological diseases such as MND.

Until now, ways of repairing this sort of DNA damage have been poorly understood, but scientists hope to exploit this novel repair toolkit of proteins to protect us from ageing, cancer and neurological disease.

The fin...