cancer tagged posts

Healthy cells (left image) display four centrioles, a normal number (in yellow). On the contrary, breast cancer cells (triple negative) have extra centrioles (here 16, right image). Credit: Gaëlle Marteil, IGC.

A research team led by Monica Bettencourt Dias, from Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (IGC, Portugal), discovered important features of cancer cells that may help clinicians fighting cancer. The researchers observed that the number and size of tiny structures that exist inside cells, called centrioles, are increased in the most aggressive sub-types of cancer. This study will be published in Nature Communications* on the 28th of March.

Cancer is a very diverse disease with some tumours being more aggressive and more resistant to chemotherapy than others...

Blood vessel-on-a-chips show anti-cancer drug effects in human cells. Credit: 2018 YUKIKO MATSUNAGA, INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

Researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), the University of Tokyo, CNRS and INSERM, report a new organ-on-a-chip technology for the study of blood vessel formation and drugs targeting this event. The technology recreates a human blood vessel and shows how new capillaries grow from a single vessel (parent vessel) in response to proper biochemical signaling cues. The technology can further be used to develop drugs targeting this growth as a therapeutic approach to treat cancer and blood-vessel-related diseases. The study can be read in EBioMedicine.

Angiogenesis describes a specific process of blood vessel formation from...

This is a model of the TP53 sensor. The Sensor is symbolized as a ‘thermometer’ that displays the TP53 status in the cell. Credit: TU Dresden, Frank Buchholz

Molecular ‘detector’ recognizes most frequent cancer-mutation in cells, TP53 gene, and initiates to kill them. The alert goes on if the TP53 gene is mutated in cells. The molecular smoke detector works like a TP53 sensor, which monitors the correct function of the gene. A non-functional TP53 gene is going to activate the sensor, which initiates cell death. Results from this study from the research team of Prof. Frank Buchholz are now published in the journal Nature Communications.

Cancer is caused by changes in the human genome...

ZBTB48 binds through the last of its 11 zinc fingers directly to telomeric DNA (TTAGGG, in red) as well as subtelomeric variant repeats (TTGGG/TCAGGG, grey), which represent the protective caps at the end of chromosomes. In addition, it binds to the promoter sequences (dark blue) of specific target genes including mitochondrial fission process 1, MTFP1. In the absence of ZBTB48 (right panel) telomeres become longer whereas the expression of ZBTB48 target genes is strongly reduced. For instance, ZBTB48 KO (knock-out) cells loose the expression of MTFP1 leading to defects in the mitochondrial network with mitochondria clustering around the nucleus instead of being widely spread throughout the cell. Credit: National University of Singapore

Medical researchers have discovered the role of the p...