STAT3 tagged posts

Innovative strategy reduces tumor growth and strengthens the immune system against tumor cells. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide. Despite medical advances in recent years, this type of tumour is still responsible for one in eight male cancer deaths in Austria alone. An international research team led by MedUni Vienna has now investigated a new strategy for the development of treatment options that not only slow tumour growth, but also stimulate the immune system to combat tumour cells. The results of the study have just been published in the top journal Molecular Cancer.

The scientific team focused its investigations on the GP130 signalling pathway, which researchers expect to have a major potential in the fight against cancer.

The background: th...

A new synthetic protein nanoparticle capable of slipping past the nearly impermeable blood-brain barrier in mice could deliver cancer-killing drugs directly to malignant brain tumors, new research from the University of Michigan shows. ‘I’ve worked in this field for more than 10 years and have not seen anything like this.’

The study is the first to demonstrate an intravenous medication that can cross the blood-brain barrier.

The discovery could one day enable new clinical therapies for treating glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer in adults, and one whose incidence is rising in many countries...

Regulation of type I interferon responses

Scientists have discovered that a biological molecule important in cell growth (STAT3) is also critical in protecting us against infection – so much so that we would be unable to fight the common flu virus without it. Their discovery could pave the way to the development of new therapeutics charged with restoring our natural immunity to a whole spectrum of viruses that have evolved ‘roadblocks’ to the immune response. In a world of newly emerging viral infections such as SARS, ZIKA and Ebola, the importance of understanding how viruses target our immune system, and the need to develop new therapies to cure and protect us, has never been greater.

During any viral infection our cells produce Interferon, which essentially ‘interferes’ with the battle ...