When a cell proliferates out of control, it is usually because it loses control at a cell cycle checkpoint – the ‘fail-safe brakes’ of the cell.
One key checkpoint protein is p21, a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CKI) that gives the ‘all signals go’ for DNA synthesis to take place.
Dr. Sameer Phalke and colleagues at the A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) recently discovered a protein that acts as an oncogene in breast cancer by repressing p21 expression, thereby promoting growth and preventing the senescence of breast cancer cells1.
Suppression of PRMT6 expression in breast cancer cells led to cell cycle arrest, cellular senescence, and reduced growth in soft agar assays. Similar experiments in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice resulted in slower growing tumors.
Source: http://www.asianscientist.com/health-medicine/prmt6-suppression-linked-to-breast-cancer-2012/
Monday, November 26, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Unmanned aircraft project leads push to civilian drones
The aim of the ASTRAEA programme is to enable the routine use of UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) in all classes of airspace without the need for restrictive or specialised conditions of operation.
A recent report by the UK's Aerospace, Aviation and Defence Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) found that applications for unmanned aircraft are said to be worth some £260bn - replacing costly or dangerous work done by manned planes, or opening up new applications that are currently out of reach.
Crop or wildlife stock monitoring, search and rescue, and check-ups on railway lines are some of the envisioned uses of UAs.
Plans for UAs envision that a pilot will always be on the ground controlling them, but they must have on-board technology that can perform in an emergency - in the eyes of aviation law - as well as a pilot.
"These things are going to have a level of self-determinism, particularly if you ever lose the communication link with the ground control," said Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal, Astraea project director. "They've got to be able to operate fully safely and take the right decisions.
Gary Clayton, head of research and technology for EADS Cassidian, another project partner, said the CAA's publication CAP722 is being held up internationally as a template for aviation legislation around UAs.
But Mr Dopping-Hepenstal said the project is aiming much further than the technology and safety legislation.
"What this programme is trying to do is look at this holistically," he said. "It's not just the technology, we're trying to think about the social impact of this and the ethical and legal things associated with it. You've got to solve all this lot if you're going to make it happen, enable it to happen affordably."
Chris Elliot, an aerospace engineer and barrister, is acting as consultant to the project. He told reporters that the licensing and privacy questions were points "to debate, not to pontificate".
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20327991
http://www.astraea.aero/
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Borneo Tree Is Source Of Potential Anticancer Agent, Silvestrol
A Malaysian research center and a leading US university are joining forces to speed up the development and commercialization of a promising anti-cancer agent derived from a tropical tree.
The agent, silvestrol, is a natural compound derived from the twigs, fruit, and bark of the Aglaia species of tree, found in central Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia, and some Pacific islands.
It has been used as a traditional medicine in Malaysia for many years, usually to treat digestive disorders, but never as a cancer therapy.
Researchers from Ohio State University, who have been working on silvestrol since 2004, discovered that silvestrol kills cancer cells in mice, possibly paving the way to treatment for human cancers in the near future.
Alan Douglas Kinghorn, a senior researcher at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, and leading silvestrol specialist, who gave the compound its name, says silvestrol has shown “very good initial results in models of B-cell malignancies, such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma.”
Silvestrol was also found to inhibit the growth of lung, breast, and prostate cancer cells, and appears to cause no damage to normal immune system cells — a common problem with current cancer treatments for leukemia.
Kinghorn explained that silvestrol acts as a “translation inhibitor,” meaning it interferes with cancer cell multiplication. “This works in cancer cells by slowing their growth by disrupting processes that lead to the generation of new proteins,” he explained.
The team are currently doing tests on animals and models, and hope to start clinical trials in humans in three to four years.
To expedite further research and development of silvestrol, the State of Ohio signed an agreement with the Malaysian-run Sarawak Biodiversity Center (SBC), giving the university the rights to SBC’s patent on silvestrol.
The agent, silvestrol, is a natural compound derived from the twigs, fruit, and bark of the Aglaia species of tree, found in central Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia, and some Pacific islands.
It has been used as a traditional medicine in Malaysia for many years, usually to treat digestive disorders, but never as a cancer therapy.
Researchers from Ohio State University, who have been working on silvestrol since 2004, discovered that silvestrol kills cancer cells in mice, possibly paving the way to treatment for human cancers in the near future.
Alan Douglas Kinghorn, a senior researcher at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, and leading silvestrol specialist, who gave the compound its name, says silvestrol has shown “very good initial results in models of B-cell malignancies, such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma.”
Silvestrol was also found to inhibit the growth of lung, breast, and prostate cancer cells, and appears to cause no damage to normal immune system cells — a common problem with current cancer treatments for leukemia.
Kinghorn explained that silvestrol acts as a “translation inhibitor,” meaning it interferes with cancer cell multiplication. “This works in cancer cells by slowing their growth by disrupting processes that lead to the generation of new proteins,” he explained.
The team are currently doing tests on animals and models, and hope to start clinical trials in humans in three to four years.
To expedite further research and development of silvestrol, the State of Ohio signed an agreement with the Malaysian-run Sarawak Biodiversity Center (SBC), giving the university the rights to SBC’s patent on silvestrol.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Stroke Survivors Use Robotic Arm To Regain Limb Function
Sensory-Motor Active Rehabilitation Training Arm (SMART Arm) is a device developed by researchers from The University of Queensland and James Cook University.
The device enables stroke survivors with upper limb weakness to drive their own rehabilitation through feedback on performance via an interactive computer program and incremental increases in load and reaching range.
“SMART Arm is one of the few interventions shown to result in positive changes in neural plasticity in people with severe paralysis after chronic stroke, so we’re very keen to see the device become available to as many as possible, as soon as possible,” Brauer said.
“There is evidence that the brain has greater capacity for plasticity early following stroke, so we are undertaking a trial of SMART Arm training in patients who have just had a stroke, to take advantage of an optimal window for neural recovery."
SMART Arm Pty Ltd has been formed as a partnership between Townsville Mackay Medicare Local (TMML), UQ, and JCU to further develop, manufacture and market the technology following an investment from TMML.
On the hunt for rare cancer cells
Tumor cells circulating in a patient’s bloodstream can yield a great deal of information on how a tumor is responding to treatment and what drugs might be more effective against it. But first, these rare cells have to be captured and isolated from the many other cells found in a blood sample.
Many scientists are now working on microfluidic devices that can isolate circulating tumor cells (CTCs), but most of these have two major limitations: It takes too long to process a sufficient amount of blood, and there is no good way to extract cancer cells for analysis after their capture.
A new device from researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital overcomes those obstacles. Inspired by the tentacles of a jellyfish, the team coated a microfluidic channel with long strands of DNA that grab specific proteins found on the surfaces of leukemia cells as they flow by. Using this strategy, the researchers achieved flow rates 10 times higher than existing devices — fast enough to make the systems practical for clinical use.
Using this technology, described in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doctors could monitor cancer patients to determine whether their treatment is working.
“If you had a rapid test that could tell you whether there are more or less of these cells over time, that would help to monitor the progression of therapy and progression of the disease,” says Jeff Karp, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Center for Regenerative Therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
The new technology grew out of a collaboration between Karp’s lab and that of Rohit Karnik, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. Lead authors of the paper are Weian Zhao, a former postdoc in Karp’s lab and now an assistant professor at the University of California at Irvine; Cheryl Cui, a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology; and Suman Bose, a graduate student in Karnik’s lab.
The researchers are now working on adapting the DNA strands to target other molecules, such as receptors found on the surfaces of cells dislodged from solid tumors.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Source: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/capturing-rare-cancer-cells-1112.html
Many scientists are now working on microfluidic devices that can isolate circulating tumor cells (CTCs), but most of these have two major limitations: It takes too long to process a sufficient amount of blood, and there is no good way to extract cancer cells for analysis after their capture.
A new device from researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital overcomes those obstacles. Inspired by the tentacles of a jellyfish, the team coated a microfluidic channel with long strands of DNA that grab specific proteins found on the surfaces of leukemia cells as they flow by. Using this strategy, the researchers achieved flow rates 10 times higher than existing devices — fast enough to make the systems practical for clinical use.
Using this technology, described in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doctors could monitor cancer patients to determine whether their treatment is working.
“If you had a rapid test that could tell you whether there are more or less of these cells over time, that would help to monitor the progression of therapy and progression of the disease,” says Jeff Karp, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Center for Regenerative Therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
The new technology grew out of a collaboration between Karp’s lab and that of Rohit Karnik, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. Lead authors of the paper are Weian Zhao, a former postdoc in Karp’s lab and now an assistant professor at the University of California at Irvine; Cheryl Cui, a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology; and Suman Bose, a graduate student in Karnik’s lab.
The researchers are now working on adapting the DNA strands to target other molecules, such as receptors found on the surfaces of cells dislodged from solid tumors.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Source: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/capturing-rare-cancer-cells-1112.html
Monday, November 12, 2012
First liver cancer 'chemo-bath' in the UK
A "chemo-bath" which delivers toxic cancer drugs to just one organ in the body has been used on patients in the UK for the first time, say doctors.
Two patients in the UK have now received chemotherapy focused on just their liver. Both had a rare eye cancer which had spread to the liver.
The operation works by inflating balloons inside blood vessels on either side of the liver to isolate it from the rest of the body. The liver is then pumped full of chemotherapy drugs, which are filtered out before the liver is reconnected to the main blood supply. It means only a tiny fraction of the chemotherapy dose ends up in the body.
Dr Stedman told the BBC: "In 20 years' time the idea of injecting a drug which poisons the whole body for a cancer in just one small area will seem bonkers."
He suggested that any organ which could be easily separated from the blood supply, such as the kidney, pancreas and lungs, would be suitable for this kind of approach. The technique is also being tested in the US and elsewhere in Europe.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-20270400
Doctors at Southampton General Hospital believe targeting just one organ can prevent side effects. They also say it means they can give higher doses without causing damage to the patient.
Two patients in the UK have now received chemotherapy focused on just their liver. Both had a rare eye cancer which had spread to the liver.
The operation works by inflating balloons inside blood vessels on either side of the liver to isolate it from the rest of the body. The liver is then pumped full of chemotherapy drugs, which are filtered out before the liver is reconnected to the main blood supply. It means only a tiny fraction of the chemotherapy dose ends up in the body.
Dr Stedman told the BBC: "In 20 years' time the idea of injecting a drug which poisons the whole body for a cancer in just one small area will seem bonkers."
He suggested that any organ which could be easily separated from the blood supply, such as the kidney, pancreas and lungs, would be suitable for this kind of approach. The technique is also being tested in the US and elsewhere in Europe.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-20270400
Wednesday, November 07, 2012
One test may 'find many cancers'
Targeting just one chemical inside cancerous cells could one day lead to a single test for a broad range of cancers, researchers say. The same system could then be used to deliver precision radiotherapy.
Scientists told the National Cancer Research Institute conference they had been able to find breast cancer in mice weeks before a lump had been detected.
The team, at the Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology and Biology at Oxford University, were looking for a protein, called gamma-H2AX, which is produced in response to damaged DNA. This tends to be one of the first steps on the road to a cell becoming cancerous.
The scientists used an antibody that is the perfect partner to gamma-H2AX and able to seek it out in the body. This was turned into a cancer test by attaching small amounts of radioactive material to the antibody. If the radiation gathered in one place it would be a sign of a potential tumour.
The researchers trialled the test on genetically modified mice, which are highly susceptible to forming tumours.
Prof Katherine Vallis said lumps could be felt when the mice were about 120 days old, but "we detected changes prior to that at 90 to 100 days - before a tumour is clinically apparent".
Prof Vallis said "it is attracted to DNA damage", where it then delivers a dose of radiation, causing more damage and attracting even more antibodies - it is a "self-amplifying system". Eventually the doses of radiation should do so much damage to the cancerous cells that they would be killed.
Dr Julie Sharp, from Cancer Research UK, said: "This important study reveals that targeting this key molecule could provide an exciting route for new ways to detect cancer at an earlier stage - and help to deliver radiotherapy and monitor its effect on tumours."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20179560
Scientists told the National Cancer Research Institute conference they had been able to find breast cancer in mice weeks before a lump had been detected.
The team, at the Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology and Biology at Oxford University, were looking for a protein, called gamma-H2AX, which is produced in response to damaged DNA. This tends to be one of the first steps on the road to a cell becoming cancerous.
The scientists used an antibody that is the perfect partner to gamma-H2AX and able to seek it out in the body. This was turned into a cancer test by attaching small amounts of radioactive material to the antibody. If the radiation gathered in one place it would be a sign of a potential tumour.
The researchers trialled the test on genetically modified mice, which are highly susceptible to forming tumours.
Prof Katherine Vallis said lumps could be felt when the mice were about 120 days old, but "we detected changes prior to that at 90 to 100 days - before a tumour is clinically apparent".
Prof Vallis said "it is attracted to DNA damage", where it then delivers a dose of radiation, causing more damage and attracting even more antibodies - it is a "self-amplifying system". Eventually the doses of radiation should do so much damage to the cancerous cells that they would be killed.
Dr Julie Sharp, from Cancer Research UK, said: "This important study reveals that targeting this key molecule could provide an exciting route for new ways to detect cancer at an earlier stage - and help to deliver radiotherapy and monitor its effect on tumours."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20179560
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