|
No cell walls, no new cancer cells
August 02, 2006Cancer cells, like houses, need building materials for their walls. And as with a house, the cell wall needs to be built at just the right moment to protect and allow the construction of internal components. A team from the Uppsala Branch of the global Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) has not only shown how the cell gets this timing right, but has also conducted proof-of-principle studies that indicate taking away the cell's bricks and mortar is a potential strategy for cancer control.
"New cells are created by the duplication of existing cells through a highly-organized process known as the cell cycle," explains lead author, Dr. Maite Bengoechea Alonso. "Last year we discovered that a protein called SREBP1 that regulates the synthesis of lipids needed for new cell walls was regulated during the cell cycle. Now we show that the SREBP1 protein actually controls the cell cycle."
Senior author, LICR's Dr. Johan Ericsson, realized that disrupting the function of SREBP1 might prevent the lipid synthesis required for new cell walls. "In fact, we literally stopped the cell cycle in its tracks by removing SREBP1 from cells. It seems that if you don't have SREBP1 activity, you can't make lipids, and if you don't have lipids, you can't make new cells."
According to Dr. Ericsson, who is also a Research Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, this approach might one day form the basis of a new strategy for the long-term control of cancer. "Cancer cells divide uncontrollably, so their need for lipids is more urgent and continuous than normal cells. Treatment with an inhibitor of SREBP1 might reduce the rate of cancer cell proliferation to slow down tumor growth, or might enhance the effect of targeted therapies that aim to actually kill cancer cells."
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
According to Dr. Ericsson, who is also a Research Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, this approach might one day form the basis of a new strategy for the long-term control of cancer. "Cancer cells divide uncontrollably, so their need for lipids is more urgent and continuous than normal cells. Treatment with an inhibitor of SREBP1 might reduce the rate of cancer cell proliferation to slow down tumor growth, or might enhance the effect of targeted therapies that aim to actually kill cancer cells."
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
Cancer Cell News and Current Cancer Cell Events RSSNew oral angiogenesis inhibitor offers potential nontoxic therapy for a wide range of cancers
The first oral, broad-spectrum angiogenesis inhibitor, specially formulated through nanotechnology, shows promising anticancer results in mice, report researchers from Children's Hospital Boston.
McGill researchers overcome chemotherapy resistance in the lab
Researchers from McGill University's Faculty of Medicine have discovered a compound that reduces resistance to chemotherapy agents used to treat cancer. Their results were published in the June issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI).
Idle Computers Offer Hope to Solve Cancer's Mysteries Through Grid Computing Project
A biomedical engineering professor at The University of Texas at Austin is using a concept called "grid computing" to allow the average person to donate idle computer time in a global effort to fight cancer.
Gene therapy increases survival for end-stage head and neck cancer
A gene therapy invented at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is the first to succeed in a U.S. phase III clinical trial for cancer, as announced today at the American Society of Gene Therapy annual meeting in Boston.
Fruit fly protein acts as decoy to capture tumor growth factors, find Penn researchers
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have shown how Argos, a fruit fly protein, acts as a ¡¥decoy' receptor, binding growth factors that promote the progression of cancer.
Researchers find roadmap to next-generation cancer therapies
Pinpointing new targets for cancer treatments is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack, yet a University of Rochester team has discovered an entire novel class of genes they believe will lead to a greater understanding of cancer cell function and the next generation of effective and less harmful therapies for patients.
Traditional herbal medicine kills pancreatic cancer cells, Jefferson researchers report
An herb used in traditional medicine by many Middle Eastern countries may help in the fight against pancreatic cancer, one of the most difficult cancers to treat.
Celebrex shows benefit in first-of-its-kind lung cancer chemoprevention trial
Celecoxib, the anti-inflammatory medication also known by the trade name Celebrex, has proven to be safe and reduces a specific proliferation measurement of precancerous lesions in the lung, according to a study from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Unexpected role: EGFR protects cancer cells from starving
A growth factor receptor found abundantly on the surface of cancer cells and long known to fuel cancer growth also protects tumor cells from starvation by a newly identified mechanism.
Study raises questions about prostate cancer therapies targeting IGF-1
Therapies under development to treat prostate cancer by inhibiting the ability of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) to activate its target receptor could have unexpected results especially if a major tumor suppressor gene - p53 - is already compromised, according to new research by investigators at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
More Cancer Cell News Articles
 | Biology of Cancer by Robert A. Weinberg |
 | One Renegade Cell: The Quest For The Origin Of Cancer (Science Masters) by Robert A. Weinberg |
 | Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age: An Insider's Alarming Discoveries about Cancer and Genetic Damage by George Carlo, Martin Schram |
 | 100 Questions & Answers About Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplantation by Ewa Carrier, Gracy Ledingham |
 | The Cell Game: Sam Waksal's Fast Money and False Promises--and the Fate of ImClone's Cancer Drug by Alex Prud'homme |
 | The Role of Music in the Twenty-First Century (Star to Cell Series Book I) (Star to cell series) by Fabien Maman |
| Transformed Cell by Various | |
 | The Skin Cancer Answer: The Natural Treatment for Basal and Sqamous Cell Carcinomas and Keratoses by William I. Lane, Linda Comac |
 | Basic Clinical Radiobiology (Hodder Arnold Publication) |
 | The Biological Basis of Cancer by Robert G. McKinnell, Ralph E. Parchment, Alan O. Perantoni, G. Barry Pierce |
| © 2008 BrightSurf.com |