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Cell research signals cancer hope
February 03, 2005Scientists have moved a step closer to understanding what happens when cells receive a faulty signal that is known to be a cause of cancer.
Many different types of signal control normal cell development but when some of these signals are 'mis-activated' they can result in the formation of tumours.
Now, a team of researchers at The University of Manchester has discovered that the way cells communicate with each other is often more complicated than previously thought.
The breakthrough should help in the fight against cancer as understanding how these signals work in healthy cells means scientists can better investigate what happens when the signal goes wrong.
Dr Martin Baron, who led the research, said the discovery could take scientists down a new route in their battle against the disease.
Dr Baron's research, published in the science journal Current Biology, has been concerned with signals that are picked up by a receptor on the surface of the cell known as 'Notch', which has been linked to a form of leukaemia called T-ALL.
The Notch receptor, of which there are four types in humans, is unusual in that once it has picked up a signal, it splits into two and part of it actually becomes the signal on its journey to the cell nucleus.
What Dr Baron has discovered is that the journey taken by the Notch signal to the nucleus is not as straightforward as scientists first believed.
"Our studies have shown how the signal should work normally and how it can be mis-activated," explained Dr Baron.
"If the signal is mis-activated it can cause cancer, so it is important that we know why it can go wrong and find out how to stop it.
"Once we know the process of how the wrong signal is sent and the cell is mis-activated, we can look at the possibility of manipulating the signal or switching it off completely."
Manchester, The University of
The breakthrough should help in the fight against cancer as understanding how these signals work in healthy cells means scientists can better investigate what happens when the signal goes wrong.
Dr Martin Baron, who led the research, said the discovery could take scientists down a new route in their battle against the disease.
Dr Baron's research, published in the science journal Current Biology, has been concerned with signals that are picked up by a receptor on the surface of the cell known as 'Notch', which has been linked to a form of leukaemia called T-ALL.
The Notch receptor, of which there are four types in humans, is unusual in that once it has picked up a signal, it splits into two and part of it actually becomes the signal on its journey to the cell nucleus.
What Dr Baron has discovered is that the journey taken by the Notch signal to the nucleus is not as straightforward as scientists first believed.
"Our studies have shown how the signal should work normally and how it can be mis-activated," explained Dr Baron.
"If the signal is mis-activated it can cause cancer, so it is important that we know why it can go wrong and find out how to stop it.
"Once we know the process of how the wrong signal is sent and the cell is mis-activated, we can look at the possibility of manipulating the signal or switching it off completely."
Manchester, The University of
Cancer Current Events and Cancer News RSSScreening for colorectal cancer detects unrecognized disease
Screening for colorectal cancer detects four out of ten cancers and should be carefully designed to be more effective, according to a study published today on bmj.com.
MU study reveals effective anti-tobacco ads should either scare or disgust viewers
Now's the perfect time to increase anti-smoking campaigns - Nov. 20 is the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout.
Iressa proves just as effective as chemotherapy for lung cancer
Gefitinib, also known as Iressa, the once-promising targeted therapy for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, has proven as effective as chemotherapy as a second-line therapy for the disease with far fewer side effects, according to an international Phase III clinical trial, led by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Researcher tricks immune system in diabetic mice
The body's immune system hates strangers. When its security patrol spots a foreign cell, it annihilates it.
Misreading of damaged DNA may spur tumor formation
The DNA in our cells is constantly under assault from oxygen, the sun's radiation and environmental stresses. Most of the time, our cells can repair the damage before it gets copied into a permanent mutation that could lead to cancer.
A Simple Blood Test for Colon Cancer
People are often reluctant to undergo a routine but painful colonoscopy ― but the consequences can be fatal. According to the American Cancer Society, colon cancer is the third most common cancer found in American men and women and kills about 50,000 Americans every year.
Systems biology brings hope of speeding up drug development
Almost every day brings news of an apparent breakthrough against cancer, infectious diseases, or metabolic conditions like diabetes, but these rarely translate into effective therapies or drugs, and even if they do clinical development usually takes well over a decade.
ADHD medications do not cause genetic damage in children
In contrast to recent findings, two of the most common medications used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) do not appear to cause genetic damage in children who take them as prescribed, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Duke University Medical Center.
New platinum-phosphate compounds kill ovarian cancer cells
A new class of compounds called phosphaplatins can effectively kill ovarian, testicular, head and neck cancer cells with potentially less toxicity than conventional drugs, according to a new study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Survival of head and neck cancer patients is greatly affected by coexisting ailments
Current estimates for head and neck cancer survival are largely inaccurate because they widely disregard many of the most common diseases such patients have in addition to their primary cancer, says Jay Piccirillo, M.D., a head and neck specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Siteman Cancer Center and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
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