A pre-clinical study of two drugs designed to boost T cell performance, has revealed the agents, when give in combination, may enhance the immune system’s ability to kill melanoma tumors deficient in the tumor suppressor gene PTEN. The study was led by investigators at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Using chemotherapy along with aptamers -- lab-made molecules that function like antibodies -- Duke Health researchers showed that they can zero in on and kill prostate cancer tumors in mice while leaving healthy tissue unscathed.
UNC School of Medicine scientists led by Nikolay Dokholyan add to evidence that small aggregates of SOD1 protein are the brain-cell killing culprits in ALS, but the formation of larger, more visible, and fibril-like aggregates of the same protein may protect brain cells.
Accelerator scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are testing a new type of electron gun for a future generation of instruments that take snapshots of the atomic world in never-before-seen quality and detail, with applications in chemistry, biology, energy and materials science.
CU Cancer Center study presented at AACR18 shows that TIM3 and/or increased regulatory T cells (Tregs) within a tumor may help cancers inactivate immune system killer T cells that would otherwise identify and attack the cancer.
When prostate cancer metastasizes to bone, it can become especially dangerous – CU Cancer Center study at AACR18 hints at why: Cells involved in these bone metastases may release signals that drive the progression of the disease.
University of Colorado Cancer Center study presented at AACR 2018 shows that even within three days of treatment, melanoma cells find a way to activate MEK – not with mutations, but with a more flexible and temporary way to allow these cancer cells to signal through the MAPK pathway even in the presence of BRAF inhibition.
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers have identified the histone H2AX as a potential biomarker for breast cancer — a determination that could also help predict how a patient will respond to radiation therapy.
A drug given to early stage lung cancer patients before they undergo surgery showed major tumor responses in the removed tumor and an increase in anti-tumor T-cells that remained after the tumor was removed, which resulted in fewer relapse cases in the patients.
Advances in nanotechnology have made it possible to control the size, shape, composition, elasticity and chemical properties of laboratory-made nanomaterials. Yet many of these materials do not to function as expected in the body. In a recent issue of Biointerphases, the team homes in on biomembranes -- the gatekeeping bilipid-layers and proteins surrounding cells. They explore the barriers a synthetic nanomaterial must breach to enter a cell and achieve its intended purpose.
The American Association of Anatomists (AAA) is honored to announce its 2018 award winners. All awards will be presented during the Closing Awards Ceremony at AAA's 2018 annual meeting at Experimental Biology (EB) in San Diego, CA on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, at 7:30pm.
Dr. Charles N. Serhan is the 2018 recipient of the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP) Rous-Whipple Award. Since 1979, this award has been presented annually to a senior scientist with a distinguished career in research who has advanced the understanding of disease and has continued productivity at the time of the award.
Dr. Janardan K. Reddy, Professor Emeritus of Pathology at Northwestern University, is this year’s recipient of the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP) Gold-Headed Cane Award.
The American Association of Anatomists (AAA) is honored to announce its 2018 Young Investigator Award winners. All awards will be presented during the Closing Awards Ceremony at AAA's 2018 annual meeting at Experimental Biology (EB) in San Diego, CA. The ceremony is being held Tuesday, April 24, 2017, at 7:30 pm.
Just like people, some T cells have excellent memories. These subtypes known as memory T cells may explain why some immunotherapies are more effective than others and potentially lead to researchers designing more effective studies using combination checkpoint blockade treatments, according to experts at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
In preliminary findings presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018, researchers from the lab of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member Stephen Hursting, PhD, reported on a number of studies examining possible ways to reverse obesity-linked biological changes.
A phase I, first-in-human study led by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reveals for the first time, an investigational drug that is effective and safe for patients with cancers caused by an alteration in the receptor tyrosine kinase known as RET. The drug appears to be promising as a potential therapy for RET-driven cancers, such as medullary and papillary thyroid, non-small cell lung, colorectal and bile duct cancers, which have been historically difficult to treat.
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers have found that the effect of a key gene driving an aggressive, recurrent and often incurable form of prostate cancer is dose-dependent, opening new avenues for therapies that overcome resistance to treatment of advanced disease.
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for 14 percent of all lung cancers and is often rapidly resistant to chemotherapy resulting in poor clinical outcomes. Treatment has changed little for decades, but a study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center offers a potential explanation for why the disease becomes chemoresistant, and a possible avenue to explore new diagnostic approaches.
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers and their collaborators are reporting preclinical findings for a potential two-treatment strategy to block multiple mechanisms of cancer cell metabolism in pancreatic cancer at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Chicago. The findings will be presented from 8 a.m. to noon on Wednesday.
Baylor University Medical Center is the first in North Texas to offer the only FDA approved CAR-T cellular therapy to treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. (DLBCL)
Cornell University researchers have developed a “lymphoma micro-reactor” device that exposes human lymphomas to fluid flow similar to that in the lymphatics and parts of the lymph node. It is designed to explore how fluid forces may relate to a tumors’ drug resistance.
Wistar researchers have found that soluble antibodies promote tumor progression by inducing accumulation of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in pre-clinical cancer models.
Researchers have shown, in mice, that norovirus infects a rare type of intestinal cell called a tuft cell. Inside tuft cells, norovirus is effectively hidden from the immune system, which could explain why some people continue to shed virus long after they are no longer sick. These “healthy carriers” are thought to be the source of norovirus outbreaks, so understanding how the virus evades detection in such people could lead to better ways to prevent outbreaks.
A thin copper wire wrapped around a channel slightly thicker than a strand of hair could be the key to manufacturing a compact electronic device capable of counting white blood cells from the comfort of one’s home, a Kennesaw State University researcher says.
Unlike related hummingbird species, Costa’s perform their dives to the side of females, rather than in front of them. In a paper published today in Current Biology, researchers at the University of California, Riverside show this trajectory minimizes an audible Doppler sound that occurs when the Costa’s dive.
Researchers have found that two targeted therapies could be more effective if used in combination to treat squamous cell carcinomas of the lung. The two drugs, MLN128 and CB-839, individually target the metabolism of key nutrients glucose and glutamine, respectively, prohibiting the cancer from switching metabolic gears between glucose (a simple sugar) and glutamine (an amino acid) to tap vital sources of energy. This switch enables the cancer cells to adapt their metabolism and evade treatments.
Atlantic Health System’s new Atlantic HPV Center is one of a small number of research centers in the nation to begin a study to determine whether an innovative combination of immuno-oncology treatments is safe, shows preliminary efficacy and provokes an anticancer immune system response in patients with recurrent or metastatic human papilloma virus (HPV) associated head and neck squamous cancer.
Wistar researchers have identified a novel therapeutic vulnerability in NRAS mutant melanoma and an effective strategy to address it, using a combination of two clinically relevant inhibitors, according to study results published online in EMBO Molecular Medicine.
A multi-institutional project to understand one of the major targets of human drug design has produced new insights into how structural communication works in a cell component called a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCRs), basically a “doorbell” structure that alerts the cell of important molecules nearby.
A Ludwig Cancer Research study has shown that an entirely new type of personalized cancer vaccine induces novel, potent and clinically effective immune responses in patients receiving a combination of standard therapies for recurrent, stage III and IV ovarian cancer.
A new type of cancer vaccine has yielded promising results in an initial clinical trial. The personalized vaccine is made from patients’ own immune cells, which are exposed to the contents of the patients’ tumor cells, and then injected into the patients to initiate a wider immune response. The trial, conducted in advanced ovarian cancer patients, was a pilot trial aimed primarily at determining safety and feasibility, but there were clear signs that it could be effective: About half of the vaccinated patients showed signs of anti-tumor T-cell responses, and those “responders” tended to live much longer without tumor progression than those who didn’t respond. The study is published today in Science Translational Medicine.
A new study—one of a few to concentrate on microbes in the upper gastrointestinal tract—shows how the typical calorie-dense western diet can induce expansion of microbes that promote the digestion and absorption of high-fat foods. Over time, the steady presence of these microbes can lead to over-nutrition and obesity.
Researchers at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have determined how satellite DNA, considered to be "junk DNA," plays a crucial role in holding the genome together.
Scientists have developed novel ways to study how and why cells move in their search for treatments of bacterial infection and diseases such as cancer.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s latest findings will be featured in about 50 presentations at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, “Driving Innovative Cancer Science to Patient Care,” to be held April 14-18 in Chicago. Here are several highlights:
In new research published in Nature, a team led by Subhamoy Dasgupta, PhD, of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center reports its identification of two key proteins involved in glucose metabolism that could be targeted to prevent breast cancer metastasis and recurrence.
UT Southwestern’s Dr. Deepak Nijhawan became a co-recipient of the 2018 Donald Seldin-Holly Smith Award for Pioneering Research. The award recognizes Dr. Nijhawan’s work identifying targets for cancer treatment.
Researchers at the University of Chicago have developed a genetic screening tool that identified two key factors that allow the influenza virus to infect human lung cells. The technique uses new gene editing tools to create a library of modified cells, each missing a different gene, allowing scientists to see which changes impact their response to flu. This in turn could identify potential targets for antiviral drugs.
Scientists searching for a therapy to stop the deadly and mostly untreatable lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), found a new molecular target that slows or stops the illness in preclinical laboratory tests. Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center report their data in the journal Cell Reports. Studying mice with IPF and donated human cells, they identified a gene called FOXF1 that inhibits the IPF disease.
A rare, inherited neurodegenerative disorder will soon be the focus of an international clinical research effort led by Houston Methodist and funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Research by Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey investigators has identified novel functions of the superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) enzyme providing support that it could serve as a therapeutic target in the most common type of lung cancer.
Matching unique genetic information from cancer patients’ tumors with treatment options – an emerging area of precision medicine efforts – often fails to identify all patients who may respond to certain therapies. Other molecular information from patients may reveal these so-called “hidden responders."
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame focused on an enzyme in gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a pathogen that causes pneumonia and sepsis.
Sanford Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) researchers recently discovered that that inactivation of a protein called p62 in fat cells fuels aggressive, metastatic prostate cancer in mice. The findings suggest that mTOR inhibitors currently used to treat a wide range of cancers may have the unintended consequence of shutting down fat tissue metabolism and fueling tumor growth.
A promising class of drugs known as CD40 monoclonal antibodies could be the spark needed to light the fire in the immune system of patients who don’t respond to the newer cancer immunotherapies.
Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an internationally renowned cancer immunotherapy expert, makes the case for the drugs in a new perspective piece published this week in Cancer Cell, as part of a series in the issue focusing on the next phase of the evolving field of cancer immunotherapy.