A QUANTUM OF SCIENCE
Mouse virus is implicated in causation of #2 male cancer killer
Prostate cancer strikes one in six American men, and is the second most likely cancer to cause death in men. New research now suggests that prostate cancer may in fact be linked to a virus that could be sexually transmitted.
The suspect is xenotropic murine leukemia-related virus (XMRV), a gammaretrovirus similar to viruses known to cause cancer in animals. Retroviruses are known cancer-causing agents because they integrate themselves into the host’s genetic material; when this takes place in or near a segment of DNA associated with a gene that controls growth, cancer – unrestricted cell growth – can result. Some retroviruses also contain cancer-causing genes of their own, such as the src gene in Rous sarcoma virus. The three most common cancer-causing viruses are human papilloma virus (HPV), Hepatitis B virus (Hep B), and the Eppstein Barr Virus (EBV).
Scientists working in collaboration between Columbia University and the University of Utah found XMRV in over 25% of prostate tissue samples, especially malignant ones. Moreover, the virus was found to be significantly more infective when present in semen. Another semen component, acid phosphatase, increased XMRV infectivity of human prostate cells by over 100-fold.
The strongest theory at present for the biology of XMRV-linked prostate cancer suggests that an infected man has viral particles present in his genital tract and deposits them in his partner when he has unprotected intercourse. The acid phosphatase in the semen activates the viral particles and makes them substantially more infective, making the partner at risk of transmitting the virus during future intercourse.
More research is needed to substantiate this theory, but this discovery could also lead to new treatments based on anti-retroviral therapies already known to medicine.
For more information:
Viral Cause For Prostate Cancer? (New Scientist)
Retroviruses (Wikipedia)
© AQOS / P. Smalley (2009)
Reproduction with attribution is appreciation
Showing posts with label cancer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cancer. Show all posts
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Antioxidants Curb Cancer's Spread
A QUANTUM OF SCIENCE
New research shows reactive oxygen breaks down cell walls and helps cancer spread
Malignant cancer tumors have a unique characteristic: they can release tumor cells into the lymphatic system and cause tumors to grow elsewhere in the body, even in tissues or organs totally unrelated to those that were the original source of the tumor. This process is called metastasis, and sometimes forces doctors to use whole-body or systemic anti-cancer treatments when a localized treatment targeting a single tumor would be both more effective and far easier on the patient. Now scientist are advancing understanding of how metastasis occurs, and how to prevent it.
Researchers at Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California recently reported that reactive oxygen species were key players in the cellular process of metastasis. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) include superoxide, hydrogen peroxide and other forms of oxygen generated by the body’s normal functions. Some uses of ROS are beneficial, such as when the immune system generates ROS to kill invading cells. In cancerous cells, however, ROS help form lesions and break down cell walls, aiding in the spread of tumor-forming cells. Researchers have isolated a scaffold protein called Tks5 (for Tyrosine Kinase Substrate) which is concentrated in extruded lesions of tumor cells, called podosomes (or invadopodia in some papers). Tks5-rich cells rapidly produce ROS and form lesions that facilitate the spread of tumorous cells throughout the body. In their paper, Burnham scientists show that cells lacking the gene for Tks5 production are substantially inhibited from forming metastatic tumors, and treating the tumor cells with antioxidants similar suppresses the activity of Tks5, resulting in smaller tumors, fewer lesions/podosomes and a substantial decrease in extruded (metastatic) cells.
An example of tumor size reduction in cells lacking the Tks5 gene (4.20 and 4.24):
This paper is an exciting advance in the understanding of the basic processes of malignant cancer. If podosome formation and metastasis can be reduced by either antioxidant treatments or drugs that target Tks5, huge advances can be made in reducing the mortality associated with highly-metastatic malignant cancer.
For more information:
Reactive Oxygen’s Role in Metastasis
A role for the podosome/invadopodia scaffold protein Tks5 in tumor growth in vivo (Blouw et al)
Metastasis (Wikipedia article)
© AQOS / P. Smalley (2009)
Reproduction with attribution is appreciation
New research shows reactive oxygen breaks down cell walls and helps cancer spread
Malignant cancer tumors have a unique characteristic: they can release tumor cells into the lymphatic system and cause tumors to grow elsewhere in the body, even in tissues or organs totally unrelated to those that were the original source of the tumor. This process is called metastasis, and sometimes forces doctors to use whole-body or systemic anti-cancer treatments when a localized treatment targeting a single tumor would be both more effective and far easier on the patient. Now scientist are advancing understanding of how metastasis occurs, and how to prevent it.
Researchers at Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California recently reported that reactive oxygen species were key players in the cellular process of metastasis. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) include superoxide, hydrogen peroxide and other forms of oxygen generated by the body’s normal functions. Some uses of ROS are beneficial, such as when the immune system generates ROS to kill invading cells. In cancerous cells, however, ROS help form lesions and break down cell walls, aiding in the spread of tumor-forming cells. Researchers have isolated a scaffold protein called Tks5 (for Tyrosine Kinase Substrate) which is concentrated in extruded lesions of tumor cells, called podosomes (or invadopodia in some papers). Tks5-rich cells rapidly produce ROS and form lesions that facilitate the spread of tumorous cells throughout the body. In their paper, Burnham scientists show that cells lacking the gene for Tks5 production are substantially inhibited from forming metastatic tumors, and treating the tumor cells with antioxidants similar suppresses the activity of Tks5, resulting in smaller tumors, fewer lesions/podosomes and a substantial decrease in extruded (metastatic) cells.
An example of tumor size reduction in cells lacking the Tks5 gene (4.20 and 4.24):
This paper is an exciting advance in the understanding of the basic processes of malignant cancer. If podosome formation and metastasis can be reduced by either antioxidant treatments or drugs that target Tks5, huge advances can be made in reducing the mortality associated with highly-metastatic malignant cancer.
For more information:
Reactive Oxygen’s Role in Metastasis
A role for the podosome/invadopodia scaffold protein Tks5 in tumor growth in vivo (Blouw et al)
Metastasis (Wikipedia article)
© AQOS / P. Smalley (2009)
Reproduction with attribution is appreciation
Sunday, May 24, 2009
A Cure for the Common Cancer
A QUANTUM OF SCIENCE
What can the common cold do to help fight cancer?
Behold one of the most successful organisms in the history of the world: the humble adenovirus, better known as the cold. Human have recorded suffering from this virus since at least Hippocritas, and likely much earlier. Every year humans around the world come down with runny noses, coughs and fevers associated with the cold. And then they spread it to others, and recover - until the next round. Adenoviruses are among the handful of true success stories in biology. Now, scientists have found a way to harness the infectivity of the common cold to make it serve a therapeutic function, not an epidemiological one.
Recently, a group of scientists led by Dr. Leonard Seymour of Oxford University reported successfully removing the "disease" genes from a adenovirus and replacing them with genes for cancerous proteins. Why would this help? In the same way that your body's immune system eventually learns to recognize and attack normal adenoviruses that manage to infect you, the modified adenovirus contains cancer-linked genes that provide the immune system with the opportunity to "learn" that these proteins are invaders to be fought, potentially turning the immune system into the most potent and selective anti-cancer fighter possible.
Scientists have managed similar feats before but to do so they have had to weaken the virus, making it less effective at stimulating the immune system and teaching it to recognize cancer proteins as invaders to be fought. With this achievement, Dr. Seymour and his collaborators have taken a large step forward into a burgeoning field of therapeutics drawn from biological strategies older than humanity itself.
For more inforation:
http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1000440
(C) AQOS / Peter Smalley (2009)
What can the common cold do to help fight cancer?
Behold one of the most successful organisms in the history of the world: the humble adenovirus, better known as the cold. Human have recorded suffering from this virus since at least Hippocritas, and likely much earlier. Every year humans around the world come down with runny noses, coughs and fevers associated with the cold. And then they spread it to others, and recover - until the next round. Adenoviruses are among the handful of true success stories in biology. Now, scientists have found a way to harness the infectivity of the common cold to make it serve a therapeutic function, not an epidemiological one.
Recently, a group of scientists led by Dr. Leonard Seymour of Oxford University reported successfully removing the "disease" genes from a adenovirus and replacing them with genes for cancerous proteins. Why would this help? In the same way that your body's immune system eventually learns to recognize and attack normal adenoviruses that manage to infect you, the modified adenovirus contains cancer-linked genes that provide the immune system with the opportunity to "learn" that these proteins are invaders to be fought, potentially turning the immune system into the most potent and selective anti-cancer fighter possible.
Scientists have managed similar feats before but to do so they have had to weaken the virus, making it less effective at stimulating the immune system and teaching it to recognize cancer proteins as invaders to be fought. With this achievement, Dr. Seymour and his collaborators have taken a large step forward into a burgeoning field of therapeutics drawn from biological strategies older than humanity itself.
For more inforation:
http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1000440
(C) AQOS / Peter Smalley (2009)
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