Some cells take the mantra “you are what you eat” quite literally. In a process known as autophagy, cells form internal sacs of digestive enzymes—like extra stomachs—and cannibalize parts of themselves. This usually occurs in times of starvation when a cell needs to recycle bits of itself or get rid of intracellular pathogens. But new research shows that cellular self-cannibalization can also play a role in fighting cancer.
Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center found that a protein, PEA-15, affects the rate at which ovarian cancer cells self-cannibalize through autophagy. PEA-15 induces cancer cells to form digestive sacs, known as lysosomes, and eat themselves from the inside. That’s not just Hannibal Lecter cannibalism—it’s like Lecter chewing on his own arm.
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Humans have a habit of using animals to carry things: horses, llamas, sled dogs, messenger pigeons. But the newest “beasts of burden” may be inside our own bodies. Researchers at MIT have strapped tiny “backpacks” to T cells and B cells, which could be used to carry and deliver drugs to targeted tissues like cancer tumors.
The researchers created tiny polymer patches that could latch onto the surface of the immune cells. The patches are synthesized and docked on a holding substrate. They consists of three layers: a temperature-dependent sticky layer that attaches the patches to a holding substrate, a layer that contains the cargo to be delivered, and a binding layer that will attach the patches to the cell surface. Once the system is set up, cells are allowed to flow across the patches and get stuck on them. The temperature of the system is then lowered to release the patches from the substrate, and the cells float away with their “backpacks.”
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Researchers at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center have completed a new study finding that mice who exercised saw “significantly greater” growth in their prostate tumors than mice who sat on their butts and did nothing. The research team implanted prostate tumors in 50 mice and placed half of them in cages with exercise wheels, while the other half had no wheels. All of the mice were fed the same diet, and those with wheels ran a half a mile a day, on average.
According to Lee Jones, the study’s senior investigator, “among the mice that had the opportunity to voluntarily exercise, tumors grew approximately twice as fast as they did among the mice that did not have the opportunity to exercise.” The reason for the discrepancy, experts speculate, is that exercise could increase blood flow to tumors and thus encourage their growth. (more…)
Transplanting organs is an inherently risky business, as the powerful immune-suppressing drugs that allow recipients’ bodies to accept new organs can readily cause infection, cancer, and other health problems. But if the organ itself is diseased, the results can be devastating. The AP reports that 15-year-old Alex Koehne, whose parents agreed to donate his organs once they learned he was close to dying of bacterial meningitis, in fact died of a rare form of lymphoma that wasn’t found until his autopsy. As a result, the patients who received his liver, pancreas, and kidneys also developed the same cancer.
Two of them died, while the kidney recipients are currently undergoing treatment for the disease.
Meanwhile, the family of Tony Grier—a transplant recipient who died after receiving a cancerous lung—suing the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the doctors who performed the transplant. His family claims that hospital officials told Grier he was getting the healthy lungs of an 18-year-old (a claim that the hospital denies) while in fact, the lungs came from a 31-year-old woman who smoked heavily and may have had a history of illegal drug use. (more…)
The microscopic bdelloid rotifer—best known as an all-females species that hasn’t had sex for 100 million years—has thwarted the attempts of Eugene Gladyshev and Matthew Meselson to mutate their genes with blasts of gamma radiation. Although the radiation shattered their genomes—it was a far higher dose than had ever been tolerated by an animal to date—the plucky, resourceful gals sewed their chromosomes back together and not only survived the blasts but continued to reproduce.
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