Suppressor in Biological News

Skin cancer study uncovers new tumor suppressor gene

... growth and spread of the disease. Tumor suppressor genes encode proteins that normally serve as a ... reduce their action, while those aimed at tumor suppressor genes seek to restore or increase their action. ... found that MMP-8 actually serves as a tumor suppressor gene in melanoma. Consequently, in the estimated ...

GUMC researchers find gene function 'lost' in melanoma and glioblastoma

... discovery suggests that PTPRD may play a tumor suppressor role in a wide variety of different cancers. ... . "Over the past decade several dozen tumor suppressor genes have been identified, but only a minority ... seems to be one of these broad spectrum tumor suppressor genes," says the study's lead investigator, Todd ...

Key protein regulating inflammation may prove relevant to controlling sepsis

... described their results showing the importance of WIP1 as an effective suppressor of inflammation and explained how the body was able to cope with an excess ... is also responsible for "ordering" the destruction of the tumour suppressor protein p53. This discovery, published in the February 2009 issue of ...

Research shows cell's inactive state is critical for effectiveness of cancer treatment

... Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) found elevated levels of the tumor suppressor protein p53 in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) immature cells in the bone ... two new targets of the p53 protein Necdin and Gfi-1 tumor growth suppressor genes that also regulate quiescence. Researchers lowered the expression of ...

Salk researchers develop novel glioblastoma mouse model

... oncogenes in a tissue-specific manner or shut down the expression of tumor suppressor genes in the whole tissue. "But we know that tumors generally develop from ... brain regions of mice lacking one copy of the gene encoding the tumor suppressor p53: the hippocampus, which is involved in learning and memory; the ...

Apolipoprotein(a): A natural regulator of inflammation

... of apo(a) apolipoprotein that may function as a natural and cell specific suppressor of the inflammatory response in vivo. In addition, a mechanism for this ... inhibits neutrophil recruitment in vivo and functions as a cell specific suppressor of the inflammatory response." Dr. Steven R. Goodman, Editor-in-Chief ...

New journal shows half-broken gene is enough to cause cancer

... Tumour suppressor genes do not necessarily require both alleles to be knocked out before ... of researchers from Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, who investigated SMAD4, a tumor suppressor gene implicated in pancreatic and colorectal cancer. They found that ...

Early stage colon cancer characterized by inactivation of gatekeeper gene

... cancer. Prior to these new findings, scientists knew that a tumor suppressor gene called APC is disrupted in most cases of human colon cancer. APC ... the same team of researchers reported that RUNX3 is a major tumor suppressor of gastric cancer. Leading the Singapore team is Yoshiaki Ito, M.D., ...

New insights into the regulation of PTEN tumor suppression function

... BOSTON -- The PTEN tumor suppressor gene controls numerous biological processes including cell proliferation, ... the nucleus. "From there, we observed that the loss of another tumor suppressor known as PML [whose mutation is a main cause of acute promyelocytic ...

Yale scientists show that a microRNA can reduce lung cancer growth

... with scientists at Asuragen, the Slack lab has studied the tumor suppressor activity of this small RNA. Their work revealed that let-7 is commonly ... the first direct evidence in mammals, that let-7 functions as a tumor suppressor gene, said Slack. Because multiple cell lines and mouse models of lung ...

Epigenetic regulation by the MMB/dREAM complex

... demonstrate that proteins encoded by the Myb oncogene and the RB tumor suppressor gene function together in the Drosophila MMB/dREAM complex to ... proteins encoded by the Myb oncogene and the RB and Mip130/Lin-9 tumor suppressor genes, as well as the E2F2 protein which itself binds to the RB protein. ...

New study reveals for first time how BRCA1 mutations cause breast cancer

... one way BRCA1 mutations cause cancer is by knocking out a powerful tumor suppressor gene known as PTEN. The new study will be published online on the ... that independently discovered the PTEN, one of the most important tumor suppressor genes altered in breast cancer, as well as in brain and prostate cancers. ...

Rare cancer-causing syndrome found, for the first time, in Singapore

... a person should have two normal copies of the powerful p53 tumor suppressor gene. But in the disorder known as Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS), one ... blood for mutations in the p53 gene and the CHEK2 gene, another tumor suppressor gene found to be mutated in some patients with LFS. They found LFS in ...

Cells united against cancer

... inappropriate proliferation. Their study also links function of a tumor suppressor gene to the development of cancer gene resistant epithelial organization. ... can suppress malignant actions of cancer genes and identifies LKB1 tumor suppressor gene as an architect of this proliferation resistant organizational plan. ...

La Jolla Institute discovers novel tumor suppressor

... & Immunology researchers studying an enzyme believed to play a role in allergy onset, instead have discovered its previously unknown role as a tumor suppressor that may be important in myeloproliferative diseases and some types of lymphoma and leukemia. Myeloproliferative diseases are a group of disorders ...

UC San Diego engineer provides insights to decades-old DNA squabble

... end, it boils down to the protein machinery that makes up and regulates chromatin," he explained. "You could have mutations in the oncogenic or tumor suppressor genes that lead to cancer or you could have abnormalities in the proteins that regulate chromatin around these genes leading to cancer." The next ...

Tumor suppressor gene in flies may provide insights for human brain tumors

... Because phosphatases like PP2A usually have the opposite biochemical function to kinase, the scientists predicted that PP2A would stop the tumor suppressor Polo and allow for unchecked cell growth. "We were very surprised when we found that PP2A also suppressed tumors," Wang said. Follow-up ...

Caltech researchers explore how cells reconcile mixed messages in decisions about growth

... exposed to." You can achieve a similar result, Asthagiri adds, by creating cells that overexpress a protein called E-cadherin, which is a tumor suppressor protein that promotes adhesion of one cell to another. "This makes the cells less willing to divide," he notes, "which means they need a higher level ...

Research uncovers clues to virus-cancer link

... stages expressed higher levels of KSHV miRNA. In second study, published June 4 in the journal Blood, the team looked for the presence of tumor suppressor mRNAs in primary effusion lymphoma and Kaposi's Sarcoma. "We chose these two cancers because, while they are both associated with the same virus, ...

Test detects molecular marker of aging in humans

... and tissues age, the expression of a key protein, called p16INK4a, dramatically increases in most mammalian organs. Because p16INK4a is a tumor suppressor protein, cancer researchers are interested in its role in cellular aging and cancer prevention. Now the team has proven that the same biomarker is ...

Stress puts double whammy on reproductive system, fertility

... by directly inhibiting GnRH. The common thread appears to be the glucocorticoid stress hormones, which not only suppress GnRH but boost the suppressor GnIH - a double whammy for the reproductive system. "We know stress affects the top-tier reproductive hormone, GnRH, but we show, in fact, that ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- June 3, 2009

... proteins. Malfunctions in these activators could lead to altered transcription patterns that lead to disease. For example, variations in the tumor suppressor gene p53 are found in more than half of all human cancers. Mapp describes discovery of a group of molecules that could be used to help scientists ...

Tips from the American Journal of Pathology

... outcome. In addition, tumor onset in mice was accelerated in the absence of stromal caveolin-1. Caveolin-1 may therefore function as a tumor suppressor in the stromal microenvironment and serve as a new prognostic marker for breast cancer progression. Dr. Mina Bissell, who is not associated with ...

SIRT1 takes down tumors

... that it does. But other work indicates that the protein aids tumors. For example, SIRT1 chops off acetyl groups, which can inactivate the tumor suppressor p53. Yuan et al. determined SIRT1's effect on the transcription factor c-Myc, whose expression surges in many breast, colon, and liver cancers. ...

A miR boost enables acute leukemia cells to mature

... this miR back into leukemia cell lines and leukemia cells from patients causes a drop in global DNA methylation and reactivates protective tumor suppressor genes, which allows the cells to differentiate and mature." ...

Getting down to cancer basics

... now pursue. These are genes that occupy the central control position of gene activity and act to keep cells from turning cancerous. When such 'tumor suppressor genes' are inactivated, other genes can run riot. The consequence of mutation in UTX is to bring about changes in activity of other genes through ...

Regulatory molecule for tumor formation or suppression identified by Singapore, US researchers

... School, Frank McKeon, Ph.D., commented, "This is an elegant use of zebrafish models to uncover how a single microRNA can regulate the p53 tumor suppressor gene. The strength of this regulation suggests that we will hear more about the microRNA-125b in specific human cancers in the near future." Dr. ...

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awards prestigious fellowships to 13 top young investigators

... negative regulators of insulin signaling are already known to function in tumor suppression, this study may lead to the identification of new tumor suppressor pathways. Ken S. Lau, PhD, with his sponsors Kevin M. Haigis, PhD, and Douglas A. Lauffenburger, PhD, at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, ...

In lung cancer, silencing one crucial gene disrupts normal functioning of genome

... increase in methylation levels of the other two genes. Silencing of the RASSF1A and CDKN2A genes makes sense, said Herceg, because these are tumor suppressor genes known to be inactivated in lung cancer. But the role of MTHFR has been less clear, he said. The enzyme produced by the gene plays a role in ...

Johns Hopkins scientists pull protein's tail to curtail cancer

... engineering," he says. The flexible tail contains a cluster of four amino acids the building blocks of proteins that regulate this tumor suppressor known as PTEN. When chemically modified, these amino acids act to "glue" the tail back to the body of PTEN and prevent the attachment of PTEN to the ...

Mayo researchers identify dangerous 'two-faced' protein crucial to breast cancer spread and growth

... molecules that includes Ras and Rho, which promote cell growth and movement. "What is really interesting here is that p120 is acting like a tumor suppressor when it is bound to E-cadherin, and like a tumor promoter when it isn't," Dr. Anastasiadis says. The researchers believe these findings could ...

UC Davis researchers discover a key to aggressive breast cancer

... to have a better outcome than those with less," she said. Results of the current study further support the notion that Lig-1 serves as a tumor suppressor gene, though more work is needed to confirm this outcome. Sweeney and her team are gathering more evidence to support this theory and to determine ...

How eating fruit and vegetables can improve cancer patients' response to chemotherapy

... Xuan Liu , a professor of biochemistry, and Xin Cai, a postdoctoral researcher working in her lab, found that apigenin localizes tumor suppressor p53, a protein, in the cell nucleus a necessary step for killing the cell that results in some tumor cells responding to chemotherapy. The study, ...

Design of a compound that stabilizes the main natural suppressor of tumors

... in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in an advanced edition. Protein p53 is considered the most important tumour suppressor and it is at the centre of the machinery that regulates cell cycle arrest and the death of cells with damaged DNA. In its active form, p53 protein is ...

Children's National researchers develop novel anti-tumor vaccine

... in how the vaccine impacts tumor growth by suppressing the development of the specific immune cells needed to combat the tumor. By adding a T-reg suppressor such as cyclosphosphamide or anti-CD25 antibody, the scientists were able to have a greater impact on preventing tumor growth using the ISAP ....

Breast cancer cells recycle to escape death by hormonal therapy

... no doubt be studied further, she says. Dr. Schoenlein believes breast cancer survival during macroautophagy requires high activity of the tumor suppressor protein Rb and low levels of the lipid ceramide. Ceramide is vital but causes cell death at high levels. MCG researcher Erhard Bieberich and ...

Sir David Lane honored with Royal Gold Medal by Royal Society of Edinburgh

... Research Council, has received the Royal Gold Medal for his outstanding contribution to cancer research through his discovery of p53 tumour suppressor gene. The Royal Gold Medal is one of the highest accolades from the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is given to recipients whose intellectual ...

'1-hit' event provides new opportunity for colon cancer prevention, say Fox Chase researchers

... genes, in order to develop cancer. This theory, called the two-hit hypothesis, guided scientists around the globe in their quest for tumor suppressor genes. Now Knudson, a Fox Chase Cancer Center Distinguished Scientist and senior advisor to the Center president, and colleagues offer evidence that ...

International team reveals first prognosticator of survival in aggressive cancer

... (Philadelphia, PA September 4, 2008) The tumor suppressor gene pRb2/p130 may provide the first independent prognostic biomarker in cases of soft tissue sarcoma (STS), according to an international ...

Why a common treatment for prostate cancer ultimately fails

... cells stimulates growth of cells, including cancer cells, in the prostate. He also found, surprisingly, that the receptor actually acts as a tumor suppressor in epithelial cells known as basal cells in the prostate. Then Chang's team knocked out the androgen receptor in specific sets of prostate cells ...