JCI online early table of contents: Jan. 19, 2009

... benefit to individuals with prostate cancer. TITLE: Pim-1specific mAb suppresses human and mouse tumor growth by decreasing PIM-1 levels, reducing akt phosphorylation, and activating apoptosis AUTHOR CONTACT: Pei Xiang Xing Burnet Institute Incorporating Austin Research Institute, Heidelberg, Vi...

Metastatic movements in 3-D

...tor 1 (EGFR1), which increased EGFR1's abundance at the membrane protrusions, as well as its autophosphorylation. Because EGFR1 is an activator of the akt pathway, hey presto, the cells took on some new moves. ...

How what and how much we eat (and drink) affects our risk of cancer

...cts signaling through downstream pathways, such as akt and mTOR. Negative energy balance inhibits, while...ietary energy balance alters signaling through the akt and mTOR pathways, both of which are related to TP...hanism for the effect of dietary energy balance on akt and mTOR signaling may be mediated, in part, by ch...

Mutant gene identified as villain in hardening of the arteries

...g" of the arteries is caused by plaque formation. In the vascular wall, akt plays an important role in regulating the development of endothelial cells,...One concern, he said, is that specific drugs are being developed to inhibit akt in cancer patients to reduce progression of tumors, and that these drugs ma...

UCSD researchers discover variants of natural tumor suppressor

... variants are important in cancer; the loss of a brake to any of the three akt pathways sends 'go, go, go' signals that promote the survival of tumor cell...rst author John Brognard. UCSD researchers had previously discovered that akt is hyperactivated, or elevated, in most cancers and PHLPP provides a mechan...

Molecular differences between early and advanced melanomas could provide new drug targets

... The cell-signaling molecule akt is a primary trigger that leads malignant melanoma... When the scientists introduced the gene for akt into radial growth melanoma cells, the cells expre...d cell growth. When melanoma cells overexpressing akt were introduced into immunocompromised (nude) mice...

How mammals fuel milk production may have implications for cancer

...d. The researchers found that one of three “isoforms?of the gene known as akt is specifically required for lactating mice to synthesize sufficient quanti... The findings may have important implications for cancer therapy, as the akt pathway is also one of the most commonly activated in cancer, Chodosh said....

Spelling out cancer on the nanoscale

...ing a decrease in oncoprotein levels. The new nano-fluidic system was also tested on human tumors by measuring the levels of MYC, BCL2, ERK, and akt proteins in the lymph nodes obtained from patients with Burkitt’s, mantle cell, or follicular lymphoma. The nano-fluidic system reported that MYC was ...

Protein's role in regulating cell death sets direction for cancer research

...cell death in response to other challenges, including some chemotherapeutic drugs. This study showed that calpain contributes to the activation of akt and JNK, two key players in the signaling pathways that control cellular responses to different death stimuli. These discoveries suggest that calpain ...

Bedsores and bald hides: Novel roles revealed for a 'scaffolding' protein

...h K17. Cell growth resulting from the manufacture of new proteins is in part controlled by several protein catalysts, or enzymes, including two called akt and mTOR. The researchers found that cells lacking K17 also have a less active Akt/mTOR pathway, suggesting that K17 somehow interacts with Akt/mTOR t...

Mouse mimics chronic leukemia, will aid drug development

...n and found that the malignant mouse cells show many of the molecular characteristics of human CLL cells, such as expression of proteins called Bcl-2, akt and normal p53. The study also shows that the mouse disease mirrors CLL patients in its response to the drug fludarabine, including the developme...

Moffitt-USF head toward first human trials of anti-cancer drug that targets protein AKT

...ks only against tumors in which the cancer-causing akt protein is abundant and/or abnormally active. "These tumors are addicted to hyperactive akt and cannot survive without it," explains Saïd Sebt... to Sebti. "To our knowledge, this is the first akt inhibitor headed toward clinical trials," said Jin...

Natural tumor suppressor in body discovered by UCSD medical researchers

...ation of cell-growth signaling by a protein called akt that controls the balance between cell growth lead...there are no compounds identified to directly stop akt from causing cancer growth, once akt signaling has been initiated." Scientists have ...

Discovery of New Dopamine Action May Yield Alternative Psychiatric Drugs

...y protein called Akt. Furthermore, they showed, akt inactivation occurred more slowly and was maintain...he current study in mice, the Duke team found that akt inactivation by dopamine involves the formation of...y unidentified complex containing beta-arrestin 2, akt and a third protein phosphatase 2A that inactivate...

Mouse with designer liver has enhanced glucose tolerance, insulin response

... the function of Gab1 in normal liver cells is to promote signaling in the Erk pathway, which reduces insulin response signals flowing through IRS and akt proteins. "We propose that Gab1 acts as a negative regulator on insulin signal strength in the liver," said Dr. Feng. "In this work, by making a ne...

Researchers identify target for cancer drugs

...vision and survival. Abnormally high activation of akt has long been implicated in a variety of cancers. If akt travels to the cell membrane, it is switched on an...'s because the tumor-suppressor protein PTEN keeps akt in check by destroying lipids in the cell membrane...