Signaling Pathway News and Research

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New insight into Herceptin resistance in breast cancer

A new study provides important insight into the mechanisms involved in resistance to treatment of breast cancer patients with trastuzumab (Herceptin). The research, published by Cell Press in the October issue of the journal Cancer Cell , identifies markers that may help to identify patients who are unlikely to respond to trastuzumab treatment and provides a potential strategy for treating these patients.

16 Oct 2007

Discovery of protein that plays a key role in the recycling of iron from blood

Scientists working in the only lab at MIT doing hematology research have uncovered a protein that plays a key role in the recycling of iron from blood. Their work, described in the October 11 Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to new therapies for certain inherited blood disorders such as beta-thalassemia, a condition that causes chronic anemia.

12 Oct 2007

New molecular evidence of the role of the hormone prolactin in breast cancer

They have found that prolactin, a pituitary hormone that normally stimulates breast development and milk production, initiates a new “signaling pathway” that may regulate the growth and survival of breast cancer cells.

29 Sep 2007

Enzyme's second messenger contributes to cell overgrowth

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have uncovered a novel pathway by which hormones elevated in inflammation, cancer and cell injury act on cells to stimulate their growth.

27 Sep 2007

Study suggests brain tumors need treatment with multiple 'targeted' drugs

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown that several, rather than just one, cell-growth switches are simultaneously overactive in many brain tumors and other solid tumors, explaining why treatment with just a single "targeted" switch-blocking drug often yields disappointing results.

13 Sep 2007

New insight into breast cancer development in high-risk women

Physicians who treat women with the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 often remove their patients' ovaries to eliminate the source of estrogen they believe fuels cancer growth.

12 Sep 2007

New anti-cancer drug made from corn lillies kills brain tumor stem cells

A drug that shuts down a critical cell-signaling pathway in the most common and aggressive type of adult brain cancer successfully kills cancer stem cells thought to fuel tumor growth and help cancers evade drug and radiation therapy, a Johns Hopkins study shows.

30 Aug 2007

Reactivating a critical gene lost in kidney cancer reduces tumor growth

Researchers at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, have found that a key gene is often silenced in clear cell renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer, and when they restored that gene in human kidney cancer cells in culture and animal experiments, tumors stopped growing and many disappeared.

17 Aug 2007

Metabolic cell activity directly controls life and death decisions in cells

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that proteins known to promote cell death are also necessary for the maturation and proliferation of immune cells.

13 Aug 2007

Discovery of new mechanism of resistance to endocrine or anti-hormonal therapies

When a woman receives a breast cancer diagnosis her entire life may change in the blink of an eye.

13 Aug 2007

New drug targets for multiple myeloma

Research investigators have identified molecular changes in multiple myeloma cells that activate an important biological pathway associated with cell growth and survival, thereby revealing potential new targets for drugs to treat this cancer.

13 Aug 2007

Chromatin remodeling complex connected to DNA damage control

When molecular disaster strikes, causing structural damage to DNA, players in two important pathways talk to each other to help contain the wreckage, scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the August edition of Cell.

12 Aug 2007

Immunity in social amoeba suggests ancient beginnings

Finding an immune system in the social amoeba (Dictyostelium discoideum) is not only surprising but it also may prove a clue as to what is necessary for an organism to become multicellular, said the Baylor College of Medicine researcher who led the research that appears in the journal Science.

3 Aug 2007

Lithium promotes better bone healing

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) have found a molecular pathway that plays a critical role in bone healing and have found that the drug lithium can improve the healing process.

1 Aug 2007

Eat a good diet and exercise to live longer

The traditional prescriptions for a healthy life sensible diet, exercise and weight control extend life by reducing signaling through a specific pathway in the brain, according to Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers who discovered the connection while studying long-lived mice.

20 Jul 2007