Growth Factor News and Research

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Growth factor protects key brain cells in Alzheimer's models

Memory loss, cognitive impairment, brain cell degeneration and cell death were prevented or reversed in several animal models after treatment with a naturally occurring protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

8 Feb 2009

New insights into growth factor's role in brain development

New research sheds light on a neural growth factor called proBDNF, finding that it is present and potentially active during the perinatal period when the brain's circuitry and memory-encoding regions are being refined.

2 Feb 2009

Stress may speed growth of melanoma tumors

For patients with a particularly aggressive form of skin cancer - malignant melanoma - stress, including that which comes from simply hearing that diagnosis, might amplify the progression of their disease.

2 Feb 2009

Scientists discover protein critical for the growth of pancreatic cancer

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a protein critical for the growth of pancreatic cancer.

2 Feb 2009

Pre-emptive treatment helped curtail skin toxicity with Panitumumab

With a pre-emptive, prophylactic skin regimen, patients who receive panitumumab for treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer may be able to avoid some of the skin-associated toxicities, according to data presented at the 2009 American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco.

19 Jan 2009

Artificial antibody delivers nanoparticles to tumors

Antibodies that target epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) have proven themselves as potent anticancer drugs. Now, a team of investigators led by Shuming Nie, Ph.D., and Lily Yang, Ph.D., both at the Emory University School of Medicine and members of the Emory-Georgia Tech Nanotechnology Center for Personalized and Predictive Oncology, is aiming to capitalize on this targeting ability, using a modified anti-EGFR antibody to delivery nanoparticles into tumor cells.

18 Jan 2009

Discovery of new protein that triggers breast cancer

Canadian researchers have identified a new protein in the progression of breast cancer.

15 Jan 2009

New evidence suggests preventive effect of herbal supplement in prostate cancer

DHEA is a natural circulating hormone and the body's production of it decreases with age.

12 Jan 2009

Discovery of mechanism for dental pain

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University's School of Dentistry have discovered a novel function of the peptide known as Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) in the development of the trigeminal nerve.

8 Jan 2009

Targeted nanoparticles deliver therapeutic DNA to cancer cells

Given that cancer is a disease caused by gene mutations, cancer researchers have been striving to develop gene therapies aimed at correcting these mutations. However, these efforts have been hobbled by the difficulty in safely and efficiently delivering anticancer genes to tumors. Nanoparticles, however, may solve these delivery issues, and two recently published studies, using two different types of nanoparticles, lend credence to that hypothesis.

29 Dec 2008

Researchers look at processes asbestos fibers use to trigger cancer in human cells

Ohio State University scientists believe they are the first in the world to study the molecular underpinnings of cancer by probing individual bonds between an asbestos fiber and human cells.

18 Dec 2008

FDA approves Mozobil (plerixafor) for multiple myeloma or non-Hodgkin's lymphomas

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Mozobil (plerixafor), a drug that helps increase the number of blood stem cells for bone marrow transplantation in patients with certain forms of blood cancer.

18 Dec 2008

Primary cilium's GPS-like cell structure crucial to wound repair

The primary cilium, the solitary, antenna-like structure that studs the outer surfaces of virtually all human cells, orient cells to move in the right direction and at the speed needed to heal wounds, much like a Global Positioning System helps ships navigate to their destinations.

17 Dec 2008

New bone and tissue regeneration technique

Using stem cell lines not typically combined, researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have designed a new way to "grow" bone and other tissues.

15 Dec 2008

Early-stage breast cancer patients with HER2 positive tumors at increased risk of recurrence

Early-stage breast cancer patients with HER2 positive tumors one centimeter or smaller are at significant risk of recurrence of their disease, compared to those with early-stage disease who do not express the aggressive protein, according to a study led by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

14 Dec 2008

Estrogen therapy can help control metastatic breast cancer

For breast cancer survivors, the idea of taking estrogen pills is almost a taboo. In fact, their doctors give them drugs to get rid of the hormone because it can fuel the growth of breast cancer.

12 Dec 2008

FDA grants compassionate case for use of novel wet age-related macular degeneration treatment

NeoVista, Inc., announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved the company's "compassionate case" waiver to utilize its novel wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) treatment on a patient with an advanced form of the disease who did not meet criteria for inclusion into current NeoVista investigational treatment protocols.

10 Dec 2008

Levels of insulin-related proteins indicate risk of death in some colorectal cancer patients

A pair of proteins may help explain why people with surgically removed colorectal cancer and who are overweight, physically inactive, and follow a Western-pattern diet may have an increased risk of dying of the disease or other causes, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists report in a new study.

8 Dec 2008

Discovery of protein that may cause breast cancer to spread

In an important finding published online in Developmental Cell , researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, along with collaborators at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have identified a protein likely responsible for causing breast cancer to spread.

8 Dec 2008