p53 Protein News and Research

RSS

The TP53 is a gene that instructs the cell to produce tumor protein (p53) ; a vital transcription factor and tumor suppressor. P53 is known as the “guardian of the genome” as it helps in regulating the cell cycle and acts as a tumor suppressor.

PHF20 transcriptional factor plays a unique role in regulating p53

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have identified PHF20, a novel transcriptional factor, and clarified its role in maintaining the stability and transcription of p53, a gene that allows for both normal cell growth and tumor suppression. PHF20, the researchers found, plays a previously unknown and unique role in regulating p53.

24 Aug 2012

New role for oncogenic signaling pathway in embryonic stem cell self-renewal

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the University of Manchester, and the MD Anderson Cancer Center have found a new role for an oncogenic signaling pathway in embryonic stem cell (ESC) self-renewal and in reprogramming adult cells into an ESC-state, which will aid in the development of future cancer therapies.

3 Aug 2012

Researchers unlock genetic secrets of peripheral T-cell lymphomas

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have completed the world's first genome-wide sequencing analysis of peripheral T-cell lymphomas, unlocking the genetic secrets of this poorly understood and highly aggressive cancer of the immune system.

2 Aug 2012

Researchers discover mechanism that favours disappearance and inhibition of SCC development

Skin squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a subtype of very aggressive skin cancers that usually develops in sunexposed body regions, but can also affect a large number of organs such as the bladder, esophagus, lungs etc. However, little is known about the biology of these cells, which consequently makes difficult the generation of new specific therapies; actually, the standard treatments are based on surgery and subsequent radiotherapy.

10 Jul 2012

p53 protein may show a typical prion-like behavior when mutated

Prions, the causal agents of Mad Cow and other diseases, are very unique infectious particles. They are proteins in which the complex molecular three-dimensional folding process just went astray. For reasons not yet understood, the misfolding nature of prions is associated to their ability to sequester their normal counterparts and induce them to also adopt a misfolding conformation.

26 Jun 2012

Do we age as a consequence of being protected against cancer?

The role of one of our genes which protects us from cancer but could also cause us to age will be explained in a lecture at the University of Leicester.

8 Mar 2012

Researchers discover two effective cancer killers

Researchers at the University of Southern California have identified two molecules that may be more effective cancer killers than are currently available on the market.

7 Nov 2011

AICR recommends intake of cancer-fighting foods

Colleen Spees has always been interested in the role that diet played in disease, and set her sights on a career where she would counsel patients and train future dietitians. With multiple family members diagnosed with various types of cancer, Colleen decided to make the transition from clinical professional and nutrition educator to research scientist.

18 Oct 2011

Cylene advances preclinical development of CX-5461 for treatment of cancer

Cylene Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has advanced its targeted, non-genotoxic, activator of p53 for the treatment of leukemias, lymphomas and multiple myeloma through formal preclinical development, the Company announced today.

14 Oct 2011

Researchers show how protein fortilin promotes growth of cancer cells

Researchers have shown for the first time that the protein fortilin promotes growth of cancer cells by binding to and rendering inert protein p53, a known tumor suppressor. This finding by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch may lead to treatments for a range of cancers and atherosclerosis, which p53 also helps prevent, and appears in the current print issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

17 Sep 2011

Biochemists reveal interaction between tumor suppressor protein and chaperone

Every cell has thousands of proteins whose activity and lifetime must be regulated to control the cellular life cycle from cell division to cell death. The heat shock protein Hsp90 plays a key role in this process. It is a so-called chaperone, a quality controller, as it were. It monitors and controls the quality and activity of many important signal proteins and helps them take on the right form. When the cell is exposed to high stress levels from heat or a lack of oxygen, Hsp90 is produced in larger quantities to shield its partner proteins from damage.

8 Sep 2011

Study: E-waste linked to adverse effects on human health

In addition to its damaging effect on the environment and its illegal smuggling into developing countries, researchers have now linked e-waste to adverse effects on human health, such as inflammation and oxidative stress - precursors to cardiovascular disease, DNA damage and possibly cancer.

31 May 2011

Researchers untangle two distinct ways in which tumor-suppressor protein works

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have untangled two distinct ways in which a common, naturally occurring "tumor-suppressor" protein works.

13 May 2011

Protein aggregation plays a significant role in cancer

Protein aggregation, generally associated with Alzheimer's and mad cow disease, turns out to play a significant role in cancer. In a paper published in Nature Chemical Biology, Frederic Rousseau and Joost Schymkowitz of VIB, K.U.Leuven and Vrije Universiteit Brussel describe that certain mutations of p53, an important tumor suppressor, cause the protein to misfold in a way that the proteins start to aggregate.

29 Mar 2011

ITCs in vegetables appear to target and block p53 gene linked with cancer

Scientists are reporting discovery of a potential biochemical basis for the apparent cancer-fighting ability of broccoli and its veggie cousins. They found for the first time that certain substances in the vegetables appear to target and block a defective gene associated with cancer.

10 Mar 2011

New insight: p53 protein controls molecular crossroads in glucose metabolic pathway

The gene for the protein p53 is the most frequently mutated in human cancer. It encodes a tumor suppressor, and traditionally researchers have assumed that it acts primarily as a regulator of how genes are made into proteins.

3 Mar 2011

p53 gene blocks EMT essential to cancer metastasis

Like a bounty hunter returning escapees to custody, a cancer-fighting gene converts organ cells that change into highly mobile stem cells back to their original, stationary state, researchers report online at Nature Cell Biology.

28 Feb 2011

Mechanism of cancer treatment related to infertility in women

Chemotherapeutic agents, used in cancer treatment, destroy not only cancer cells but also healthy cells, thus affecting germ cells as well. Consequently, after surviving cancer many female patients are confronted with the diagnosis: infertility. For a long time a relationship between infertility and chemotherapeutic agents has been assumed, but until now, the exact mechanism was not known.

23 Feb 2011

p53 activation offers a novel strategy for cancer therapy

A pioneering clinical trial is testing the effectiveness in leukemia of a small molecule that shuts down MDM2, a protein that can disable the well-known tumor suppressor p53.

9 Dec 2010

Reactivating three silenced molecules may provide new strategy to treat multiple myeloma

New research links three molecules to a critical tumor suppressor gene that is often turned off in multiple myeloma, a presently incurable cancer of the blood.

27 Oct 2010