Apoptosis News and Research

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Apoptosis is programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

Discovery of key decision-point at which cells with broken DNA repair themselves or die

When cells undergo potentially catastrophic damage, for example as a result of exposure to ionizing radiation, they must make a decision: either to fix the damage or program themselves for death, a process called apoptosis.

12 Apr 2009

For cancer cells, genetics alone is poor indicator for drug response

In certain respects, cells are less like machines and more like people.

12 Apr 2009

Monoclonal antibody cancer therapy

The strategy of using monoclonal antibodies for cancer treatment was first described in the late 1970s with the promise that they could be developed into therapies that were highly specific to cancer cells, killing them with few or no side effects.

6 Apr 2009

Potential therapeutic strategy for fulminant hepatic failure

Fulminant hepatic failure is a serious clinical disease and may threaten the life of patients. However, because of the damage of mass liver cells, the organ function is often irreversible due to the liver cell degeneration, swelling, or apoptosis.

30 Mar 2009

Nanoparticles open door to cancer prevention

Perhaps the best way to fight cancer is to prevent it from developing in the first place, and based on newly published research from investigators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, nanoparticles may be able to make cancer chemoprevention a reality.

26 Mar 2009

Time (and PPAR-beta/delta) heals all wounds

Mammalian skin requires constant maintenance, but how do skin cells know when to proliferate and at what rate?

23 Mar 2009

Cathepsin B increases apoptosis in fulminant hepatic failure

The traditional view is that hepatocyte necrosis is the main feature of fulminant hepatic failure, but increasing evidence implicates a dominant role for hepatocyte apoptosis in this pathogenesis.

22 Mar 2009

Step towards new cancer drugs

The gene Myc is an important factor for the growth of organisms by cell division.

20 Mar 2009

MicroRNA undermines tumor suppression

Scientists at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the National University of Singapore have discovered the first microRNA (miRNA) capable of directly tamping down the activity of the well known tumor-suppressor gene, p53, While p53 functions to prevent tumor formation, the p53 gene is thought to malfunction in more than 50% of cancerous tumors.

17 Mar 2009

Genetic mechanism in mole rats can be targeted in cancer research

"When we understand how the subterranean mole rat developed these mechanisms for survival, we may be able to understand why they are so destructive in humans," Prof. Aaron Avivi of the University of Haifa said.

15 Mar 2009

Alzheimer's disease therapeutic prevents long-term damage from TBI in pre-clinical studies

A class of Alzheimer's disease drugs currently studied in clinical trials appears to reduce damage caused by traumatic brain injury in animals, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center report in an upcoming advance online publication of Nature Medicine.

15 Mar 2009

Phylonix granted broad U.S. patent for assessing cardiac functions in Zebrafish

Phylonix Pharmaceuticals announced, at the Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting in Baltimore, that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued the company a broad patent for assessing the toxicity of pharmaceutical test agents on cardiovascular functions in zebrafish.

15 Mar 2009

Small molecules block cancer gene

Finding molecules that block the activity of the oncogene Stat 3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription) required screening literally millions of compounds, using computers that compared the structure of the cancer-causing gene to those of the small molecules, said a Baylor College of Medicine researcher in a report that appears in the current online issue of the journal PLoS One (Public Library of Science ONE).

11 Mar 2009

Scientists discover key molecules that inhibit viral production

The research, led by Professor Donny Strosberg of Scripps Florida, was published on March 4, 2009, in the Journal of General Virology's advance, online edition, Papers in Press.

11 Mar 2009

Eating lots of vegetables reduces risk of prostate cancer

In the online edition of Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, Ruth Chan and collaborators provided a review on prostate cancer (CaP) and vegetable consumption.

8 Mar 2009

FDA accepts IND application for Tigris Pharmaceutical's GGTI-2418

Tigris Pharmaceuticals, Inc., has announced that its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the Company's geranylgeranyltransferase inhibitor (GGTI-2418) has been accepted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

4 Mar 2009

New clues about mitochondrial 'growth spurts'

Mitochondria are restless, continually merging and splitting. But contrary to conventional wisdom, the size of these organelles depends on more than fusion and fission, as Berman et al. show. Mitochondrial growth and degradation are also part of the equation.

2 Mar 2009

Nanoparticles detect dying cancer cells

Two years ago, researchers at the University of South Australia discovered a new molecular marker specific for chemotherapy-induced cancer cell death. Now, those same investigators have used this marker to develop an imaging agent that can pinpoint tumor cell death using magnetic resonance imaging.

23 Feb 2009

An adjuvant chemotherapeutic agent in gastric cancer therapy

Peritoneal carcinomatosis can be thought of as a series of events that together form a peritoneal metastatic cascade.

18 Feb 2009

Scientists discover missing link in the way cells protect themselves against cancer

Cancer Research UK scientists have discovered a missing link in the way cells protect themselves against cancer, according to research published in Genes & Development.

5 Feb 2009