Gene linked to melanoma

jerry submitted, created time 2 months 1 week (www.reuters.com)

A study find that a variation of the gene for the vitamin D receptor appears to increase the risk of melanoma, a serious and sometimes fatal skin cancer. Patients with the BsmI variant had a 30% higher risk of melanoma, accounting for perhaps 10% of all cases.

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Patient, Heal Thyself: Body's Own Immune Cells Whack Late-Stage Tumor

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 months 1 week (www.sciam.com)

In what could be a breakthrough in cancer therapy, researchers report in The New England Journal of Medicine today that they succeeded in bolstering a patient's immune system enough to wipe out late-stage malignant tumors on its own. The scientists say the successful experiment could pave the way for new treatments of advanced cancer that spare patients the side effects of chemotherapy, which kills healthy as well as malignant cells.....

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Zinc-finger proteins turn T-cells HIV-resistant

Darkfrog submitted, created time 5 months 1 hour (www.nature.com)

ZInc-finger proteins occur naturally in human cells and regulate gene activity. Researchers out of California's Sangamo Biosciences have figured out how to use these proteins to disrupt and disable specific genes. The kicker? When the gene in question is CCR5, human T-cells suddenly become resistant to infection with HIV.

At this point, any practical treatment would involve removing (or growing) the patient's own T-cells, treating them with zinc finger proteins, and then re0injecting the patient. Cumbersome, but possible

2 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: zinc finger proteins zinc-finger proteins HIV AIDS HIV treatments T-cells t cells melanoma induced pluripotent stem cells

Melanoma Cured 100% through Blood Cell Therapy

Cancers inhibited by embryonic stem cell protein

sumsung submitted, created time 8 months 3 weeks (www.newscientist.com)

Human embryonic stem cells produce a protein thatshows some anti-cancer properties in the lab, according to a new study. The potential for stem-cell therapies to cause cancer is a major concern, but now researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago, US, say a protein produced by human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can inhibit the growth and spread of breast cancer and malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

6 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: breast cancer melanoma skin cancer cancer tumors cancer stem cell research stem cells embryonic stem cells

Discovery of a selective inhibitor of oncogenic B-Raf kinase with potent antimelanoma activity

davidd submitted, created time 9 months 5 days (www.pnas.org)

B-RAF is the most frequent oncogenic protein kinase mutation known. Furthermore, inhibitors targeting "active" protein kinases have demonstrated significant utility in the therapeutic repertoire against cancer. The article represents the entire discovery process of a selective inhibitor , from initial identification through structural and biological studies in animal models to a promising therapeutic for testing in cancer patients bearing B-RafV600E-driven tumors.

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High expression of DNA repair pathways is associated with metastasis in melanoma patients

davidd submitted, created time 10 months 2 days (www.nature.com)

They find high expression of DNA repair pathways is associated with metastasis in melanoma patients. This overexpression of repair genes explains nicely the extraordinary resistance of metastatic melanoma to chemo- and radio-therapy. Their results may open a new avenue for the discovery of drugs active on human metastatic melanoma.

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Inability to mediate prolonged reduction of regulatory T Cells after transfer of autologous CD25-depleted PBMC and interleukin-2 after lymphodepleting chemotherapy

Immunology submitted, created time 11 months 3 weeks (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

CD25CD4 regulatory T cells (Treg) regulate peripheral self-tolerance and possess the ability to suppress antitumor responses, which may explain the poor clinical response of cancer patients undergoing active immunization protocols, and provides the rationale for neutralizing Treg cells in vivo to strengthen local antitumor immune responses. Because interleukin-2 (IL-2) mediates tumor regression in about 15% of treated patients but simultaneously increases Treg cells, we hypothesized that transient elimination of Treg cells will enhance the clinical effectiveness of IL-2 therapy

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Melanoma contains CD133 and ABCG2 positive cells

laporta submitted, created time 1 year 1 month (www.elsevier.com)

The authors show three main novelties for human melanoma: firstly, melanoma
biopsy contains a subset of cells expressing CD133 (CD133+) and the latter is able to
develop a Mart-1 positive tumour in NOD-SCID mice. Secondly, the WM115, a human melanoma
cell line, has been found to express both CD133 and ABCG2 markers. As in xenografts generated with CD133+ biopsy melanoma
cells, those produced by the cell line displayed lower levels of CD133 and ABCG2

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: cancer stem cell, melanoma Melanoma CD133+&CD34+ cells

Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of neuroblastoma and melanoma with 64Cu-SarAr immunoconjugates

franklin submitted, created time 1 year 1 month (www.pnas.org)

The advancement of positron emission tomography (PET) depends on the development of new radiotracers that will complement 18F-FDG. Copper-64 (64Cu) is a promising PET radionuclide, particularly for antibody-targeted imaging, but the high in vivo lability of conventional chelates has limited its clinical application.

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Melanoma drug revs immune cells but cancer cells ignore it

benjiamin submitted, created time 1 year 2 months (researchnews.osu.edu)

A new study shows that an important drug used in the treatment of malignant melanoma has little effect on the melanoma cells themselves. Instead, it activates immune-system cells to fight the disease. The drug, called interferon alpha, is used to clean up microscopic tumor cells that may remain in the body following surgery for the disease. It is the only drug approved for this purpose.

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Thapsigargin Sensitizes Human Melanoma Cells to TRAIL-Induced Apoptosis by Up-Regulation of TRAIL-R2 through the Unfolded Protein Response

jiangyun submitted, created time 1 year 3 months (carcin.oxfordjournals.org)

We show in this study that the ER stress inducer, thapsigargin, selectively up-regulated TRAIL-R2 and enhanced TRAIL-induced apoptosis in melanoma cells. However, the TRAIL-R2 pathway did not appear to be involved in induction of apoptosis by thapsigargin alone.

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Roles of DNA topoisomerase II isozymes in chemotherapy and secondary malignancies

cappuccion submitted, created time 1 year 5 months (www.pnas.org)

Drugs that target DNA topoisomerase II (Top2), including etoposide (VP-16), doxorubicin, and mitoxantrone, are among the most effective anticancer drugs in clinical use. However, Top2-based chemotherapy has been associated with higher incidences of secondary malignancies, notably the development of acute myeloid leukemia in VP-16-treated patients. This association is suggestive of a link between carcinogenesis and Top2-mediated DNA damage. We show here that VP-16-induced carcinogenesis involves mainly the {beta} rather than the {alpha} isozyme of Top2.

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Reproductive History and Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma: A Comparison between Women and Men

badboy submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (aje.oxfordjournals.org)

"To evaluate whether previously observed associations between parity and cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) risk in women reflected a biologic mechanism or resulted from uncontrolled confounding by lifestyle factors associated with parity (e.g., patterns of sun exposure), the authors investigated the effect of reproductive history (parenthood) on CMM risk in both women and men. Using information from Danish national registers (1968–2003), the authors established a population-based cohort of more than 3,500,000 persons with information on parenthood and CMM

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Is 2,3,5-Pyrroletricarboxylic Acid in Hair a Better Risk Indicator for Melanoma than Traditional Epidemiologic Measures for Skin Phenotype?

badboy submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (aje.oxfordjournals.org)

"The amount of PTCA is thus a strong and independent risk indicator for melanoma. Incorporating PTCA determination into epidemiologic studies is therefore recommended. "

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: melanins melanoma skin neoplasms spectroscopy, near-infrared