USC research IDs potential treatment for deadly, HIV-related blood cancer

First report to show BRD4 inhibitors can fight off primary effusion lymphoma

2013-06-26

(Press-News.org) LOS ANGELES — Researchers at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered a promising new way to treat a rare and aggressive blood cancer most commonly found in people infected with HIV.

The USC team shows that a class of drugs called BET bromodomain inhibitors effectively targets primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), a type of cancer for which those drugs were not expected to be effective.

"It's a reversal of the paradigm," said Preet Chaudhary, MD, PhD, chief of the Nohl Division of Hematology and Blood Diseases at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and principal investigator of the study. "Our results suggest that this new class of drug may be an effective treatment for a wider range of cancers than previously thought."

PEL is caused by infection with Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpes virus, the most common cause of cancer among patients with AIDS. The prognosis for PEL is poor, with a median survival of three to six months. Thus, there is a critical need for new therapies for the disease.

Chaudhary and his colleagues show that inhibitors targeting the BRD4 protein blocked growth of PEL cells in a test tube and in a mouse model. The results were surprising because BET inhibitors were thought to be only effective against cancers linked to an overexpression of the Myc gene.

"We actually found that cancers that overexpress Myc are not as responsive to BRD4 inhibitors. PEL is more responsive," Chaudhary said.

Cancers like multiple myeloma and Burkitt's lymphoma overexpress the Myc gene and have been shown to respond to BRD4 inhibitors. In PEL, the Myc gene is moderately expressed and there is no chromosomal translocation as is seen in multiple myeloma or Burkitt's.

More research is needed to create compounds ready for testing in people. Once those drugs are ready for clinical trial, data from this study suggest that they may treat a wide range of cancers. Chaudhary anticipates testing them alone and in combination with other drugs.

### The study, "Targeting Myc in KSHV-associated primary effusion lymphoma with BET bromodomain inhibitors," appears in Oncogene, a peer-reviewed scientific journal from the Nature Publishing Group.

Bhairavi Tolani, PhD, a 2013 graduate of the Keck School of Medicine, is the study's first author. Co-authors include Ramakrishnan Gopalakrishan, PhD; Vasu Punj, PhD; and Hittu Matta, PhD, all of the hematology division at Keck. Their work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (5R01CA139119, 5R01DE019811, P30CA014089) and STOP Cancer Foundation.

Article cited: Tolani, B., Gopalakrishnan, R., Punj, V., Matta, H., & Chaudhary, P.M. (2013). Targeting Myc in KSHV-associated primary effusion lymphoma with BET bromodomain inhibitors. Oncogene. Published online June 24, 2013; doi:10.1038/onc.2013.242

ABOUT USC NORRIS COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center has been leading the fight to make cancer a disease of the past. As one of the eight original comprehensive cancer centers in the United States, its mission is to treat and prevent cancer by advancing and integrating education, research, and personalized patient care. For 40 years, USC Norris has been revolutionizing cancer research with innovative surgical techniques and novel cancer treatments. The cancer center's breakthroughs and discoveries in the field of epigenetics have led the way to a greater understanding of the underlying causes of cancer and new methods of prevention, detection, and treatment. With a multidisciplinary team of more than 250 dedicated scientists and physicians, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center offers patients hope in the battle against cancer.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Telecoupling pulls pieces of sustainability puzzle together

2013-06-26

Global sustainability is like a high-stakes jigsaw puzzle – and an international group of scientists have created a new framework to assemble the big picture without losing pieces. Scientists led by Jianguo "Jack" Liu, Michigan State University's Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability, have built an integrated way to study a world that has become more connected – with faster and more socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances. They say "telecoupling" describes how distance is shrinking and connections are strengthening between nature and humans. In Ecology ...

Human and canine lymphomas share molecular similarities, first large-scale comparison shows

2013-06-26

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Humans and their pet dogs are close, so close that they both develop a type of cancer called diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. In humans it's the most common lymphoma subtype while in dogs, it's one of the most common cancers in veterinary oncology. A team of scientists from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Duke University have conducted one of the first studies to directly compare canine and human B-cell lymphoma by examining molecular similarities and differences ...

New research finds flu shot effective regardless of circulating flu strain

2013-06-26

New research out of St. Michael's Hospital has found that despite popular belief, the flu shot is effective in preventing the flu, even if the virus going around does not match the vaccine. "It's quite common for people to say they are not going to get the flu shot this year because they've heard it does not match the strain of flu going around," said Dr. Andrea Tricco, the lead author of the paper and a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital. "However, we've found that individuals will be protected regardless of whether the flu strain ...

Delivering the best care to the right patient at the right time

2013-06-26

There are two popular models when it comes to delivering the best healthcare – using evidence-based guidelines or applying personalized medicine. Each method has its own merits and drawbacks, but according to one Northwestern Medicine® cardiologist, when the two theories are integrated the result is an optimal healthcare delivery model that is both less expensive and better for the patient. "It should not be one or the other but instead a combination of both," said Jeffrey Goldberger, MD, an attending cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist at Northwestern Memorial ...

Memory improves for older adults using computerized brain-fitness program

2013-06-26

FINDINGS: UCLA researchers have found that older adults who regularly used a brain-fitness program on a computer demonstrated significantly improved memory and language skills. The UCLA team studied 69 dementia-free participants, with an average age of 82, who were recruited from retirement communities in Southern California. The participants played a computerized brain-fitness program called Dakim BrainFitness, which trains individuals through more than 400 exercises in the areas of short- and long-term memory, language, visual-spatial processing, reasoning and ...

Hypertension-driven disease rapidly rising in sub-Saharan Africa

2013-06-26

NEW YORK (June 25, 2013) -- Based on the experience of a large hospital in Tanzania, Weill Cornell Medical College researchers have discovered a "startlingly" high burden of hypertension in this sub-Saharan African country. In the Journal of Hypertension, the researchers say non-communicable disease -- driven primarily by hypertension, resulting in stroke and other cardiovascular diseases -- accounted for nearly half of the deaths and admissions during a three-year period at Weill Bugando Medical Center, one of Tanzania's preeminent teaching hospitals. Previous research ...

One in 5 students in Grades 7-12 say they have had a traumatic brain injury in their lifetime

2013-06-26

TORONTO, June 25, 2013—One in five adolescents surveyed in Ontario said they have suffered a traumatic brain injury that left them unconscious for five minutes or required them to be hospitalized overnight, a statistic researchers in Toronto say is much higher than previously thought. Sports such as ice hockey and soccer accounted for more than half the injuries, said Dr. Gabriela Ilie, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral fellow at St. Michael's Hospital. Traumatic brain injuries, such as concussions, were reported more often by males than females, by those with ...

Calcium and vitamin D help hormones help bones

2013-06-26

CLEVELAND, Ohio (June 26, 2013)—Should women take calcium and vitamin D supplements after menopause for bone health? Recommendations conflict, and opinions are strong. But now, an analysis from the major Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trial throws weight on the supplement side—at least for women taking hormones after menopause. The analysis was published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society. Among the nearly 30,000 postmenopausal women in the hormone trial, some 8,000 took supplemental calcium (1,000 mg/day) and vitamin D (400 ...

Unraveling the largest outbreak of fungal infections associated with contaminated steroid injections

2013-06-26

Philadelphia, PA, June 26, 2013 – Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describe pathologic findings from 40 case reports of fungal infection in patients who had been given contaminated epidural, paraspinal, or intra-articular (into joints) steroid injections and correlate these findings with clinical and laboratory data. The report, published in the September issue of The American Journal of Pathology, alerts clinicians and the general public to the catastrophic dangers of contaminated epidural injections. In September 2012, CDC began ...

Asian neighborhoods: Separate but equal

2013-06-26

Asians – recently found to be the fastest growing minority group in the U.S. – have been described as the least segregated minority group in the U.S. In fact, Chinese and Indians are segregated almost as highly as Hispanics, and Vietnamese segregation is almost as high as that of African Americans. At the same time, every Asian nationality except Vietnamese lives on average in neighborhoods with higher income and share of college-educated residents than do non-Hispanic whites. This pattern is especially strong in the suburbs, according to a new study released by the ...

USC research IDs potential treatment for deadly, HIV-related blood cancer

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: