UCLA researchers find link between intestinal bacteria and white blood cell cancer
2013-07-17
(Press-News.org) Researchers from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered that specific types of bacteria that live in the gut are major contributors to lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells.
Published online ahead of press today in the journal Cancer Research, the study was led by Robert Schiestl, member of the Jonsson Cancer Center and professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, environmental health sciences, and radiation oncology.
In rodents, intestinal bacteria influence obesity, intestinal inflammation and certain types of epithelial cancers. (Epithelial cancers affect the coverings of the stomach, liver or colon.) However, little is known about the identity of the bacterial species that promote the growth of, or protect the body from, cancer — or about their effect on lymphoma.
Up to 1,000 different species of bacteria (intestinal microbiota) live in the human gut. Intestinal microbiota number 100 trillion cells; over 90 percent of the cells in the body are bacteria. The composition of each person's microbiome — the body's bacterial make-up — is very different, due to the types of bacteria people ingest early in their lives, as well as the effects of diet and lifestyle.
Schiestl's group wanted to determine whether differences in peoples' microbiomes affect their risk for lymphoma, and whether changing the bacteria can reduce this risk. They studied mice with ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T), a genetic disease that in humans and mice is associated with a high rate of B-cell lymphoma. They discovered that, of mice with A-T, those with certain microbial species lived much longer than those with other bacteria before developing lymphoma, and had less of the gene damage (genotoxicity) that causes lymphoma.
"This study is the first to show a relationship between intestinal microbiota and the onset of lymphoma," Schiestl said. "Given that intestinal microbiota is a potentially modifiable trait, these results hold considerable promise for intervention of B-cell lymphoma and other diseases."
The scientists also were able to create a detailed catalog of bacteria types with promoting or protective effects on genotoxicity and lymphoma, which could be used in the future to create combined therapies that kill the bacteria that promote cancer (as antibiotics do) and increase the presence of the bacteria that protect from cancer (as probiotics do).
INFORMATION:
The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, Jonsson Cancer Center, the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, the Eli & Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cell Research, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research, NASA, University of California Toxic Substances Research and Teaching Program, and the UCLA Graduate Division.
UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has more than 240 researchers and clinicians engaged in disease research, prevention, detection, control, treatment and education. One of the nation's largest comprehensive cancer centers, the Jonsson center is dedicated to promoting research and translating basic science into leading-edge clinical studies. In July 2012, the Jonsson Cancer Center was once again named among the nation's top 10 cancer centers by U.S. News & World Report, a ranking it has held for 12 of the last 13 years.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2013-07-17
Magnets could be a tool for directing stem cells' healing powers to treat conditions such as heart disease or vascular disease.
By feeding stem cells tiny particles made of iron oxide, scientists at Emory and Georgia Tech can use magnets to attract the cells to a particular location in the body after intravenous injection.
The results are published online in the journal Small and will appear in an upcoming issue.
The paper was a result of collaboration between the laboratories of W. Robert Taylor, MD, PhD, and Gang Bao, PhD. Taylor is professor of medicine and biomedical ...
2013-07-17
Environmental conditions have a much stronger influence on the mix of microbes living in various parts of your body than does competition between species. Instead of excluding each other, microbes that fiercely compete for similar resources are more likely to cohabit the same individual.
This phenomenon was discovered in a recent study of the human microbiome – the vast collection of our resident bacteria, fungi, and other tiny organisms.
The findings were published in the early online edition of PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study ...
2013-07-17
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– A chemical analysis of oil sheens recently found floating at the ocean's surface near the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster indicates that the source is pockets of oil trapped within the wreckage of the sunken rig.
First reported to the U.S. Coast Guard by British Petroleum (BP) in mid-September 2012, the oil sheens raised public concern that the Macondo well, which was capped in July 2010, might be leaking. However, both the Macondo well and the natural oil seeps common to the Gulf of Mexico were confidently ruled out, according to researchers ...
2013-07-17
A drug already approved to treat multiple sclerosis may also hold promise for treating cardiac hypertrophy, or thickening of the cardiac muscle--a disorder that often leads to heart failure, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine report.
The findings are published in the July 16 issue of Circulation: Heart Failure.
Cardiac hypertrophy is a slow thickening of the heart muscle that shrinks the interior volume of the heart, forcing the organ to work harder to pump a diminishing volume of blood.
"There comes a day when the heart just ...
2013-07-17
CHICAGO – Adding just a small amount of everyday herbs and spices to vegetables and reduced-calorie meals may make those foods more appetizing to consumers, which could ultimately help Americans cut down on dietary fat and choose more foods in line with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, according to research presented at the 2013 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Food Expo®
John Peters, Ph.D., professor of medicine at the University of Colorado and chief of strategy and innovation at the school's Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, presented ...
2013-07-17
CHICAGO—Almonds may still be considered one of the highest energy food sources but it's not about how much you bite off, instead it's about how much you chew, according to a July 14 panel discussion at the 2013 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Food Expo® held at McCormick Place.
"Particle size has bioaccessibility of the energy of the food that is being consumed," said Dr. Richard Mattes (CQ), professor of foods and nutrition at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. "The more you chew, the less is lost and more is retained in the body."
Each ...
2013-07-17
(Edmonton) Moms-to-be who gain too much weight early into their pregnancy are nearly three times as likely to give birth to bigger and fatter babies, warns a University of Alberta researcher.
A study of 172 expectant mothers found that women who gained excessive weight during the first half of pregnancy gave birth to heavier and longer babies with more body fat than babies of women who either did not gain as much weight or put it on later in their pregnancy.
The results underscore the need to educate expectant mothers about the dangers of early weight gain during pregnancy ...
2013-07-17
The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences (JGR-G), Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans (JGR-C), Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth (JGR-B), and Water Resources Research (WRR).
In this release:
Why freshwater organisms survived the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs
Constraining bubbling of methane from thermokarst lakes
Low-cost solution optimizes water quality of reservoir effluent
Characterizing the dynamics of geyser eruptions
Seismic studies provide new detail ...
2013-07-17
PHILADELPHIA – They say you can pick your friends, but not your family. The same may hold true for related proteins. The protein TAp73 is a relative of the well-known, tumor-suppressor protein p53. It shares extensive common gene sequences with p53 and, as suggested by some previous studies, it may function similar to p53 to prevent tumor formation. However, unlike p53, which is the most commonly mutated gene in human tumors, TAp73 is rarely mutated, and instead is frequently overexpressed in a wide range of human tumors, including breast, colon, lung, stomach, ovarian, ...
2013-07-17
More than a decade ago, Thomas Vogt and Yongjae Lee, then colleagues at Brookhaven National Laboratory, uncovered a counter-intuitive property of zeolites. When they put these porous minerals in water, and then put the water under high pressure, the tiny cavities within the zeolites actually grew in size.
Pressure failed to crush, and even caused expansion. In the years since, Vogt and Lee, now at the University of South Carolina and Yonsei University (Seoul), respectively, have followed up with cation exchange experiments, placing a series of alkali metal ions into the ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] UCLA researchers find link between intestinal bacteria and white blood cell cancer
