PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Some immune cells appear to aid cancer cell growth, U-M study finds

Cells could provide target for potential cancer therapies

2013-09-05
(Press-News.org) ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The immune system is normally known for protecting the body from illness. But a subset of immune cells appear to be doing more harm than good.

A new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that these cells, called myeloid derived suppressor cells, provide a niche where the cancer stem cells survive.

Cancer stem cells are thought to be resistant to current chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and researchers believe that killing the cancer stem cells is crucial for eliminating cancer.

At the same time that these immune cells help the cancer, they also are suppressing the immune system.

"This cell and its mechanisms are not good for your body and it helps the cancer by allowing the stem cells to thrive. If we can identify a therapy that targets this, we take away the immune suppression and the support for cancer stem cells. Essentially, we kill two birds with one stone," says senior study author Weiping Zou, M.D., Ph.D., Charles B. de Nancrede Professor of surgery, immunology and biology at the University of Michigan Medical School.

The researchers believe the immune cells give the cancer cells their "stemness" – those properties that allow the cells to be so lethal – and that without this immune cell, the cancer stem cells may not efficiently progress.

The study, which was led by Tracy X. Cui, Ph.D., and Ilona Kryczek, Ph.D., looked at cells from the most common and lethal type of ovarian cancer, a disease in which patients often become resistant to chemotherapy, causing the cancer to return.

Targeting the immune system for cancer treatment, called immunotherapy, has been well-received with many potential therapeutics currently being tested in clinical trials for a variety of cancer types. The U-M team is a worldwide leader in the field of tumor immunology.



INFORMATION:

Additional authors: Other contributors are Lili Zhao, Ende Zhao, Rork Kuick, Michael H. Roh, Linda Vatan, Wojciech Szeliga, Yujun Mao, Dafydd G. Thomas, Max S. Wicha, Kathleen Cho, Thomas Giordano, and J. Rebecca Liu, all from the University of Michigan; and Jan Kotarski and Rafal Tarkowski from Medical University in Lublin, Poland.

Ovarian cancer statistics: 22,240 Americans will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and 14,030 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society

Funding: National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute grants CA123088, CA099985, CA156685, CA171306 and 5P30-CA46592; the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, and the Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research

Disclosure: None

Reference: Immunity, Vol. 39, No. 3, Sept. 19, 2013

Resources:

U-M Cancer AnswerLine, 800-865-1125

U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, http://www.mcancer.org

Clinical trials at U-M, http://www.mcancer.org/clinicaltrials



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Global warming has increased risk of record heat, say Stanford scientists

2013-09-05
Drought shriveled crops in the Midwest, massive wildfires raged in the West and East Coast cities sweltered. The summer of 2012 was a season of epic proportions, especially July, the hottest month in the history of U.S. weather record keeping. And it's likely that we'll continue to see such calamitous weather. In the north-central and northeastern United States, extreme weather is more than four times as likely to occur than it was in the pre-industrial era, according to a new study by Noah Diffenbaugh, a Stanford associate professor of environmental Earth system science, ...

People who lie while texting take longer to respond

2013-09-05
Ever been trading a flurry of text messages when there's an awkward pause? Well, new research shows you probably should be suspicious. A Brigham Young University study finds when people lie in digital messages – texting, social media or instant messaging – they take longer to respond, make more edits and write shorter responses than usual. "Digital conversations are a fertile ground for deception because people can easily conceal their identity and their messages often appear credible," says Tom Meservy, BYU professor of information systems. "Unfortunately, humans are ...

Report reveals missed opportunities to save water and energy

2013-09-05
Water and wastewater managers are missing substantial opportunities to save energy and money, according to a report published Wednesday (Sept. 4) by Water in the West, a research center at Stanford University. The report, "Water and Energy Nexus: A Literature Review," also identifies the amount of water used to extract resources such as natural gas, oil and coal, and to generate electricity. The report finds "robust opportunities for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as for the conservation of scarce water resources, coupled with the potential for generating ...

Cell death protein could offer new anti-inflammatory drug target

2013-09-05
Scientists in Melbourne, Australia, have revealed the structure of a protein that is essential for triggering a form of programmed cell death, making possible the development of new drugs to treat chronic inflammatory diseases such as Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Dr James Murphy, Associate Professor John Silke, Dr Joanne Hildebrand, Dr Peter Czabotar, Professor Warren Alexander and colleagues from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have shown that the protein MLKL plays a crucial role in the signalling pathways that trigger a recently discovered cell death ...

Smoking + asthma + pregnant = a dangerous combination

2013-09-05
New research from the University of Adelaide has shown for the first time that pregnant women who smoke as well as having asthma are greatly increasing the risk of complications for themselves and their unborn children. In the first study of its kind in the world, researchers from the University's Robinson Institute compared data from more than 170,000 Australian women over 10 years. The results have been published online ahead of print in the European Respiratory Journal. Lead author Dr Nicolette Hodyl says: "We know that being pregnant and having asthma poses risks ...

Drug resistance-associated genes: A cornerstone for the control and protection against tuberculosis

2013-09-05
September 5, 2013, Shenzhen, China – BGI in collaboration with Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other Chinese institutes, have completed the genome sequencing of 161 Mycobacterium tuberculosis that can cause an infectious disease tuberculosis (TB). The study published online in Nature Genetics provides an invaluable resource for researchers to better understand the genetic basis underlying drug resistance TB. TB is one of the deadliest infectious diseases. The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world's population is infected ...

No evidence of planetary influence on solar activity

2013-09-05
The Sun is a magnetically active star. Its activity manifests itself as dark sunspots and bright faculae on its visible surface, as well as violent mass ejections and the acceleration of high-energy particles resulting from the release of magnetic energy in its outer atmosphere. The frequency with which these phenomena occur varies in a somewhat irregular activity cycle of about 11 years, during which the global magnetic field of the Sun reverses. The solar magnetic field and the activity cycle originate in a self-excited dynamo mechanism based upon convective flows and ...

Neuronal-like cell differentiation of non-adherent BMSCs

2013-09-05
It is widely believed that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells are highly adherent fibroblastic cells, defined as colony-forming unit-fibroblasts. Nevertheless, a few reports have shown that the non-adherent bone marrow cells can give rise to colony-forming unit-fibroblasts in vitro, and possess a certain differentiation potential. According to a recent study from Dr. Xiaoming Ben and colleagues, non-adherent bone marrow cell-derived mesenchymal stem cells from C57BL/6J mice cultured using the "pour-off" method developed colony-forming unit-fibroblasts, and could be expanded ...

Antenatal taurine relieves brain injury in the fetus with intrauterine growth restriction

2013-09-05
Increased brain cell apoptosis in intrauterine growth-restricted fetal rats is a key reason for unfavorable long-term prognosis of the nervous system. The harmful effects of intrauterine growth restriction on fetal brain development originate in the womb. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain ideal outcomes through postnatal intervention. Taken together, active prenatal intervention is of great importance to the optimal prognosis of the intrauterine growth restricted fetus. Prof. Jing Liu and colleagues from the General Hospital of Beijing Military Command found that taurine ...

Simulating Alzheimer's disease in transgenic mice

2013-09-05
Death of neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus and locus coeruleus is a pathological characteristic of the disease. Previous studies concerning the pathological characteristic of Alzheimer's disease mainly focus on learning and memory-related hippocampus, and less attention has been paid to the locus coeruleus. Noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus can produce norepinephrine that has excitatory effects on the hippocampus and cortex, suggesting that the locus coeruleus has an important role for learning, memory and other cognitive functions. A recent study published ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Exercise as an anti-ageing intervention to avoid detrimental impact of mental fatigue

UMass Amherst Nursing Professor Emerita honored as ‘Living Legend’

New guidelines aim to improve cystic fibrosis screening

Picky eaters by day, buffet by night: Butterfly, moth diets sync to plant aromas

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Leanne Redman honored with the E. V. McCollum Award from the American Society for Nutrition

CCNY physicists uncover electronic interactions mediated via spin waves

Researchers’ 3D-printing formula may transform future of foam

Nurture more important than nature for robotic hand

Drug-delivering aptamers target leukemia stem cells for one-two knockout punch

New study finds that over 95% of sponsored influencer posts on Twitter were not disclosed

New sea grant report helps great lakes fish farmers navigate aquaculture regulations

Strain “trick” improves perovskite solar cells’ efficiency

How GPS helps older drivers stay on the roads

Estrogen and progesterone stimulate the body to make opioids

Dancing with the cells – how acoustically levitating a diamond led to a breakthrough in biotech automation

Machine learning helps construct an evolutionary timeline of bacteria

Cellular regulator of mRNA vaccine revealed... offering new therapeutic options

Animal behavioral diversity at risk in the face of declining biodiversity

Finding their way: GPS ignites independence in older adult drivers

Antibiotic resistance among key bacterial species plateaus over time

‘Some insects are declining but what’s happening to the other 99%?’

Powerful new software platform could reshape biomedical research by making data analysis more accessible

Revealing capillaries and cells in living organs with ultrasound

American College of Physicians awards $260,000 in grants to address equity challenges in obesity care

Researchers from MARE ULisboa discover that the European catfish, an invasive species in Portugal, has a prolonged breeding season, enhancing its invasive potential

Rakesh K. Jain, PhD, FAACR, honored with the 2025 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research

Solar cells made of moon dust could power future space exploration

Deporting immigrants may further shrink the health care workforce

Border region emergency medical services in migrant emergency care

Resident physician intentions regarding unionization

[Press-News.org] Some immune cells appear to aid cancer cell growth, U-M study finds
Cells could provide target for potential cancer therapies