Moffitt Cancer Center researchers say 1 specific microrna promotes tumor growth and cancer spread
MicroRNA-155 overexpression plays a critical role in breast cancer, indicates poor prognosis, and could be a target for therapy
2013-04-04
(Press-News.org) Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have determined that the overexpression of microRNA-155 (miR-155), a short, single strand of ribonucleic acid encoded by the miR-155 host gene, promotes the growth of blood vessels in tumors, tumor inflammation, and metastasis. As a therapeutic target, miR-155 could potentially provide a new avenue of treatment when targeted with drugs to suppress its activity.
The study was published in an online issue of Oncogene in January.
MiR-155, which plays an important role in various physiological and pathological processes, is considered an indicator of poor prognosis for breast cancer patients when it is overexpressed. Controlling miR-155 expression could inhibit malignant growth, said the researchers.
"Our study shows that miR-155 is a driver of new blood vessel growth in tumors," said study lead author Jin Q. Cheng, M.D., Ph.D., senior member of the Cancer Biology and Evolution Program at Moffitt. "It also plays a critical role in metastasis, especially in triple-negative breast cancer. This makes miR-155 both a prognostic marker and a potential therapeutic drug target."
According to the researchers, several studies show that miR-155 is frequently increased in various human malignancies, including breast, lung, pancreatic and colon cancers. It also regulates a number of cell processes, including growth, survival, migration and invasion. Their study demonstrates that miR-155 promotes new blood vessel growth in breast cancer by targeting a natural tumor suppressor called VHL, part of an important cancer pathway for a cascade of events.
"Further studies could provide insight into the role of miR-155 in inflammation that leads to tumor progression," noted the researchers, who found elevated miR-155 in triple-negative breast cancer, a form of breast cancer that does not express the genes for estrogen, progesterone and human epidermal growth factor receptors.
"Our findings are important for a number of reasons," Cheng said. "We have shown that miR-155 targets and downregulates the tumor suppressor VHL and that miR-155 contributes to tumor growth and spread. This makes miR-155 a critical therapeutic target in breast cancer."
###
The study was funded by federal grants CA14343, CA15308 and CA137041.
About Moffitt Cancer Center
Located in Tampa, Moffitt is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, a distinction that recognizes Moffitt's excellence in research, its contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Since 1999, Moffitt has been listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's Best Hospitals" for cancer. With more than 4,200 employees, Moffitt has an economic impact on the state of nearly $2 billion. For more information, visit MOFFITT.org, and follow the Moffitt momentum on Facebook, twitter and YouTube.
Media release by Florida Science Communications
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2013-04-04
JUPITER, FL, April 3, 2013 – Human diseases caused by misfolded proteins known as prions are some of most rare yet terrifying on the planet—incurable with disturbing symptoms that include dementia, personality shifts, hallucinations and coordination problems. The most well-known of these is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which can be described as the naturally occurring human equivalent of mad cow disease.
Now, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have for the first time identified a pair of drugs already approved for human use that ...
2013-04-04
PubMed Central may draw readership away from biomedical journal sites, with this effect increasing over time. This finding—that PubMed Central directly competes with biomedical publishers—was published online in The FASEB Journal. In the study, Phillip M. Davis shows that as articles are deposited in PubMed Central, they draw readership away from the scientific journal even when journals themselves are providing free access to the articles. Over time, this may weaken the ability of journals to build communities of interest around research papers, impede the communication ...
2013-04-04
University of Notre Dame researchers have successfully created three-dimensional anatomical models from CT scans using 3-D printing technology, a process that holds promise for medical professionals and their patients. A paper by the researchers, "3D Printing of Preclinical X-ray Computed Tomographic Data Sets," was published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments this week.
The strategy was initiated last spring by then-freshman Evan Doney, a Glynn Family Honors student in the laboratory of W. Matthew Leevy, research assistant professor at the Notre Dame Integrated ...
2013-04-04
Coral Gables, Fla. – April 2, 2013 -- New research from the University of Miami School of Business Administration offers marketers a strategy for how best to structure free giveaways with products in order to maximize sales.
The study, just published in the Journal of Marketing, shows that when a product that triggers more emotion (called affect), such as makeup, is offered with a free gift, shoppers are more likely to buy that product if the type of gift is unknown than if the type of gift is revealed. So much so, that in this case, it can up to double the purchase ...
2013-04-04
Bottom-up synthesis of nanowires through metal-catalyzed vapor phase epitaxy is a very attractive process to generate high-quality nanowires thus providing an additional degree of freedom in design of innovative devices that extend beyond what is achievable with the current technologies. In this nano-fabrication process, nanowires grow through the condensation of atoms released from a molecular vapor (called precursors) at the surface of metallic nano-droplets. Gold is broadly used to form these nano-droplets. This self-assembly of nanowires takes place spontaneously ...
2013-04-04
Could drug addiction treatment of the future be as simple as an on/off switch in the brain? A study in rats has found that stimulating a key part of the brain reduces compulsive cocaine-seeking and suggests the possibility of changing addictive behavior generally. The study, published in Nature, was conducted by scientists at the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the University of California, San Francisco.
"This exciting study offers a new direction of research for the treatment ...
2013-04-04
Scientists have decoded the genome of the western painted turtle, one of the most abundant turtles on Earth, finding clues to their longevity and ability to survive without oxygen during long winters spent hibernating in ice-covered ponds.
Understanding the natural mechanisms turtles use to protect the heart and brain from oxygen deprivation may one day improve treatments for heart attacks or strokes, the researchers say. Both can lead to severe disability or death within minutes in patients deprived of oxygen.
The research team includes scientists at Washington University ...
2013-04-04
Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) offer low premiums but high deductibles on the premise that patients who are faced with deductibles of $1,000 or more for individual coverage (or twice that for family coverage) will shop around for the best price for the health care.
In practice, however, that's not the case, according to a new study by the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics and the RAND Corporation.
Examining the consumer decisions with and without CDHPs when receiving nine common outpatient services (such as office visits, chest x-rays and ...
2013-04-04
An instrument that will measure the composition of Mars' upper atmosphere has been integrated to NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft. MAVEN has a scheduled launch date of Nov. 18.
Engineers and scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. in collaboration with partners at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Battel Engineering, Scottsdale, Ariz.; and AMU Engineering, Miami, Fla. built the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) instrument.
"The NGIMS team is delighted to provide this instrument to the MAVEN ...
2013-04-04
WASHINGTON--The first published results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a major physics experiment operating on the International Space Station, were announced today by the AMS collaboration spokesman, Nobel Laureate Samuel Ting. The result is the most precise measurement to date of the ratio of positrons to electrons in cosmic rays. Measurements of this key ratio may eventually provide the world with our first glimpse into dark matter.
The AMS experiment, developed under the leadership of Professor Ting, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy and ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Moffitt Cancer Center researchers say 1 specific microrna promotes tumor growth and cancer spread
MicroRNA-155 overexpression plays a critical role in breast cancer, indicates poor prognosis, and could be a target for therapy
