When a KISS (1) goes bad

Spread of breast cancer linked to kisspeptins which normally inhibit metastasis

2013-04-16

(Press-News.org) VIDEO: Moshmi Bhattacharya, Ph.D., and graduate student Donna Cvetkovic describe new findings about kisspeptins. while they usually prevent the spread of cancer, kisspeptins actally make some breast cancers worse, with...
Click here for more information.

KISS 1 is a metastasis-suppressor gene which helps to prevent the spread of cancers, including melanoma, pancreatic and ovarian cancers to name a few. But new research from Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry shows that kisspeptins –peptide products of KISS1, actually make some breast cancers worse, with a higher tumor grade and metastatic potential. The research is published online in the journal Endocrinology.

Moshmi Bhattacharya, an associate professor in the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology, and Oncology, was surprised to find high levels of kisspeptins in aggressive breast cancers. "We found kisspeptins could turn non-invasive cancer cells into invasive cells, and therefore could be playing a role in the metastasis of breast cancer."

The paper's first author Donna Cvetkovic, a graduate student working with Bhattacharya, says they were also able to pinpoint what triggered kisspeptin to act in this unusual fashion. "Typically breast cancers are classified as being estrogen receptor-positive or estrogen receptor-negative. In estrogen receptor-negative cells we found that kisspeptin significantly increased invasiveness. However in cells that still expressed estrogen, kisspeptin does not lead to invasion," says Cvetkovic. "We believe that estrogen is acting as a brake, and when patients lose their estrogen receptor, it allows kisspeptin to behave in a non-typical fashion."

"As for clinical applications, testing to see whether the kisspeptin receptor is present or not, could provide us with an idea of whether the breast cancer will become more aggressive and thereby more metastatic," says Bhattacharya, a New Investigator with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) which funded this study. She also believes kisspeptins could be a good therapeutic target.

### END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Fainting may run in families while triggers may not

2013-04-16

MINNEAPOLIS – New research suggests that fainting may be genetic and, in some families, only one gene may be responsible. However, a predisposition to certain triggers, such as emotional distress or the sight of blood, may not be inherited. The study is published in the April 16, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Fainting, also called vasovagal syncope, is a brief loss of consciousness when your body reacts to certain triggers. It affects at least one out of four people. "Our study strengthens the evidence that ...

Researchers discover biomarker for devastating intestinal disease found in early preterm infants

2013-04-16

Researchers have discovered a biomarker that may help prevent a devastating intestinal disease that occurs in one of every 10 early preterm infants. The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study may help prevent necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a condition primarily seen in preemies in which bowel tissue dies. The death rate approaches 30 percent. Survivors are at risk for short-bowel syndrome (caused by surgical removal of the small intestine) and neurodevelopmental disability. The study is published in the journal Microbiome. The research, led by Ardythe ...

Drinking cup of beetroot juice daily may help lower blood pressure

2013-04-16

A cup of beetroot juice a day may help reduce your blood pressure, according to a small study in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension. People with high blood pressure who drank about 8 ounces of beetroot juice experienced a decrease in blood pressure of about 10 mm Hg. But the preliminary findings don't yet suggest that supplementing your diet with beetroot juice benefits your health, researchers said. "Our hope is that increasing one's intake of vegetables with a high dietary nitrate content, such as green leafy vegetables or beetroot, might be a lifestyle ...

Patients go undercover to record encounters with doctors

2013-04-16

Patients' health outcomes improve when physicians individualize care and take their patients' life circumstances into account, according to a new study by the University of Illinois at Chicago and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The study is the largest ever to be conducted using real patients to collect data about their doctors' behavior using concealed audio recorders. It appears in the April 16 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine and was funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. "What our study really tells us is that the information that patients ...

'Comparison shopping' by doctors saves money

2013-04-16

Research at Johns Hopkins suggests that if hospitals would show physicians the price of some diagnostic laboratory tests at the time the tests are ordered, doctors would order substantially fewer of them or search for lower-priced alternatives. In a study of up-front price transparency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, the researchers found that the practice of offering price information decreased overall use of tests by roughly 9 percent. Currently, hospitals typically keep both patients and providers essentially blind to the cost of medical services, a system that wastefully ...

Concert cacophony: Short-term hearing loss protective, not damaging

2013-04-16

Contrary to conventional wisdom, short-term hearing loss after sustained exposure to loud noise does not reflect damage to our hearing: instead, it is the body's way to cope. The landmark finding could lead to improved protection against noise-induced hearing loss in future. The research, led by University of New South Wales Professor Gary Housley, has found that "reversible hearing loss" is a physiological adaptation mechanism, allowing the cochlea (the auditory portion of the inner ear) to perform normally when exposed to noise stress. "This explains why we lose ...

Gene signature can predict who will survive chemotherapy

2013-04-16

An eight gene 'signature' can predict length of relapse-free survival after chemotherapy, finds new research in Biomed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine. Researchers from Academia Sinica and the National Taiwan University College of Medicine first identified genes that were involved in cellular invasion, a property of many cancer cells, using the National Cancer Institute's 60 human cancer cell line panel (NCI-60). Comparing the pattern of activation of each of these genes in different cell lines with how these cell lines responded to 99 different anti-cancer ...

Cancer cell metabolism kills

2013-04-16

ATP is the main energy currency of cells and one might expect that not only contracting muscle, but also uncontrollably dividing cancer cells would have a high demand for ATP. However, for some reason cancer cells have re-programmed their metabolic engines to produce less ATP. The phenomenon, known as Warburg effect, is typical for cancer cells and the mechanism behind is believed to benefit cancer cells by switching biochemical engines from energy manufacturing reactions to anabolic reactions, which primarily support growth of the cell size and proliferation. The triggers ...

Testing the water -- urine test identifies babies at most risk of necrotizing enterocolitis

2013-04-16

Abnormal gut bacteria in premature babies can be found days before the onset of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) finds new research in BioMed Central's open access journal Microbiome. Babies who later went on to develop NEC had a lower diversity of gut bacteria 4-9 days after birth, increased level of Firmicutes or Enterobacteriaceae, and lacked the Propionibacterium found in healthy babies. NEC is a common but devastating problem of premature babies - affecting about 10% of infants born at under 29 weeks, about a third will die. To find out what the difference is between ...

Surprising findings on hydrogen production in green algae

2013-04-16

New research results from Uppsala University, Sweden, instil hope of efficient hydrogen production with green algae being possible in the future, despite the prevailing scepticism based on previous research. The study, which is published today in the esteemed journal PNAS, changes the view on the ability of green algae – which is good news. The world must find a way of producing fuel from renewable energy sources to replace the fossil fuels. Hydrogen is today considered one of the most promising fuels for the future and if hydrogen can be produced directly from sunlight ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Could we use eye drops instead of reading glasses as we age?

Patients who had cataracts removed or their eyesight corrected with a new type of lens have good vision over all distances without spectacles

Wiley advances Knowitall Solutions with new trendfinder application for user-friendly chemometric analysis and additional enhancements to analytical workflows