X
Pharma Advancement
  • Home
  • Drug Development
    • All
    • Clinical Trials
    • FDA Approvals
    • Research & Development

    New Delivery Path Brings To Light Efficacy of Immunotherapy

    Nasal Spray Shows Its Effect Against New COVID Variants

    Mid-Point Regulatory Science Strategy Study Published By EMA

    AADC Inadequacy To Be Handled By A Novel Gene Therapy

    New Drug Explored For Epilepsy Gets $3M Funding In Australia

    Care Access Research Launches Alliance to Provide Infrastructure for COVID-19 Trials

    Faster Clinical Trial Nods Planned By The UK To Curb Issues

    Pharma Drugs Gain From Tardigrade Proteins, Says Research

    Pharma Drugs Gain From Tardigrade Proteins, Says Research

    U.S. FDA Approves DARZALEX Split-Dosing Regimen

    EMA Keeping A Close Watch On Critical Medicine Shortages

    Pathways Laid Down By The CMS For Drug Price Negotiations

    Pathways Laid Down By The CMS For Drug Price Negotiations

  • Manufacturing
  • Supply Chain
  • Facilities
  • Health & Nutrition
  • Events
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Drug Development
    • All
    • Clinical Trials
    • FDA Approvals
    • Research & Development

    New Delivery Path Brings To Light Efficacy of Immunotherapy

    Nasal Spray Shows Its Effect Against New COVID Variants

    Mid-Point Regulatory Science Strategy Study Published By EMA

    AADC Inadequacy To Be Handled By A Novel Gene Therapy

    New Drug Explored For Epilepsy Gets $3M Funding In Australia

    Care Access Research Launches Alliance to Provide Infrastructure for COVID-19 Trials

    Faster Clinical Trial Nods Planned By The UK To Curb Issues

    Pharma Drugs Gain From Tardigrade Proteins, Says Research

    Pharma Drugs Gain From Tardigrade Proteins, Says Research

    U.S. FDA Approves DARZALEX Split-Dosing Regimen

    EMA Keeping A Close Watch On Critical Medicine Shortages

    Pathways Laid Down By The CMS For Drug Price Negotiations

    Pathways Laid Down By The CMS For Drug Price Negotiations

  • Manufacturing
  • Supply Chain
  • Facilities
  • Health & Nutrition
  • Events
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Pharma Advancement
No Result
View All Result
Home Americas

Breakthrough in how pancreatic cancer cells ingest nutrients points to new drug target

Yuvraj_pawp by Yuvraj_pawp
14th May 2013
in Americas, News

In a landmark cancer study published online in Nature, researchers at NYU School of Medicine have unraveled a longstanding mystery about how pancreatic tumor cells feed themselves, opening up new therapeutic possibilities for a notoriously lethal disease with few treatment options.

Pancreatic cancer kills nearly 38,000 Americans annually, making it a leading cause of cancer death. The life expectancy for most people diagnosed with it is less than a year.

Now new research reveals a possible chink in the armor of this recalcitrant disease. Many cancers, including pancreatic, lung, and colon cancer, feature a mutated protein known as Ras that plays a central role in a complex molecular chain of events that drives cancer cell growth and proliferation. It is well known that Ras cancer cells have special nutrient requirements to grow and survive. But how Ras cells cope to actually meet their extraordinary nutrient requirements has been poorly understood – until now. In the study, led by Cosimo Commisso, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at NYU School of Medicine, show for the first time how Ras cancer cells exploit a process called macropinocytosis to swallow up the protein albumin, which cells then harvest for amino acids essential for growth.

“A big mystery is how certain tumors meet their excessive nutrient demands,” says Dr. Commisso, whose work is funded in part by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. “We believe they accomplish this by macropinocytosis.”

The findings suggest that Ras cancer cells are particularly dependent on macropinocytosis for growth and survival. When the researchers used a chemical to block the uptake of albumin via macropinocytosis in mice with pancreatic tumors, the tumors stopped growing and in some cases even shrank. Moreover, pancreatic cancer cells in mice featured more macropinosomes – the vesicles that transport nutrients deep into a cell – than normal mouse cells.

The discovery of a “protein eating” mechanism unique to some cancer cells sets the stage for drugs that could block the engulfing process without causing collateral damage to healthy cells and suggests new ways to ferry chemotherapeutic cargo into the heart of cancer cells.

“This work offers up a completely different way to target cancer metabolism,” says lead principal investigator of the study Dafna Bar-Sagi, PhD, senior vice president and vice dean for Science, chief scientific officer and professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, NYU Langone Medical Center, who first identified macropinocytosis in Ras-transformed cancer cells. “It’s exciting to think that we can cause the demise of some cancer cells simply by blocking this nutrient delivery process.”

Crucial to the team’s findings is the work of Matthew G. Vander Heiden, assistant professor of biology at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT and Christian Metallo, assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of California at San Diego, who characterized how Ras cells derive energy from the constituent amino acids released after protein engulfment.

Other key contributors include Craig B. Thompson, president and CEO of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Joshua D. Rabinowitz, professor of chemistry at the Lewis Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University.

Tags: America
Previous Post

Novartis drug Ilaris® approved by FDA to treat active systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Next Post

GSK and Save the Children form unique partnership to save the lives of one million children

Related Posts

Drug Development

New Delivery Path Brings To Light Efficacy of Immunotherapy

1st April 2023
Quotient Sciences completes integration of drug substance into Translational Pharmaceutics Platform
Facilities & Operation

£277m Funding Set To Benefit UK Life Sciences Manufacturing

31st March 2023
Drug Development

Nasal Spray Shows Its Effect Against New COVID Variants

27th March 2023
FDA Approvals

Mid-Point Regulatory Science Strategy Study Published By EMA

27th March 2023
Drug Development

AADC Inadequacy To Be Handled By A Novel Gene Therapy

24th March 2023
Drug Development

New Drug Explored For Epilepsy Gets $3M Funding In Australia

23rd March 2023
Next Post

GSK and Save the Children form unique partnership to save the lives of one million children

Latest News

Drug Development

New Delivery Path Brings To Light Efficacy of Immunotherapy

1st April 2023
Cathay Cargo signs global airline partnership with Tower Cold Chain
Packaging & Logistic

Cathay Cargo signs global airline partnership with Tower Cold Chain

31st March 2023
Quotient Sciences completes integration of drug substance into Translational Pharmaceutics Platform
Facilities & Operation

£277m Funding Set To Benefit UK Life Sciences Manufacturing

31st March 2023
Drug Development

Nasal Spray Shows Its Effect Against New COVID Variants

27th March 2023
FDA Approvals

Mid-Point Regulatory Science Strategy Study Published By EMA

27th March 2023
Pharma Advancement

About Us

Pharma Advancement is a leading Pharma information centric website. On one side Pharmaadvancement.com has established itself as one of the most efficient and comprehensive source of Pharma information online, dedicated to providing decision makers in all the Pharma industry sectors with reliable, accurate and useful insights into happenings in the Pharma sector.

Qucik Links

  • Drug Development
  • Manufacturing
  • News
  • Events & Conferences
  • Newsletter Archive

Resources

  • Advertise with us
  • Contact Us
  • Download Mediapack

System

  • Search
  • Sitemap
  • RSS Feed

© 2017 Copyright © Valuemediaservices 2017 All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Drug Development
  • Manufacturing
  • Supply Chain
  • Facilities
  • Health & Nutrition
  • Events
  • Contact Us

© 2017 Copyright © Valuemediaservices 2017 All rights reserved.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In