Exploring Preclinical Cancer Models
Tumors consist of a heterogeneous mixture of malignant and normal cells in the parenchyma, fenestrated with an abnormally structured stroma. The inter-patient, and even inter- or intra-tumor, variability expressed by all types of cancer makes the design and testing of medications a challenging prospect.
Predicting the efficacy and toxicity of cancer therapies is key to establishing new drug leads and designing treatment regimens, so researchers have developed a variety of cancer models that allow each aspect to be analyzed at the
In vitro cancer models
Oncogenes are genes that have the potential to cause cancer if allowed to run out of control, usually because they control for functions of the cell such as growth or mitosis. Tumor suppressor genes have the opposite function, being involved in tasks such as inducing controlled apoptosis. Mutations on one or both of these types of genes leads to uncontrolled cell growth, cancer.
Tumors use unique mechanism to switch on regulatory T cells for protection
Immunologists at St. Jude Children s Research Hospital have discovered that tumors use a unique mechanism to switch on regulatory T cells to protect themselves from attack by the immune system. Surprisingly, the mechanism does not affect regulatory T cell function outside the tumor and may therefore limit the immune-associated toxicities of targeting regulatory T cells.
The finding offers the promise of drug treatment to selectively shut down regulatory T cells in a tumor, rendering the tumor vulnerable to cancer immunotherapies that activate the immune system to kill the tumor. The researchers showed that blocking tumor-associated regulatory T cell activity eliminated tumors cells in mice and sensitized the cells to cancer immunotherapy called anti-PD-1 therapy.
Researchers discover new functions of the ENDOU enzyme
Researchers at Freiburg University discover new functions of the widely disseminated, yet little understood ENDOU enzyme.
The family of ENDOU enzymes is found in most organisms, yet its functions are only poorly understood. In humans, it has been connected with cancer.
RNA viruses, such as SARS-CoV2, contain a gene corresponding to ENDOU, and this is important for virus replication and the suppression of the immune response. However, so far only a few details of the role of these enzymes are known.
The research group led by the molecular geneticist Dr. Wenjing Qi from the University of Freiburg now contributes some more details to its function in a study published by the renowned scientific journal Nature Communications . They suggest that the gene ENDU-2 could be responsible for triggering tumors in the body from a distance.