• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Friday, June 24, 2022
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Gene identified that drives deadly brain cancer

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
December 12, 2016
in Science News
9
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram
IMAGE

Credit: Amit Gujar and Albert H. Kim

Scientists have identified a gene that is overactive in a deadly form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma, according to a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings suggest that inhibiting that gene may improve the outlook for glioblastoma patients.

Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive brain cancer in adults. Over 70 percent of patients with glioblastoma die within two years of diagnosis.

The new research showed that glioblastoma patients with high expression of a gene known as NAMPT died sooner. Tumors with elevated expression of the same gene grew rapidly when they were implanted in mice and shrank when NAMPT was inhibited.

NAMPT is a key component of a metabolic pathway known as the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) pathway that is involved in producing cellular energy and plays a key role in several biological processes that depend on energy generation, such as aging.

The study is published Dec. 7 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Using human glioblastoma cells, Albert H. Kim, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of neurological surgery, postdoctoral researcher Amit Gujar, PhD, and colleagues showed that NAMPT helped cancerous stem cells survive and proliferate, fueling the growth of existing tumors, while inhibiting NAMPT reduced the ability of the cancer stem cells to renew themselves.

Furthermore, the scientists found that glioblastoma cells responded to radiation therapy – a standard therapy used to treat the disease in people – by increasing expression of NAD+ pathway genes, and that inhibiting NAMPT before dosing the cells with radiation made them easier to kill.

"If you target the NAD+ pathway, you can disrupt the ability of the cancer stem cells to self-renew, and you can also make them more sensitive to radiation treatment," said Kim, who also treats patients with brain tumors at Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. "In a patient, that could mean that if you suppress the pathway, the same dose of radiation may be more effective at destroying the tumor."

The NAD+ pathway has also attracted scientific attention because of its role in aging. NAMPT produces a molecule known as nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) that has been shown to reduce signs of aging in mice. While its safety in people has yet to be determined – a clinical trial is ongoing in Japan – NMN and other molecules along the NAD+ pathway are being marketed as anti-aging supplements.

"There's a lot of buzz about taking NAD+ precursors for their anti-aging effects, which is based on a lot of great science," said Albert H. Kim, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of neurological surgery and the senior author on the study. "I don't know if taking NAD+ precursors makes existing tumors grow faster, but one implication of our work is that we don't yet fully understand all of the consequences of enhancing NAD+ levels."

The NAD+ pathway involves many different genes and proteins, and its very complexity may be the key to having it both ways. Kim believes it may be possible to carefully modulate the pathway so as to suppress cancer without interfering with other important biological processes.

"The question we are considering now is, 'How do we make an NAD+ strategy that is specific for cancer?'" Kim said. "Maybe there are some cancer-specific regulators, and we can disrupt those. Maybe we can change the expression of some key NAD+ pathway genes only in cancer cells, not healthy cells. There are many ways to look at this, and that's why we want to dig deeper into how this pathway works in glioblastoma."

###

Media Contact

Judy Martin Finch
[email protected]
314-286-0105
@WUSTLmed

Home

############

Story Source: Materials provided by Scienmag

Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

Robot Bias

Flawed AI makes robots racist, sexist

June 24, 2022
Defibrillation Teleportation

Spiral wave teleportation theory offers new path to defibrillate hearts, terminate arrhythmias

June 24, 2022

Nanomaterials that provide imaging while delivering medication

June 24, 2022

Novel sewage treatment system removes up to 70% of nitrogen that would otherwise be discarded into nature

June 24, 2022
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Pacific whiting

    Oregon State University research finds evidence to suggest Pacific whiting skin has anti-aging properties that prevent wrinkles

    36 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • University of Miami Rosenstiel School selected for National ‘Reefense’ Initiative focusing on Florida and the Caribbean

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • Dutch researchers teleport quantum information across rudimentary quantum network

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • Saving the Mekong delta from drowning

    37 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

VirusUrogenital SystemViolence/CriminalsVehiclesZoology/Veterinary ScienceVaccinesWeaponryVirologyUniversity of WashingtonVaccineWeather/StormsUrbanization

Recent Posts

  • Flawed AI makes robots racist, sexist
  • Spiral wave teleportation theory offers new path to defibrillate hearts, terminate arrhythmias
  • Nanomaterials that provide imaging while delivering medication
  • Novel sewage treatment system removes up to 70% of nitrogen that would otherwise be discarded into nature
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

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

Log In
Posting....