Cancer
Microbes of Cancer
28/06/13 16:29 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Shin Yoshimoto from the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research and colleagues reported that although mice fed a high-fat or a lean diet did not have differing rates of hepatocellular carcinoma, when mice on those diets were also exposed to a carcinogen, namely DMBA, mice on the high-fat developed liver cancer while those on the lean diet did not. The investigators implicated the gut microbiome has a hand in this effect as the fatty diet leads to changes in the levels of deoxycholic acid (DCA) present in the gut. S. Pelech wonders about the novelty of these findings as it has been known for more than 20 years that bile acids such as DCA and other derivatives produced by microbial action from cholic acid secreted by the liver into the gut are activators of protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms in intestinal epithelial and other types of cells. PKC isoforms are the best known targets for a diversity of tumour promoting compounds. Read More...
It's Not a Pet
22/03/12 14:10 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Rebecca Boyle in Popular Science suggested that personalized mouse models might eventually be used for testing the effectiveness of drugs. The mice are implanted with tissue (e.g. tumours or blood cells) from the patient that can mimic their biology and then are used to pre-test drugs or treatments to see if they will potentially work in the patient. S. Pelech comments that immune compromised mice have also long been used for cultivation of human tumours from transplanted cancer cells, but the identification of the driver cancer mutations in the sequenced genome from the tumour of a patient is itself a very challenging task. Due to the acquisition of new mutations in growing tumours from defects in DNA repair proteins, the genetic profiles of descendant tumours in the mice could actually be quite diverse and respond differently to even the same drugs. Ultimately, an entire customized research program would be required to deliver personalized medicine as proposed by Ms. Boyle. Read More...