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December 28, 2007
Protein Found To Stop Tumor Spread
Topics: Medical Science News
Work published in the latest edition of the journal Molecular Cell suggests that UK scientists have uncovered a vital clue to stopping cancers from spreading (metastasizing).
According to Dr. Michael Way of the The London Research Institute, a protein called Tes is able to block a second protein, Mena (a serex-defined antigen overexpressed in breast cancer eliciting both humoral and CD8+ T-cell immune response), from helping cancer cells "crawl" away from the initial tumor. The research team says this knowledge should help in the design of new drug treatments to essentially "anchor a tumor in one site":
The Mena protein is found in excessive amounts in tumours and was already known to help cancer cells move away from a tumour and spread around the body to form secondary cancers - one of the main obstacles in treating cancer.Continue reading ...Study leader Dr Michael Way said Tes was not as well studied but in many tumours it is absent.
Using a range of techniques, including X-ray crystallography, which can be used to determine the 3-dimensional structure of a molecule, Dr Way and his colleagues found that Tes attached itself to Mena in such a way it could no longer bind with other proteins.
Without being able to interact with its normal binding partners, Mena was no longer able to help the cancer cells migrate from the tumour.
Posted by Richard at December 28, 2007 11:00 AM
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