Cancer Research

Autophagy is an intracellular degradation process of cytosolic materials and damaged organelles. Targeted cargo are engulfed by membranes called autophagosome, then delivered to lysosomes where they are degraded. This process is complex, especially in mammals, with many regulatory factors. Researchers in the Ubiquitin Project of Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science (TMIMS) discovered mammalian BCAS3-C16orf70 as novel proteins that associate with the autophagosome membranes via interaction with phosphoinositide. These studies were published in Autophagy.

In a new study, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and collaborators engineered a bimodal tumor-suppressing and killing molecule that can be delivered to the brain by stem cells. They tested the therapy in three new mouse models of BLBC-BM that imitate human cancers and found that it successfully prolonged the lifespan of the mice.

Researchers from Osaka University identified the molecular mechanism underlying bone marrow regeneration after chemotherapy. By studying group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), a specific subtype of immune cells, they showed that these cells produce the cytokine granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) with the help of chemo-sensitive B cell progenitors to recover the bone marrow. This study could help develop a novel therapeutic approach for chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression.

A mutation that replaces a single amino acid in a potent tumor-suppressing protein makes it prone to nucleating amyloid fibrils implicated in many cancers as well as neurological diseases.

Cervical cancer is a serious global health threat which kills more than 300,000 women every year. Recognizing this urgent public health issue, the editorial team of Preventive Medicine, led by Editor-in-Chief Dr. Eduardo Franco, Director, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Chair, Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology at McGill University, is publishing a special issue titled "From Science to Action to Impact: Eliminating Cervical Cancer," which outlines the required courses of action to eliminate cervical cancer.