Researchers develop novel cancer protein killer and discover a new ligase for PROTACs

Researchers from Göttingen and Karlsruhe have developed a new treatment approach for pancreatic cancer. The innovative method promises to be able to treat the disease in a more targeted way and with fewer side effects in the future. The therapy is now to be optimized for clinical application as quickly as possible.

Scientists have discovered in animal experiments that breast cancer cells heavily rely on vitamin B5 to grow and survive / Publication in ‘Nature Metabolism‘

MYC proteins play an important role in many types of cancer. A research team at the University of Würzburg has now succeeded in indirectly influencing these proteins – with clear consequences for the tumor.

Cancer cells are notorious for rapidly changing their phenotype, driving within-host spread and evading treatment. Scientists in Plön used a mathematical model to understand the role of a signal used by cancer cells to control their phenotype. By manipulating these signals, cancer cells can be tricked into a less harmful phenotype that is more responsive to treatments.

When a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, the difficult question arises as to which type of treatment is the right one. Gene expression testing is one of the methods used by doctors to help make a prognosis about the course of the disease and, based on this, to select a suitable therapy. However, the reliability of these tests has not been fully established. Scientists from Leipzig University and the Pathologie Hamburg-West institute have now used machine learning to analyse large amounts of data on this question and found that gene expression signatures offer a high degree of certainty in prognosis, but not complete certainty.

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich have made significant progress in advancing high-resolution optoacoustic imaging for clinical use. Their innovative deep-learning framework, known as DeepMB, holds great promise for patients dealing with a range of illnesses, including breast cancer, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and inflammatory bowel disease. Their findings have been now published in Nature Machine Intelligence.

Dynamic resilience, the ability of humans to withstand unexpected changes and stressors, is pivotal for maintaining bodily functions and overall health. Aging adults and especially women after menopause are at higher risk of adverse health outcomes (including frailty) in response to external stress situations such as cancer therapies or infections due to reduced dynamic resilience. Addressing the impact of female menopause on dynamic resilience and exploring preventive and therapeutic strategies is the aim of an international and interdisciplinary research group led by Prof. Dr. Peter Loskill from the NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute and the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen.

– Cells are stimulated by robots measuring just 30 micrometers (µm)
– Technological platform developed to produce microrobots
– Ion channel mechanisms can be influenced

A group of researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has developed the world’s first microrobot (“microbot”) capable of navigating within groups of cells and stimulating individual cells. Berna Özkale Edelmann, a professor of Nano- and Microrobotics, sees potential for new treatments of human diseases.

Our cells have a fleet of 300 molecular machines, called cullin-RING ligases, or „CRLs“ for short, that each is capable of triggering destruction of specific proteins for the well-being of our cells. However, most proteins are needed, therefore only those that block newly required cellular paths or that are toxic should be destroyed. The destructive potential of CRLs is tightly controlled. CRLs are switched on only temporarily, when needed. Researchers at MPI of Biochemistry and University of Waterloo have developed a new way to detect those CRLs in the fleet that are „on”, which reveals the CRLs deployed to solve cellular stresses and to perform the actions of some anti-cancer drugs.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) ranks second in leading causes of cancer-related deaths globally, according to the WHO. For the first time, researchers from Helmholtz Munich and the University of Technology Dresden (TU Dresden) show that artificial intelligence (AI)-based predictions can deliver comparable results to clinical tests on biopsies of patients with CRC. AI predictions can speed up the analysis of tissue samples, resulting in faster treatment decisions. This novel model for biomarker detection represents a significant stride towards the realization of precision therapy approaches in the field of oncology. The method is now published in Cancer Cell.

The computational design of new proteins for biomedical or other applications involves long computing times on powerful servers. A joint team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen and the University Hospital Tübingen has now developed and tested a new computational method to greatly speed up the necessary energy calculations. Their framework, now published in the journal Cell Reports Methods, allows for a precise and efficient design of functional proteins. Evidencing the usefulness of their findings, the researchers developed two classes of proteins which can be deployed in cancer diagnostics and treatment.

Gießen, Hannover, Köln – Leberzellkrebs (Hepatozelluläres Karzinom, HCC) zählt weltweit zu den häufigsten krebsbedingten Todesursachen. Auch einige Tumore der Gallenwege (biliary tract cancer, BTC), wie beispielsweise das Gallengangskarzinom (Cholangiozelluläres Karzinom, CCC), zählen zu diesen primären Lebertumoren und sind ebenso mit einer hohen Sterblichkeitsrate verbunden. Warum Früherkennung besonders bei Lebertumoren wichtig ist und welche beträchtlichen Fortschritte die Therapien gemacht haben, erläutern die Ausrichter des 24. Deutschen Lebertages im Vorfeld des bundesweiten Aktionstages.

The application period for the DKMS John Hansen Research Grant 2024 began on August 1, 2023. With this grant, the foundation DKMS Stiftung Leben Spenden supports up to four outstanding research projects in the field of stem cell transplantation or cell therapy each year. A stem cell transplant saves the lives of many blood cancer patients. However, relapses and severe complications continue to pose major challenges. The grant is intended to promote excellent science in this field. The application deadline is November 30, 2023.

Immun Checkpoint-Inhibitoren (ICI) sind hochwirksame Medikamente in der modernen Krebstherapie. Ihr Einsatz hat auch bei Melanompatient:innen die Überlebenschancen verbessert. Aber nicht alle Erkrankten profitieren gleichermaßen. Ein Team von Forschenden der Medizinischen Fakultät der Universität Duisburg-Essen und Deutschem Konsortium für Translationale Krebsforschung (DKTK), Partnerstandort Essen/Düsseldorf, hat nun einen Faktor gefunden, der das Ansprechen auf die ICI-Therapie maßgeblich beeinflusst: das Zytokin Interleukin-17, kurz IL-17. Die Ergebnisse wurden kürzlich in „Nature Cancer“ veröffentlicht.

Researchers from the Leibniz Institute on Aging in Jena and the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg have discovered a novel treatment approach for soft tissue tumors, which are frequently occurring in children and are often malignant. Through the targeted transformation of the tumor cells into muscle cells, they succeeded in stopping the growth of the cells and thereby the growth of the tumor. This opens completely new therapeutic options in cancer treatment.

Glioblastomas are among the most aggressive kinds of brain tumors. Even immunotherapy treatments that have proved effective against other cancers seem to be powerless against them. Researchers at the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel have now described how to improve the immune system’s chances against this type of tumor.

Groundbreaking method offers a fast and cost-effective way to observe abnormal metabolic processes live in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner / Production of biological contrast agents / Publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition

A research team at Helmholtz Munich revealed a specific mechanism that is able to promote cell death in cancer cells by pharmacological targeting of a ferroptosis surveillance system.

A team of researchers led by Dr. Marcus Conrad from Helmholtz Munich discovered a novel anti-cancer drug, called icFSP1, which sensitizes cancer cells to ferroptosis.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg has gained new insights into how inflammatory mediators of pathogen defense can remotely drive cancer cells into death – an important contribution to improving cancer immunotherapies.

The spliceosome is the molecular machine in our cells that puts the blueprints for proteins into a readable form. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen (Germany) and the Institute for Cancer Research (ICR) in London (UK) have now uncovered the crucial step that switches on the spliceosome. As they have shown, this macromolecular machine is activated by two molecular motors. The findings from the study could provide new approaches to improve potential cancer drugs that target the splicing process.

Das Spleißosom ist die molekulare Maschine in unseren Zellen, die die Bauanleitungen für Proteine in eine lesbare Form bringt. Forschende am Göttinger Max-Planck-Institut (MPI) für Multidisziplinäre Naturwissenschaften und am Institute for Cancer Research (ICR) in London (Großbritannien) haben jetzt den entscheidenden Schritt aufgedeckt, der das Spleißosom anschaltet. Wie sie zeigen konnten, wird es durch zwei molekulare Motoren aktiviert. Die Erkenntnisse aus der Studie könnten neue Ansätze liefern, um potenzielle Krebsmedikamente zu verbessern, die auf den Spleiß-Prozess abzielen.

More heat-related deaths, new and increasing infectious diseases, increased exposure to allergens, a rise in antibiotic resistance, more lung diseases as a result of increasing air pollution, more skin cancer due to increased UV radiation – these are some of the negative consequences of climate change for public health. A new report, coordinated by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), provides an overview of the health impacts of climate change and ways to counteract them. The publication was coordinated through the project KlimGesundAkt, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Health.

The cancer gene MYC drives unrestrained growth of most human cancers. It has been called the “Mount Everest” of cancer research because of the difficulty of designing medications that can disable it, and the expectation that an effective MYC drug could help so many cancer patients. Research groups from the The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute in Florida, the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund and the University of Münster have joined forces and climbed that peak by developing Nature-inspired compounds chopping up MYC’s RNA. This innovative RNA degrader approach could also open new routes to summit other similarly hard-to-treat diseases.