To prevent our body’s cells from overflowing with garbage and to keep them healthy, the waste inside them is constantly being disposed of. This cleaning process is called autophagy. Scientists have now, for the first time, rebuilt the complex nanomachine in the laboratory that starts this process – and it works quite differently from other cellular machines. The researchers’ new insights could help open up new approaches for the treatment of cancer, immune disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases in the future, and possibly even delay aging.

Anlässlich des „European Cancer Nursing Day“ am 18. Mai 2023 präsentiert die Universitätsmedizin Halle „GRAN-ONCO“ – die erste Forschungsagenda für die onkologische Pflege in Deutschland.

An international team of researchers from the University of Georgia, USA, and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, presents a promising strategy for elucidating metabolic pathways for plant compounds of medicinal importance. The research team studied the biosynthesis of two alkaloids from the plant Catharanthus roseus that are used in human medicine as anti-cancer agents. By using single-cell analyses, the scientists were able to discover new genes important for biosynthesis and show that the intermediates of the metabolic pathway accumulate in specific cell types.

Should patients over the age of 70 with head and neck cancer receive aggressive combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy? This is a controversial issue among patients, their families and health professionals. A large-scale international study involving Leipzig University Hospital proves the effectiveness of this combined treatment in older patients. The findings have recently been published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

How do the nerve cells in our brain communicate with each other? What processes take place when T cells render cancer cells harmless? Details of the mechanisms at the cellular level remain hidden from view. Now, special reporter proteins developed by a research team led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) may help unveil these mechanisms.

«Physics against cancer» ist ein Buch über die Entstehung der Protonentherapie am Paul Scherrer Institut PSI.

Ein Konsortium der Onkologischen Spitzenzentren (Comprehensive Cancer Center) in Dresden, Frankfurt-Marburg und Leipzig/Jena entwickelt eine neuartige Gentherapie zur Behandlung eines besonders bösartigen hirneigenen Tumors (Glioblastom). Ziel ist es, gleichzeitig ein Tumor-unterdrückendes Gen (p53) in die Krebszellen einzuschleusen und Mechanismen zu unterbinden, welche die Genfunktion blockieren können. Hierfür entwickeln die Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler unter anderem ein neues Nanopartikel-Transportsystem.

Almost every fourth person who dies of cancer has a hollow organ tumour, for example in the bile duct or in the oesophagus. Such a tumour cannot usually be removed surgically. It is only possible to open the hollow organ for a short time using a stent, i.e. a tube-shaped prosthesis. However, the tumour grows back and penetrates the hollow organ through the stent. Ioana Slabu from the Institute of Applied Medical Technology and Benedict Bauer from the Institut für Textiltechnik of RWTH Aachen University have now developed a novel technology for the therapy of hollow organ tumours, which was awarded second place in the RWTH Innovation Award.

Damage in the human genome can be repaired. But this works better in germ cells, sperm and eggs, than in normal body cells. Responsible for this is the DREAM protein complex, which prevents the activation of all available repair mechanisms. A research team at the University of Cologne has now shown that normal body cells can also be repaired better once this complex has been deactivated. In the long run, the scientists hope to develop better therapies to prevent cancer and aging-associated diseases. They describe their results in ‘Nature Structural & Molecular Biology’

For in vivo studies of internal processes in an organism, body pigmentation is a considerable limitation. To circumvent this, various transparent fish models have already been generated, and are used in cancer research, among other things. In research on aging, however, these fish are rarely being used due to their relatively long lifespan of up to five years. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) in Jena have now succeeded, with the help of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, in generating a transparent killifish (N. furzeri) called “klara”, which, with a maximum lifespan of only one year, is ideal for in vivo studies of age-related processes.

Resistance to HER2-targeted therapies can be a problem when treating patients with HER2-positive (HER2+) breast cancer. Therefore, the identification of new therapies for this patient group is important. Researchers at the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environments and Human Factors in Dortmund (IfADo) have already shown that the enzyme EDI3 is associated with changes in the metabolism of cancer cells. Their most recent results reveal that inhibiting EDI3 may be a new therapeutic target in patients with therapy-resistant ER-HER2+ breast cancer.

The accumulation of the metabolite fumarate in the mitochondrion, the powerhouse of a cell, can cause inflammation associated with diseases such as cancer and autoimmune diseases / Publication in Nature

RIANA Therapeutics, a promising pharmaceutical start-up recently spun out of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (Vetmeduni), aims to develop novel therapeutics for cancer patients based in part on scientific findings from Vetmeduni’s Moriggl research group (Moriggl Lab). The technological basis is a proprietary platform technology for the discovery of drugs that target cancer-causing protein-protein interactions (PPIs).

Kiel research team discovers links between certain gene mutation and the spatial structure of DNA in blood cancer at an advanced age

Hollow spheres made of MYC proteins open new doors in cancer research. Würzburg scientists have discovered them and report about this breakthrough in the journal „Nature“.

Researchers at Georg-Speyer-Haus and Goethe University Frankfurt have discovered a new mechanism that explains why only some of the cells in a colon tumour respond to chemotherapy. The research team led by Professor Florian Greten was able to establish that tumour cells dying off during chemotherapy communicate one last time with neighbouring tumour cells to give them instructions on how to resist the therapy. The dying cells re-programme the signalling cascades in the neighbouring tumour cells in such a way that these are no longer vulnerable to chemotherapy. By doing so, the dying cells literally ensure that the tumour survives.

A study examined the differences in intratumoral immune responses between male and female cancers of non-reproductive origin.

Melanoma is a somewhat unusual cancer — one that blooms before our very eyes, often on sun-exposed skin, and can quickly become deadly as it turns our own skin against us and spreads to other organs. Fortunately, when caught early, melanoma can often be cured by simple surgery, and there are now better treatments for advanced cases, including immunotherapies that prime a patient’s immune system to fight off the cancer. However, much remains unknown about melanoma, including the details of how it develops in the earliest stages, and how to best identify and treat the most dangerous early cases. Spatial maps of melanoma reveal how individual cells interact as cancer progresses.

Researchers want to improve their understanding of the immune environment in ovarian cancer in hopes of making immunotherapy an option for these patients. Researchers now report on key characteristics of immune cells in ovarian cancer and identify cell types important for mediating an immune response.

Researchers have devised an immunotherapy technique that combines chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy, or CAR-T cell therapy, with a cancer-killing virus to more effectively target and treat solid cancer tumors.

Cancer cells can disrupt a metabolic pathway that breaks down fats and proteins to boost the levels of a byproduct called methylmalonic acid, thereby driving metastasis, according to new research. The findings open a new lead for understanding how tumors metastasize, or spread to other tissues, and hints at novel ways to block the spread of cancer by targeting the process.

A new study suggests that people with cancer and non-O blood types, such as types A, B, and AB, face an increased risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE), or blood clots in the veins, three months after their initial diagnosis. Scientists have long strived to understand the risk factors for VTE, the leading cause of preventable hospital deaths in the United States. Existing assessments use factors like tumor or cancer type to detect those at high risk of VTE. Yet, many patients without these diagnoses still develop life-threatening blood clots but go unidentified.

Cellular biologists discover why some patients become resistant to standard treatments for nonsmall cell lung cancer.

Researchers have developed a new computational tool to select optimal combination therapies for patients with cancer based on the co-occurring alterations in a given tumor.

For cancer patients, COVID-19 poses a particular risk due to their often compromised immune systems. Now, a study shows that, due to Omicron, there is an increasing number of breakthrough infections in people with cancer, especially while they are undergoing cancer therapy.