Fusion of Cancer Cell and White Blood Cell Gives Rise to Metastatic Tumor

by Kathy Jones on? July 05, 2013 at 10:30 PM Cancer News The fusion of a leukocyte, or white blood cell, and a cancer cell that leads to the formation of a genetic hybrid, was found to increase the risk of human metastatic tumor, a joint study conducted by researchers at Yale Cancer Center, Denver Police Crime Lab and the University of Colorado reveals.
Their study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, may answer the question of how cancer cells travel from the primary tumor's site of origin to distant organs and tissues of the body ? the deadly process of metastasis.

Such a theory was first proposed as an explanation for metastasis more than a century ago. But until now, the theory was unproven in human cancer because genomic differences between cells from the same patient cannot be distinguished. To get around this problem, the researchers analyzed genomic DNA in the secondary malignancies of a patient who had a melanoma brain metastasis and had received a bone marrow transplant from his brother.

They found signature genes from both the patient and donor together in the tumor cells, providing the first evidence that leukocytes (in this case from the donor) can fuse with cancer cells and initiate a tumor.

"Our results provide the first proof in humans of a theory, proposed in 1911 by a German pathologist, that metastasis can occur when a leukocyte and cancer cell fuse and form a genetic hybrid," said corresponding author John Pawelek, research faculty in the dermatology department of the Yale School of Medicine. "This could open the way to new therapy targets, but much work needs to be done to determine how fusion occurs, the frequency of such hybrids in human cancers, and the potential role of hybrids in metastasis," he added.

Source-Eurekalert

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Mom Gives Birth to Baby Girl While Technically Dead

Erica Nigrelli was teaching a class in February when she fainted. Erica was 36 weeks into her pregnancy and her husband and fellow teacher, Nathan, desperately called emergency services and said that she was foaming from her mouth and was unresponsive.

Her colleagues tried to revive her through CPR and defibrillators and by the time she reached the hospital, the doctors were unable to find a pulse and decided to deliver the baby through C-section. However Erica's heart soon started to beat again and though she was in induced coma for five days after the birth of her daughter, she soon recovered and is back with her family.

"The doctors told me that Erica delivered post-mortem because she did not have a heartbeat when they took the baby out. But I married a fighter, and now I had a baby girl who was a fighter, too", Nathan said.

Source-Medindia

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Report Gives An Explanation For How We Focus and Concentrate

By changing the way neurons respond to external stimuli we improve our perceptual abilities. While these changes can affect the strength of a neuronal response, they can also affect the fidelity of that response.

Lead author Alex Thiele, Professor of Visual Neuroscience explains: "When you communicate with others, you can make yourself better heard by speaking louder or by speaking more clearly. Neurons appear to do similar things when we're paying attention. They send their message more intensely to their partners, which compares to speaking louder. But more importantly, they also increase the fidelity of their message, which compares to speaking more clearly.

"Our earlier work has shown that attention is able to affect the intensity of responses - in effect the loudness - by means of the brain chemical acetylcholine. Now we have shown that the fidelity of the response is altered by a different brain chemical system."

In the paper, the team reveal that the quality of the response is altered by means of glutamate coupling to NMDA receptors (a molecular device that mediates communication between neurons). Carried out in a primate model, these studies for the first time isolate different attention mechanisms at the receptor level.

The research has potentially significant implications not only for our understanding of how our brains work but also give an insight into conditions such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and attention deficit disorder, and may aid in the development of treatments for them.

Source-Eurekalert

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