Cancer articles within Nature

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  • Letter |

    The retinoblastoma tumour suppressor protein pRb can suppress the activity of certain transcription factors and potentiate the activity of others, and has been shown to affect the differentiation of different cell lineages in vitro. These authors show that the Rb gene has a role in driving bone cell formation or brown adipose tissue formation in vivo.

    • Eliezer Calo
    • , Jose A. Quintero-Estades
    •  & Jacqueline A. Lees

  • Letter |

    These authors performed a large-scale study in which they identified 2,576 somatic mutations across 1,507 coding genes from 441 breast, lung, ovarian and prostate cancer types and subtypes. The study provides an overview of the mutational spectra across major human cancers, implies an expanded role for Gα subunits in multiple cancer types and identifies several potential therapeutic targets.

    • Zhengyan Kan
    • , Bijay S. Jaiswal
    •  & Somasekar Seshagiri

  • Letter |

    Ependymoma is a type of neural tumour that arises throughout the central nervous system. Using comparative transcriptomics in mouse and human tumours, these authors home in on mutations that are specific to individual tumour subgroups. In doing so, they generate the first mouse model of ependymoma and demonstrate the power of interspecific genomic comparisons to interrogate cancer subgroups.

    • Robert A. Johnson
    • , Karen D. Wright
    •  & Richard J. Gilbertson

  • Letter |

    Chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) can progress from a chronic to an acute phase. These authors show in mouse models that leukaemia progression is controlled by the cell-fate regulator Musashi2, which in turn regulates Numb, Notch and p53 to block cellular differentiation. Musashi2 expression can be increased by aberrant transcription factors found in leukaemia, is observed during cancer progression in human CML patients and is associated with poorer prognosis.

    • Takahiro Ito
    • , Hyog Young Kwon
    •  & Tannishtha Reya

  • Letter |

    Here the authors show that in non-excitable LNCaP prostate cancer cells, the large-conductance, voltage- and calcium-activated potassium (BK) channel can be activated at negative voltages without rises in intracellular Ca2+ concentration, by interacting with an auxiliary protein, the leucine-rich repeat containing protein 26. This auxiliary protein modulates BK channel gating by enhancing the allosteric coupling between voltage-sensor activation and the channel's closed–open transition.

    • Jiusheng Yan
    •  & Richard W. Aldrich

  • Editorial |

    Much tighter regulations are needed to reap the full benefits of stem-cell treatments.

  • News & Views |

    Tumour cells are non-uniform. The question is whether a distinct subpopulation of the cells drives tumour growth and generates cellular variation. To answer this, the data must be interpreted carefully.

    • Peter Dirks

  • Article |

    Ultraviolet radiation causes damage to DNA in skin cells, blocking DNA replication and causing mutations that can lead to cancer. One way in which the cell deals with such damage involves specialized DNA polymerases, such as Polη, that can bypass lesions. Here the crystal structure is presented of Pol? in complex with a thymine–thymine dimer and with undamaged DNA. The bulky thymine dimer is accommodated in an atypically large active site, and stabilized by interactions not found in other polymerases.

    • Timothy D. Silverstein
    • , Robert E. Johnson
    •  & Aneel K. Aggarwal

  • Article |

    The canonical role of messenger RNA (mRNA) is in protein coding and synthesis. But could mRNAs also have a role that is related to their ability to compete for microRNA binding? Here, the functional relationship between the mRNAs produced by the PTEN tumour suppressor gene and its pseudogene PTENP1 is investigated. The results suggest that pseudogenes have a biological function, in sequestering microRNAs and so affecting their regulation of gene expression.

    • Laura Poliseno
    • , Leonardo Salmena
    •  & Pier Paolo Pandolfi

  • News & Views |

    Pseudogenes are considered to be defunct relatives of known genes. But there is some surprising news: pseudogenes are functional and could have a role in the control of cancer1. Two experts discuss the significance of these findings for understanding the regulation of gene expression and cancer biology.

    • Isidore Rigoutsos
    •  & Frank Furnari

  • Letter |

    Reproductive history influences breast cancer risk but the cellular mechanisms are unclear. Here it is shown that ovarian hormones regulate the size of the mammary stem cell pool in mice. The size of this pool increases when progesterone levels increase during the reproductive cycle. Progesterone probably regulates stem cell numbers through a paracrine mechanism involving induction of RANKL and Wnt in luminal cells.

    • Purna A. Joshi
    • , Hartland W. Jackson
    •  & Rama Khokha

  • Letter |

    Down's syndrome is caused by trisomy of chromosome 21, and it is known that the growth of certain tumours is reduced in this genetic disorder. Using a mouse model of Down's syndrome, several individual genes on chromosome 21 are now being proposed to mediate the effect on tumour growth and angiogenesis.

    • Louise E. Reynolds
    • , Alan R. Watson
    •  & Kairbaan M. Hodivala-Dilke

  • News & Views |

    The steroid hormones oestrogen and progesterone have a role in sickness and in health. In breast tissue, both roles probably work through a single mechanism: controlling the number and activity of mammary stem cells.

    • John P. Lydon

  • Article |

    When oxygen levels drop in a tissue, the transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is activated to regulate the cellular response. HIFα levels are increased in most solid tumours and this correlates with a poor prognosis, for unknown reasons. Here it is shown that HIF-1, the worm version of HIFα, protects germ cells from DNA-damage-induced death. It does this remotely, by increasing the production of the TYR-2 protein in distant neurons. Inhibiting a human TYR-2 homologue promotes apoptosis in melanoma cells.

    • Ataman Sendoel
    • , Ines Kohler
    •  & Michael O. Hengartner

  • News & Views |

    In worms, neurons respond to low levels of environmental oxygen in a way that protects distant tissues from stress-induced cell death. The molecules that mediate this cell-cell signalling may be targets for cancer treatment.

    • Jo Anne Powell-Coffman
    •  & Clark R. Coffman

  • News and Views Q&A |

    Interest in the abnormal metabolism exhibited by cancer cells has been reawakened by the discovery of oncogenic mutations in metabolic enzymes, and by tools that monitor metabolism in living cells. Existing and emerging therapies aim to target this abnormal metabolism in various ways.

    • William G. Kaelin Jr
    •  & Craig B. Thompson

  • Letter |

    Complete genome sequencing has already provided insights into the mutation spectra of several cancer types. Here, the first complete sequences are provided of a primary lung tumour and adjacent normal tissue. Comparison of the two reveals a variety of somatic mutations in the cancer genome, including changes in the KRAS proto-oncogene. The results reveal a distinct pattern of selection against mutations within expressed genes compared to non-expressed genes, and selection against mutations in promoter regions.

    • William Lee
    • , Zhaoshi Jiang
    •  & Zemin Zhang

  • Letter |

    CD95 is a classical death receptor protein that regulates tissue homeostasis by inducing cell death. Here it is shown, however, that cancer cells depend on CD95 for optimal growth. Without CD95, the incidence of ovarian cancer and liver cancer in mice is reduced, as is the size of any tumours. So CD95 is a double-edged sword, and it may be necessary to reduce, rather than enhance, its activity in order to kill tumour cells.

    • Lina Chen
    • , Sun-Mi Park
    •  & Marcus E. Peter

  • News & Views |

    Paradoxically, the CD95 receptor, a potent inducer of apoptotic cell death, is expressed on most tumour cells. Surprisingly, it turns out to be an important promoter of various cancers.

    • Douglas R. Green

  • Letter |

    Calcineurin inhibitors are the mainstay of immunosuppressive treatment for organ transplant recipients. However, treatment with these drugs commonly leads to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the skin. It is shown here that an intact calcineurin/NFAT signalling pathway is important for suppressing SCC development. Inhibition of this pathway leads to increased expression of the ATF3 protein, which has a key role in tumorigenesis.

    • Xunwei Wu
    • , Bach-Cuc Nguyen
    •  & G. Paolo Dotto

  • Editorial |

    The United States should protect investments used to find new uses for old drugs.

  • Letter |

    The main reason why tumours are not controlled by the immune system is that they do not express potent tumour rejection antigens. Tumour vaccination aims to provoke a response to any antigens that are expressed. Here, a new approach is described: nonsense-mediated messenger RNA decay in tumour cells is inhibited, leading to the expression of new antigens and to significant inhibition of tumour growth in mice.

    • Fernando Pastor
    • , Despina Kolonias
    •  & Eli Gilboa

  • Letter |

    The protein ephrin-B2 is known to be upregulated during angiogenesis — the growth of new blood vessels — but its precise function has been unclear. Here it is shown that signalling through ephrin-B2 controls vessel sprouting. Mechanistically, ephrin-B2 seems to function in part by regulating the internalization of vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFRs). The results indicate that blocking ephrin-B2 signalling might be an alternative to blocking VEGFR function to disrupt angiogenesis in tumours.

    • Suphansa Sawamiphak
    • , Sascha Seidel
    •  & Amparo Acker-Palmer

  • Journal Club |

    • Jean-Christophe Marine

  • Article |

    Massively parallel DNA sequencing allows entire genomes to be screened for genetic changes associated with tumour progression. Here, the genomes of four DNA samples from a 44-year-old African-American patient with basal-like breast cancer were analysed. The samples came from peripheral blood, the primary tumour, a brain metastasis and a xenograft derived from the primary tumour. The findings indicate that cells with a distinct subset of the primary tumour mutation might be selected during metastasis and xenografting.

    • Li Ding
    • , Matthew J. Ellis
    •  & Elaine R. Mardis

  • Letter |

    Analogues of migrastatin — a natural product secreted by Streptomyces — are potent inhibitors of tumour cell migration and metastasis. Here, the underlying mechanism is elucidated: these migrastatin analogues target and inhibit the activity of the actin-bundling protein fascin. Hence proteins such as fascin might present new molecular targets for cancer treatments.

    • Lin Chen
    • , Shengyu Yang
    •  & Xin-Yun Huang

  • Letter |

    The four receptors of the Notch family are transmembrane proteins through which mammalian cells communicate to regulate cell fate and growth. Aberrant signalling through each receptor has been linked to disease, so the Notch pathway is a compelling drug target. But current drugs cannot distinguish between the different Notch proteins. Here, phage display technology has been used to generate highly specialized antibodies, enabling the functions of Notch1 and Notch2 to be discriminated in humans and mice.

    • Yan Wu
    • , Carol Cain-Hom
    •  & Christian W. Siebel

  • Letter |

    Large intervening non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) are pervasively transcribed in the genome. Here it is shown that lincRNAs in the HOX genetic loci are dysregulated during breast cancer progression in human cells, and that expression levels of the lincRNA called HOTAIR can predict whether a tumour will metastasize. Moreover, enforced expression of HOTAIR can lead to altered patterns of binding of the PRC2 protein to the genome.

    • Rajnish A. Gupta
    • , Nilay Shah
    •  & Howard Y. Chang

  • News Feature |

    Databases could soon be flooded with genome sequences from 25,000 tumours. Heidi Ledford looks at the obstacles researchers face as they search for meaning in the data.

    • Heidi Ledford

  • News & Views |

    Cancer cells that invade other parts of the body do so by accumulating genomic aberrations. Analysis of the genomic differences between primary and metastatic tumours should aid the understanding of this process.

    • Joe Gray

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