Drug for breast cancer gene

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved drug  for treating metastatic breast cancers linked to the BRCA gene mutation. These mutated genes, called BRCA1 and BRCA2, first came to prominence in five years ago. According to FDA, expanding approval of Lynparza (olaparib) to include use against BRCA-linked tumors that have spread beyond the breast. Lynparza is one of a group of powerful new cancer drugs known as PARP inhibitors, and it's the first such drug to be approved for use against breast cancer.

 This approval demonstrates the current paradigm of developing drugs that target the underlying genetic causes of a cancer, often across cancer types. BRCA mutations are involved in up to one in every four breast cancers that are thought to have a hereditary component. These aberrant genes are also implicated in between 5 and 10 percent of non-hereditary breast tumors. When it's functioning properly, BRCA actually helps repair damaged cellular DNA and prevent tumors, but when BRCA1 and BRCA2 go awry they instead encourage breast cancers.

PARP inhibitor medicines such as Lynparza appear to interfere with the function of mutated BRCA with breast cells, causing them to die rather replicate-slowing tumor growth. The safety and effectiveness of Lynparza for women with advanced BRCA-linked breast cancers was established after a trial on patients. The trial measured the length of time the tumors did not have significant growth after treatment. The median progression-free survival for patients taking Lynparza was 7 months compared to 4.2months for patients taking chemotherapy only.

Common side effects of Lynparza include anemia, low white blood cell counts, nausea, fatigue, vomiting, headache, joint pain, increased susceptibility to colds and other respiratory tract infections, and other effects. Because Lynparza can harm a developing fetus, women are advised to use contraception while on the drug. Women should also not breast-feed while using Lynparza.
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Effects of repeated alcohol comsumption on the brain

Drinking more than one glass of wine a night is enough to kill cells in key regions of a woman's brain. A study on mice found that drinking alcohol is damaging to the subventricular region of the brain, where new brain cells are created to sustain brain function, and protect against tumors and neurodegenerative diseases.

Research showed that female brains displayed more severe deficits after drinking than males, who would need more than 14 drinks a week to suffer significant damage. Prolonged alcohol abuse can cause severe brain damage and neurodegeneration. The number of nerve cells in the adult brain was fixed early in life and the best way to treat alcohol-induced brain damage was to protect the remaining nerve cells.

Research has shown that adult brains produce stem cells that create new nerve cells and alcohol is suppressing that process. Researchers used a technique that allowed them to tag brain stem cells and observe how they migrate and develop into nerve cells over time. This allowed them to study the impact of long-term alcohol consumption on the cells.

The female brains displayed more severe intoxication behaviors and greatly reduced the pool of stem cells in the subventricular zone, where the new cells are generated. The findings show that the effects of repeated alcohol consumption differed across brain regions. And the region most susceptible to the effects of alcohol was one of two brain regions where new cells are created in adults.

Drinking a glass of wine, or five ounces with a 12 percent alcohol content, can lower one's risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, research found. But the report does warn that heavy drinking increases the risk of mortality and the development life-threatening illnesses.
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Mylotarg for treating acute myeloid leukemia

Mylotarg (gemtuzumab ozogamicin) has been approved for the treatment of adults with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia whose tumors express the CD33 antigen (CD33-positive AML).

AML is a rapidly progressing cancer that forms in the bone marrow and results in an increased number of white blood cells in the bloodstream.

Mylotarg is a targeted therapy that consists of an antibody connected to an anti-tumor agent that is toxic to cells. It is thought to work by taking the anti-tumor agent to the AML cells that express the CD33 antigen, blocking the growth of cancerous cells and causing cell death.

Common side effects of Mylotarg are fever, nausea, infection, vomiting, bleeding, low levels of platelets in the blood, swelling and sores in the mouth, constipation, rash, headache, liver damage, and low levels of certain white blood cells.
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Stress hormone reduced the effectiveness of cancer treatment

Stress reduction therapy is very important for cancer patients, stress hormones during treatment can prevent the cancerous cells in the body from dividing and reacting.

These hormones prevent the growing tumors from being treated by the cancer drugs that are used for the patients. Stress reduction therapy is essential during cancer treatment to promote the success of the drugs and cancer treatment.

Chemotherapy method of cancer treatment targets rapidly dividing cells, cells exposed to stress hormones such as cortisol and norepinephrine generate destructive DNA damaging free radicals molecules.

This causes the cells temporarily to stop their relentless cell division as DNA repair mechanisms starts and protects the tumors from the lethal effects of chemotherapy.

Stressed mice with breast cancer produced higher levels of a nitric oxide-generating enzyme iNOS in their tumors. Greater iNOS activity leads to more aggressive breast cancer.
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DNA sensor and cancer immunotherapy

Tumors stressed by cancer immunotherapy release their mitochondrial DNA into the closer immune cells, causing a host alert system. The chemical alert through the molecule cGAS is an important immune-system sensor for DNA that is in the interior of cells, the cytosol, where DNA should not exist. 

 cGAS connected the innate immune system, which senses initial threats; and the adaptive immune system, which amplifies the anti-tumor response after getting the alert from the innate immune system. The adaptive system battles recurring threats from pathogens. Checkpoints are molecular barriers that cancer cells produce to make themselves undetectable to the immune system. The plan of immunotherapy is to make the cancers detectable.

Current immune checkpoint blockade therapy has been life-extending for many people. The drug targets CD47, a cell surface protein highly expressed in some tumor cells. CD47 signal to block immune cells from killing the cancer cells. cGAS as an innate immune sensor of DNA led to speculation that inhibition of cytosolic DNA sensing could represent a strategy tumor cells used to evade the immune system.

CD47 is found in every cell of the body, and it has long been known that many kinds of cancer cells produce higher amounts of CD47 than healthy cells. CD47 signal helps cancer cells evade detection from the immune system's killer T-cells.

The higher the levels of CD47 found in tumors, the poorer the prognosis for many cancers. Using mouse cells,
the researchers discovered that when cancer cells are stressed by an experimental anti-CD47 immunotherapy, it leaks DNA into nearby dendritic cells, which present antigens to killer T-cells and are considered a bridge between the innate and adaptive immune systems.

 The DNA sensor cGAS sounds the alarm inside those dendritic cells, setting off a signaling cascade that alerts the
immune system and unleashes the cancer-killing T-cells. cGAS is essential for cancer immunotherapy by immune checkpoint blockade. Activating DNA comes from the mitochondria of the cancer cells. Tumor-originated mtDNA was recognized by the DNA sensor cGAS in dendritic cells during anti-CD47 treatment.

 cGAS-STING-IRF3 signaling pathway plays a critical role to drive robust innate and adaptive immune response upon anti-CD47 therapy. Understanding this mechanism of anti-CD47 therapy may make it possible to design new combination strategies to improve current immune checkpoint blockade therapies by modulating the innate sensing of mtDNA.
       

How to break sugar addiction

Insomnia, regular breakouts, craving for sweet and exhausted taste buds may be an indicator that you are suffering from a sugar addiction.

 Sugar addiction can leads to overweight and obesity. Excessive sugar consumption in different forms destroys body systems generally.

Acne is an indication that there is too much sugar in the diet, damage to the skin proteins, collagen and elastin, leading to premature wrinkles and aging.

Change in taste bud; taste buds are addicted to sweet foods and may not want any food that is not sweet.

Diet high in sugar can increase cancer growth; tumors used sugar as energy to mutate and spread across the body.

Bacteria in the mouth feeds on sugars which creates harmful acids causing tooth decay, destroy tooth enamel and form hole in the tooth.

The pancreas releases insulin to transfer glucose to the cell's after consuming sugar, the higher the sugar peak, the more extreme the sugar dip that will follow.

Sugar interrupts the supply of important neurotransmitter precursors through the blood-brain barrier - and particularly ones that help produce serotonin and dopamine, which influence mood.

Excess sugar consumption decrease the amount of good cholesterol in the bloodstream and increase the amount of bad cholesterol in the body, leading to heart disease.

The liver struggles to process excessive amounts of sugar. The unprocessed sugars are converted to fat calls, which are distributed throughout the body. It can leads to obesity.

Too much sugar in the body can cause bacteria to move from the colon to the small intestine, proliferate on the foods digesting in the small intestine and cause bloating, acid reflux, gas and abdominal cramping.

Sugar can be remove from the body by replacing process foods with whole foods and by replacing all processed drinks with water.
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Facts about glioblastoma

Glioblastoma GBM is the most aggressive tumor that can form in the brain. Glioblastomas are tumors that developed from astrocytes- supportive tissue of the brain.

Glioblastomas are found in the cerebral hemispheres of the brain, but can be found anywhere in the brain or spinal cord. It can cause brain bleeding, which may have been related to the clot.

These tumors are cancerous because the cells reproduce quickly and they are supported by a large network of blood vessels.

There two types of glioblastoma
Primary - The tumors are common and very aggressive.
Secondary - These tumors have slower growth rate and very aggressive.

Common symptoms are - headache, nausea, vomiting, and drowsiness. Depending on the location of the tumor, patients can develop different symptoms like weakness on one side of the body, memory and speech difficulties, and visual changes.

The exact cause of glioblastoma is not known. It can be difficult to treat because the tumors contain so many different types of cells. Some cells may respond very well to certain therapies, while others may not be improve.

However, because of the way it spreads, it is impossible to remove every microscopic growth from the brain. Therefore, it will continue to grow.

Radiation and chemotherapy may be used to slow the growth of tumors that cannot be removed with surgery.
Patients have a ten percent chance of surviving five years after their diagnosis.
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Cannibal cells prevents cancer growth

Cell cannibalism, also known as entosis, occurs when closer cell kills and digests another cell. Entosis occurs in tumours, it can be triggered when one cell divides to form two.

Cell cannibalism is linked with cancer, dividing cells are cannibalism that kill cancerous cells, this shows that entosis may prevent cancer by causing cancer cells to be destroyed by closer healthy cells.

 Weakened attachments result in multiple cell cannibalism, drugs that weaken cell attachments are  anti-cancer drugs, they are effective for cancer treatment.
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Chemotherapy may cause spread of cancer

Chemotherapy can be administered as a pill or through an intra-venous drip.
The drugs move throughout the body in the bloodstream.

 The procedure is recommended for breast cancer in order to shrink the tumors and prevent further spread of the cancer to different parts of the body.

The process shrinks tumors and allows some tumors to spread into the blood system, become resistant to chemotherapy and spread to other organs in the body.

 Stage 4 cancer is very difficult to treat because the cancer would have spread to other organs and be more aggressive and resistant to treatment. Additional therapy may be added to chemotherapy to prevent the spread of tumour.
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New method of using T-cell therapy to treat cancer

Scientists have empowered immune cells with a new surface molecule that makes the cells to respond aggressively when they encounter a protein that tumors use to camouflage themselves from the immune system.

Cancer develop from the body's own cells, this make it difficult for the immune system to differentiate between good cells cancer cells.

 Adoptive T-cell therapy is the removing of immune cells from the body and genetically strengthen them. The cells are given new structures on the surface that accurately lead them to the cancer cells.

The binding  activates the T-cell's killer program, making it strong enough to destroyed more tumor cells.



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