about this blog

this is merely to denote myself about my body.

mainly on the record of some morphological, anatomial, and medical aspects.
[since 2010.05.24]
主要是記述在我學我的身體時得到的一些拉七拉雜的資料,不過我想可能不是對我自己有用而已,所以有一些我會多多少少地改成中文化。all the news may be the important informations so i would translate to short notes here. [2010.05.29]

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Molecular Switch Identified That Controls Key Cellular Process: Gives Insight Into Cancer

ScienceDaily (Aug. 1, 2012) — The body has a built-in system known as autophagy, or 'self-eating,' that controls how cells live or die. Deregulation of autophagy is linked to the development of human diseases, including neural degeneration and cancer.




  • 研究團隊discovered a critical molecular switch that regulates autophagy. They also studied the links between autophagy and a cellular process called senescence that stops cell growth permanently. 
  • ASPP2, a tumor suppressor, as a molecular switch that can dictate the ability of a common cancer gene, known as the RAS oncogene, to either stop or promote senescence. 
  • We found that in the presence of the common cancer-causing RAS oncogene, ASPP2 interacted with a protein complex that is responsible for deciding cell fate via autophagy. [oncogene: A gene that in certain circumstances can transform a cell into a tumor cell]
  • Some of the recently developed anti-cancer drugs are potent inducers of autophagy. The new findings may also offer an explanation as to why patient response to these drugs can vary dramatically. 



Journal Reference:
  1. Y. Wang, X. D. Wang, E. Lapi, A. Sullivan, W. Jia, Y.-W. He, I. Ratnayaka, S. Zhong, R. D. Goldin, C. G. Goemans, A. M. Tolkovsky, X. Lu. Autophagic activity dictates the cellular response to oncogenic RASProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI:10.1073/pnas.1120193109








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