致癌剂唤醒沉睡的基因

按定义癌细胞是多细胞生物体中行为不受正常细胞调控机理控制的异常细胞。最近的研究戏剧性地表明,使细胞发生癌变的方法之一是激活细胞的致癌基因--这种基因在正常细胞中多少是失活的,但在肿瘤细胞中看来已发生改变或被激活。南加利福尼亚大学的两个美国人WiIson和Jones提出证据证明化学致癌剂的作用之一可能是干扰了使致癌基因及其它细胞基因置于正常控制之下的机理。     

Molecular cell:切断癌细胞备用能源“饿”死癌细胞

正科学家们通过阻断肺癌细胞对备用营养物质的使用,找到了阻止肺癌细胞生长的新方法。相关研究结果发表在国际学术期刊molecular cell上,这项研究为肺癌治疗提供了新的方向。癌细胞到底"吃"什么癌细胞的代谢过程与正常细胞有很大不同。细胞的快速增殖意味着癌细胞对能量的需求会显著增加,而葡萄糖是癌细胞的主要营养来源,它们对葡萄糖的利用速率是正常细胞的几十倍甚至几百倍。但当葡萄糖变得缺乏,癌细胞就必须转而使用备用营养物质以维持细胞生长和存活。     

AT细胞DNA双链断裂重接修复效率及其忠实性

用脉冲电场凝胶电泳和双标记基因质粒ＤＮＡ转染技术研究辐射敏感的毛细血管扩张性共济失调症患者皮肤成纤维细胞（ＡＴ５ＢＩＶＡ）和正常辐射抗性的人宫颈癌细胞（ＨｅＬａＳ３）ＤＮＡ双链断裂重接修复率及其忠实性。结果表明γ射线照射诱发ＤＮＡ双链断裂的产额和重接修复率,在两株细胞间无差别．而ＡＴ细胞对导入的限制性内切酶ＥｃｏＲＶ产生双链断裂质粒ＤＮＡ的重接修复忠实性显著低于ＨｅｌａＳ３ｔｅ胞,表明ＡＴ细胞易发生ＤＮＡ错误修复,这很可能就是ＡＴ细胞高度辐射敏感性的主要原因。     

征服癌症的双刃刀--Rad51 D蛋白

人类Rad5l蛋白是同源重组的关键酶,发挥着链转移或链交换活性,启动DNA同源配对的作用。Rad51D蛋白是Rad51蛋白的5种同源物之一,对细胞调节有正反两种作用机制一方面作为辅助因子参与DNA修复同源重组,维持正常细胞周期;另一方面又是诱发癌症病变,防止癌细胞衰老的因素之一。Rad51D蛋白对细胞的作用机制,是人类征服癌症的双刃刀,如果阻止癌细胞的Rad51D蛋白作用可以促进癌细胞的死亡;而同时Rad51D蛋白作用的减弱将使细胞发生周期紊乱,产生新的病变。本文将近年来有关Rad51D的研究成果进行了整理,主要包括Rad51D蛋白的生物学特征和生物学功能两部分,同时对Rad51D蛋白的研究方向提出了自己的看法。     

视网膜感光细胞对仿生电场刺激的非矢量应答

正常状态下眼组织的细胞暴露于生物体内生电场中,故电场可以调控眼组织细胞一系列的生物学性能.细胞对电场信号的应答可分为两个方面,细胞对电场矢量的应答(迁移、定向生长等)和细胞对电场刺激的非矢量应答(增殖、凋亡等),而细胞对电场矢量的应答是最常见的应答现象.同时,细胞外的电场也能引起细胞内的信号转导,进而调控细胞的行为,但是对细胞内的应答机制目前知之甚少,所以对细胞非矢量性应答的机制也了解甚少.而感光细胞对电场刺激非矢量性应答的分子机制目前研究处于空白阶段,故本研究着重于探究感光细胞对于电场刺激的非矢量性应答的机制.为了探究电场刺激对感光细胞的影响,本课题组自主研发了一款电场刺激仪,研究发现,60和90 m V/mm强度的电场刺激能提高细胞活性,促进细胞增殖.检测基因表达谱,利用通路分析发现,Ca~(2+)离子依赖的ERK通路在细胞对电场刺激的应答中扮演重要角色.实验结果进一步证明,电场刺激促进Ca~(2+)离子内流进而改变了感光细胞的生长平衡,可以预见电场影响感光细胞的离子转运在感光细胞对电场刺激的应答过程中具有重要的意义.总而言之,本课题组发现,电场影响细胞内外的Ca~(2+)离子流,引发细胞内一系列的级连反应,使细胞的生长状态发生了改变.     

天花粉蛋白对滋养层细胞专一损伤机制的研究

在体外培养条件下,天花粉蛋白胶体金以受体介导的内吞方式进入滋养层细胞和绒癌细胞,最终进入胞质溶胶附着在核糖体上。经相同处理的肝癌细胞,绿猴肾细胞和正常鼠胚肝细胞,金颗粒既不与这些细胞表面结合,也没有被专一内吞的现象。分别用BSA,转铁蛋白活化的胶体金处理滋养层细胞和绒癌细胞的比较观察,也证明滋养层细胞和绒癌细胞对天花粉蛋白的专一亲和性。更有趣的是:天花粉蛋白肝癌单抗胶体金结合物进入绒癌细胞的方式与天花粉蛋白的结果相同;先以旰癌单抗处理也不影响天花粉蛋白肝癌单抗结合物进入绒癌细胞。然而,对于旰癌细胞,天花粉蛋白肝癌单抗胶体金颗粒则专一地结合在细胞的微绒毛表面,这种结合因先以肝癌单抗处理而明显地被竞争抑制。这些实验结果相互印证地提供天花粉蛋白对滋养层细胞和绒癌细胞高度专一的亲和性,并证明天花粉蛋白对靶细胞的原初损伤部位是核糖体。进一步探讨天花粉蛋白在靶细胞表面结合位点的化学性质以及这种蛋白在靶细胞内的转运机制将是重要的问题。     

Scientific Reports:射频治疗能够改变癌细胞表型

<正>关注癌细胞的生理特性变化被证明越来越有着重要意义。这是因为,通过评估癌细胞的生理特性或者表型,能够为我们提供很多细胞的行为(包括转移和细胞间交流)的信息。这些生理特征或者表型在不同类型的癌细胞、正常细胞中表现不同,而且还会随着治疗产生差异,同时在疾病的不同阶段也是大相径庭。美国德克萨斯州研究者们在《Scientific Reports》发文称,他们发现,胰腺癌     

癌细胞与正常细胞相比有哪些不同特征?

问:癌细胞与正常细胞相比有哪些不同特征?答:癌是威胁人们生命的最危险的疾病之一。癌的根本问题是细胞畸形分化的问题。细胞不按正常的规律发育,恶化而成癌细胞。于是,它不再受机体的控制,不受约束地连续分裂,产生新的癌细胞,破坏身体内环境的平衡。癌细胞与正常细胞相比,主要有以下几点不同:形态上最明显的不同是细胞核一般都比正常细胞的大,形状不规则,核仁也变大了;癌细胞的有丝分裂常有“多极分裂”的现象,在1个分裂细胞中出现多个纺缍体,产生3~5个甚至更多的细胞;细胞表面发生了变化,膜上的糖脂或糖蛋白的糖链短缺不全,因而癌细胞可以…     

电场和超声波结合治疗癌症

英国一家公司的科学家发现,将电场和超声波结合,能够杀死实验鼠体内的癌细胞。这种疗法先对癌细胞施加电场作用,使它们变得对超声波比较敏感,然后用超声波轰击,使癌细胞自毁。这家公司的科学家此前曾用这种技术来处理红细胞,将它作为载体为人体患病部位输送药物。在体外对红细胞施加电场,其细胞膜就会变得可渗透,可以往细胞里填充药物,然后再将红细胞输回病人体内,用超声波作用于患处,红细胞就会破裂,释放出药物。     

防癌细胞扩散的两项成果

癌细胞是正常细胞因某种因素（如内因的细胞DNA异化等和外因的致癌物诱发）而造成的恶果。一旦在机体内扩散而又未来得及有效遏制,无疑对机体的安全构成严重威胁。防止癌细胞扩散是战胜癌症极为重要的一步,也是一个重要难题。国内外对癌细胞扩散的研究格外活跃。有两项成果值得注意：一、RNA可阻断癌细胞扩散：英国牛津大学研究人员发现利用RNA分子能够阻断肿瘤细胞中刺激癌细胞扩散的危险基因,从而为至于癌症带来新希望。     

Mathematical modeling of the malignancy of cancer using graph evolution

We report a novel computational method based on graph evolution process to model the malignancy of brain cancer called glioma. In this work, we analyze the phases that a graph passes through during its evolution and demonstrate strong relation between the malignancy of cancer and the phase of its graph. From the photomicrographs of tissues, which are diagnosed as normal, low-grade cancerous and high-grade cancerous, we construct cell-graphs based on the locations of cells; we probabilistically generate an edge between every pair of cells depending on the Euclidean distance between them. For a cell-graph, we extract connectivity information including the properties of its connected components in order to analyze the phase of the cell-graph. Working with brain tissue samples surgically removed from 12 patients, we demonstrate that cell-graphs generated for different tissue types evolve differently and that they exhibit different phase properties, which distinguish a tissue type from another.     

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics and biological growth and development.

It is shown that there exists in principle no incompatibility between the observed increase in specific dissipation during early embryogenesis and the theorem of minimum entropy production based on linear irreversible thermodynamics. As a specific illustration we exhibit a linear model for which the time evolution of the three terms in the entropy balance is parallel to that of the evolution of living systems.     

Quality and irreversibility: constraints on ecosystem development.

We discuss one of the most general mathematical tools for analysing dynamical systems: the master equation (ME). The ME is used to derive models for entropy production in closed and open systems. Due to dissipation in open systems, the direction of evolution of important characteristics can be opposite to those imposed on closed systems. When applying these models to soil organic matter it can be shown that the principle of minimum entropy production necessitates that more and more recalcitrant organic matter is produced the further the decomposition proceeds. The necessity to dissipate entropy can also impose a limit on the degree to which litters can decompose, but interaction between litters of differing ages can remove this constraint. This is an example of the 'priming' effect.     

Deciphering the signature of selective constraints on cancerous mitochondrial genome

In accordance with the hypothesis that cancer formation is a process of somatic evolution driven by natural selection, signature of positive selection has been detected on a number of cancer-related nuclear genes. It remains, however, controversial whether a similar selective pressure has also acted on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), a small molecule in mitochondrion that may play an important role in tumorigenesis by altering oxidative phosphorylation. To better understand the mutational pattern on cancerous mtDNA and decipher the genetic signature left by natural selection, a total of 186 entire mitochondrial genomes of cancerous and adjacent normal tissues from 93 esophageal cancer patients were obtained and extensively studied. Our results revealed that the observed mutational pattern on the cancerous mtDNAs might be best explained as relaxation of negative selection. Taking into account an additional 1,235 cancerous (nearly) complete mtDNA sequences retrieved from the literature, our results suggested that the relaxed selective pressure was the most likely explanation for the accumulation of mtDNA variation in different types of cancer. This notion is in good agreement with the observation that aerobic glycolysis, instead of mitochondrial respiration, plays the key role in generating energy in cancer cells. Furthermore, our study provided solid evidence demonstrating that problems in some of the published cancerous mtDNA data adequately explained the previously contradictory conclusions about the selective pressure on cancer mtDNA, thus serving as a paradigm emphasizing the importance of data quality in affecting our understanding on the role of mtDNA in tumorigenesis.     

用于胃癌检测的漫反射光谱

胃癌正严重地威胁人类的健康,为了开发一种可以诊断早期胃癌的新型光学检测技术,建立了一套简便的组织体漫反射光谱检测装置.首先,根据组织体的光学特性,介绍光谱检测方法的基本原理.然后,利用组织癌变导致的组织体光学特性变化,建立漫反射光谱检测的实验装置.最后,利用该实验装置分别获取正常胃组织和胃癌组织的漫反射光谱.实验结果表明:癌变和正常胃组织的漫反射光谱在可见光区域有明显差别,特别是在波长为500 nm和630 nm处,但是漫反射光谱检测无法分辨来自组织不同层的光谱信息.这些结果说明漫反射光谱检测装置可用于胃癌的辅助检测.     

Novel spectral method for the study of viral carcinogenesis in vitro

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is a unique technique for the laboratory diagnosis of cellular variations based on the characteristic molecular vibrational spectra of the cells. Microscopic FTIR was used to investigate spectral differences between normal and malignant fibroblasts transformed by retrovirus infection. A detailed analysis showed significant differences between cancerous and normal cells. The contents of vital cellular metabolites were significantly lower in the transformed cells than in the normal cells. In an attempt to identify the cellular components responsible for the observed spectral differences between normal and cancerous cells, we found significant differences between DNA of normal and cancerous cells.     

Evolutionary biology of cancer

Cancer is driven by the somatic evolution of cell lineages that have escaped controls on replication and by the population-level evolution of genes that influence cancer risk. We describe here how recent evolutionary ecological studies have elucidated the roles of predation by the immune system and competition among normal and cancerous cells in the somatic evolution of cancer. Recent analyses of the evolution of cancer at the population level show how rapid changes in human environments have augmented cancer risk, how strong selection has frequently led to increased cancer risk as a byproduct, and how anticancer selection has led to tumor-suppression systems, tissue designs that slow somatic evolution, constraints on morphological evolution and even senescence itself. We discuss how applications of the tools of ecology and evolutionary biology are poised to revolutionize our understanding and treatment of this disease.     

异质性干细胞增殖过程中的熵变化

干细胞在多细胞生物体内广泛存在,其增殖过程在生命体的生长、发育、衰老、组织修复过程中起着重要作用。正常组织中的细胞增殖过程受到严格的控制,干细胞的异常增殖与恶性肿瘤、肥胖症、再生障碍性贫血等疾病有密切关系。生命体内异质性细胞的增殖过程是复杂的动力系统行为,干细胞异常增殖过程伴随细胞的可塑性变化和细胞间相互作用的再平衡过程,如何对这一过程进行定量描述是重要的研究课题。本文构建包含细胞的增殖分化指标和异常增殖性指标异质性的干细胞增殖模型,通过所建立的模型研究由于微环境变化引起的细胞异常增殖过程的熵变化,建立不同增殖条件下的系统熵变化与宏观动力学和系统参数之间的关系。结果表明,在细胞微环境变化引起异常增殖和恢复的过程中,系统的熵与细胞数量之间存在对应关系,而与微环境变化的路径无关。 此外,熵对细胞数量的依赖关系在异常增殖和恢复阶段表现出不同的行为,显示了生物过程的微观不可逆性。本文从物理学的角度对细胞异常增殖过程中熵变化与细胞数量变化的动力学给出定量刻画,为定量描述异质性干细胞增殖过程给出新的研究思路。     

The influence of the microenvironment on the malignant phenotype

Normal tissue homeostasis is maintained by dynamic interactions between epithelial cells and their microenvironment. As tissue becomes cancerous, there are reciprocal interactions between neoplastic cells, adjacent normal cells such as stroma and endothelium, and their microenvironments. The current dominant paradigm wherein multiple genetic lesions provide both the impetus for, and the Achilles heel of, cancer might be inadequate to understand cancer as a disease process. In the following brief review, we will use selected examples to illustrate the influence of the microenvironment in the evolution of the malignant phenotype. We will also discuss recent studies that suggest novel therapeutic interventions might be derived from focusing on microenvironment and tumor cells interactions.