Understanding Cancer Cell Metabolism

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Understanding key differences in cellular biochemistry now means the ability to build delivery mechanisms that can accurately target therapies to specific cell populations - such as cancerous cells. Here, scientists make progress in the biochemistry of cancer cell metabolism: the gene cyclin D1 "can dim the power production in the cell and in turn scale up its cancer-producing activities. ... From the cancer cell's point of view, the inhibition allows the cell to shift its biosynthetic priorities - it allows it to shift from making mitochondria themselves to synthesizing DNA and making the cell proliferate ... This discovery advances our understanding of the behavior of cancer cells and may suggest new types of cancer therapy ... We'd like to link that change in metabolism to therapies. We've been able to prove that we can see changes in metabolism in the [tumor], and we should be able to target that change and kill the cancerous cells."

Link: http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/biowissenschaften_chemie/bericht-69701.html