UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

New endometrial cancer therapy reported

PHOENIX, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have found a new way to treat endometrial cancer -- cancer of the uterine lining -- that slows tumor growth and kills cancer cells.

Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said they found that introducing a particular inhibitor drug can turn off' receptors responsible for the growth of tumors in a significant number of patients with endometrial cancer.

They said they also determined the inhibitor drug proved effective even in cancer tumors containing a commonly occurring mutant gene, PTEN, previously associated with resistance to drug treatment.

The scientists, led by Drs. Pamela Pollock and Paul Goodfellow, a Washington University professor, said they used the latest genome-scanning technology to sequence 116 endometrial tumor samples in conducting the research. They said they plan to begin a clinical trial within the next year.

The findings are detailed as a priority report in the journal Cancer Research.

New method created to study origin of life

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have developed a computational tool that might lead to new understandings of how life began on Earth.

The Pennsylvania State University researchers say their new method has the potential to trace the evolutionary histories of proteins to either cells or viruses and possibly resolving the debate concerning which of those life forms came first.

"We have just begun to tap the potential power of this method," said Assistant Professor Randen Patterson, one of the project's leaders. "We believe if it is possible at all, it is within our grasp to determine whether viruses evolved from cells or vice versa."

The new computational method is to be reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is available in the journal's early online issue.

Study: Increased Greenland ice melt likely

MADISON, Wis., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say an analysis of the Laurentide Ice Sheet -- the last Northern Hemisphere ice sheet to disappear -- suggests increased Greenland ice melt.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research said the disappearance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet is the closest example of what can be expected in Greenland during the next century.

The study shows sea level rise as a result of ice sheet melt can occur very rapidly.

"We have never seen an ice sheet retreat significantly or even disappear before, yet this may happen for the Greenland ice sheet in the coming centuries to millennia," said University of Wisconsin Assistant Professor Anders Carlson, who led the study. "What we don't know is the rate of melting of the Greenland ice sheet."

"The word 'glacial' used to imply something was very slow," said Allegra LeGrande, who led the computer modeling portion of the study. "This new evidence … indicates that 'glacial' is anything but slow. Past ice sheets responded quickly to a changing climate, hinting at the potential for a similar response in the future."

The findings appear in the online edition of the journal Nature Geoscience.

Old drug shows new use against hepatitis C

STANFORD, Calif., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they've developed a novel approach to fighting the hepatitis C virus's reproduction process using an obsolete antihistamine.

The Stanford University Medical Center scientists said the advance involves two discoveries. "One is that a protein called NS4B is instrumental in binding some of the genetic material, or RNA, and allowing the hepatitis C virus to replicate," the researchers said. "The other is that the former anti-itching drug clemizole hydrochloride could hinder that protein, resulting in a tenfold decrease in virus replication with no apparent harm to infected liver-like cells."

Since the former antihistamine drug has previously been used by people, it is automatically eligible for human testing.

"We're excited about this and we're actively moving forward toward clinical trials," said Dr. Jeffrey Glenn, an associate professor of gastroenterology and hepatology and a senior co-author of the paper with Professor Stephen Quake. The lead authors are Dr. Shirit Einav and bioengineer Doron Gerber.

The research that also included doctoral student Paul Bryson, postdoctoral student Ella Sklan, research associate Menashe Elazar and Sebastian Maerkl, a former member of Quake's group, appears in the online edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology.