Certain members of the cucurbitacin and Withanolide family have been identified that can sensitize some tumor cell lines to cell death (apoptosis) on subsequent exposure of the cells to pro-apoptotic receptor agonists (PARAS) of the TRAIL "death receptors". These PARAS include TRAIL itself, and agonist antibodies to two of its receptors death receptor-4 (DR4 or TRAIL-R1) and death receptor 5 (DR5, TRAIL-R2).
The National Cancer Institute seeks parties to license fully human antibodies for CH2-based research materials.
The successful treatment of cancer is correlated with the early detection of the cancerous cells. Conventional cancer diagnosis is largely based on qualitative morphological criteria, but more accurate quantitative tests could greatly increase early detection of malignant cells. It has been observed that the spatial arrangement of DNA in the nucleus is altered in cancer cells in comparison to normal cells. Therefore, it is possible to distinguish malignant cells by mapping the position of labeled marker genes in the nucleus.
RNA nanoparticles have the potential to serve as excellent drug or imaging delivery systems due to their designability and versatility. Furthermore, the RNA nanoparticles of the invention are also capable of self-assembly and potentially form nanotubes of various shapes which offer potentially broad uses in medical implants, gene therapy, nanocircuits, scaffolds and medical testing.
RNA interference (RNAi) is a naturally occurring cellular post-transcriptional gene regulation process that utilizes small double-stranded RNAs to trigger and guide gene silencing. By introducing synthetic RNA duplexes called small-interfering RNAs (siRNAs), we can harness the RNAi machinery for therapeutic gene control and the treatment of various diseases.
One major challenge in the development of effective cancer therapies is a lack of universal, cancer specific markers in target cells. The current standard therapies rely on surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Such procedures lead to a population of resistant cancer cells that makes further applications of chemotherapy/radiation therapy ineffective. Additionally, the systemic application of chemotherapy lacks specificity and has off-target systemic effects that lead to adverse side effects.
Nitric oxide (NO) has a broad spectrum of actions in physiological and pathological processes. NO-donor drugs have shown therapeutic effect in several cancer types by inducing apoptosis but the concentrations required have suggested limited clinical applicability. For cancers such as non-small cell lung cancer where most therapies are not curative, there remains a need for effective treatments.
A number of factors can play a detrimental role in the process of wound healing such as poor nutritional status, smoking, various drugs, cancer, and diabetes. Wound healing impairment is a challenging clinical problem with no efficacious treatments currently available. Nitric oxide (NO) has been shown to play a role in the process of wound healing by promoting both the proliferative and remodeling phases of healing.
The promise of RNA interference based therapeutics is made evident by the recent surge of biotechnological drug companies that pursue such therapies and their progression into human clinical trials. The present invention discloses novel RNA and RNA/DNA nanoparticles including multiple siRNAs, RNA aptamers, fluorescent dyes, and proteins. These RNA nanoparticles are useful for various nanotechnological applications.
KRAS and other Ras-family enzymes are an important component of over 30% of human cancers, however, no effective therapeutics targeting Ras or Ras-driven cancers are currently available. The production of Ras proteins in vitro is required for the identification and characterization of Ras targeting drugs. An important step in producing the Ras protein involves prenylation of the C-terminus of the protein via farnesyltransferase, a modification that does not occur in prokaryotic organisms. Previous attempts to generate properly processed Ras in eukaryotic cells has