Cancer

A small selection of  Open Access articles on cancer from The Company of Biologists’ journals

CELL SCIENCE AT A GLANCE

Cancer metabolism at a glance

Alexei Vazquez, Jurre J. Kamphorst, Elke K. Markert, Zachary T. Schug, Saverio Tardito, Eyal Gottlieb

J Cell Sci 2016 129: 3367-3373; doi: 10.1242/jcs.181016

Summary: This article indicates metabolic pathways essential for cancer growth and survival, with an emphasis on anticancer therapies that are associated with such metabolic vulnerabilities.

REVIEW

The interplay between obesity and cancer: a fly view

Susumu Hirabayashi

Disease Models & Mechanisms 2016 9: 917-926; doi: 10.1242/dmm.025320

Summary: This Review highlights a Drosophila model of diet-induced obesity and cancer, and how these two models are combined to study the interplay between obesity and cancer.

RESEARCH ARTICLES

Genomic profiling of murine mammary tumors identifies potential personalized drug targets for p53-deficient mammary cancers

Adam D. Pfefferle, Yash N. Agrawal, Daniel C. Koboldt, Krishna L. Kanchi, Jason I. Herschkowitz, Elaine R. Mardis, Jeffrey M. Rosen, Charles M. Perou

Disease Models & Mechanisms 2016 9: 749-757; doi: 10.1242/dmm.025239

Editors’ choice: Personalized therapeutic targets for triple-negative breast cancers remain an important unmet clinical need. Genomic profiling of murine Trp53-null tumors identified a number of promising drug targets conserved in humans.

Activation of apoptosis in NAF-1-deficient human epithelial breast cancer cells

Sarah H. Holt, Merav Darash-Yahana, Yang Sung Sohn, Luhua Song, Ola Karmi, Sagi Tamir, Dorit Michaeli, Yuting Luo, Mark L. Paddock, Patricia A. Jennings, José N. Onuchic, Rajeev K. Azad, Eli Pikarsky, Ioav Z. Cabantchik, Rachel Nechushtai, Ron Mittler

J Cell Sci 2016 129: 155-165; doi: 10.1242/jcs.178293

Summary: NAF-1 is a major player in the metabolic regulation of breast cancer cells through its effects on cellular Fe ion distribution, mitochondrial metabolism and the induction of apoptosis.

Fischer-344 Tp53-knockout rats exhibit a high rate of bone and brain neoplasia with frequent metastasis

Sarah A. Hansen, Marcia L. Hart, Susheel Busi, Taybor Parker, Angela Goerndt, Kevin Jones, James M. Amos-Landgraf, Elizabeth C. Bryda

Disease Models & Mechanisms 2016 9: 1139-1146; doi: 10.1242/dmm.025767

Editors’ choice: Transferring a Tp53-knockout allele from an outbred rat stock to the F344 inbred rat genetic background alters the spectrum of tumors, providing a model of early-onset brain and bone sarcomas.

Tumor protein Tctp regulates axon development in the embryonic visual system

Cláudio Gouveia Roque, Hovy Ho-Wai Wong, Julie Qiaojin Lin, Christine E. Holt

Development 2016 143: 1134-1148; doi: 10.1242/dev.131060

Highlighted article: The cancer-associated protein Tctp controls neural circuitry in Xenopus via its regulation of pro-survival signalling and axonal mitochondrial homeostasis.

The initiator methionine tRNA drives cell migration and invasion leading to increased metastatic potential in melanoma

Joanna Birch, Cassie J. Clarke, Andrew D. Campbell, Kirsteen Campbell, Louise Mitchell, Dritan Liko, Gabriela Kalna, Douglas Strathdee, Owen J. Sansom, Matthew Neilson, Karen Blyth, Jim C. Norman

Biology Open 2016 5: 1371-1379; doi: 10.1242/bio.019075

Summary: This paper demonstrates a functional link between a cancer-associated alteration to the tRNA repertoire and the invasive behaviour of cancer cells by demonstrating that increased tRNAimet can drive invasion and metastasis in melanoma cells.

STEM CELLS AND REGENERATION

Genes implicated in stem cell identity and temporal programme are directly targeted by Notch in neuroblast tumours

Evanthia Zacharioudaki, Benjamin E. Housden, George Garinis, Robert Stojnic, Christos Delidakis, Sarah J. Bray

Development 2016 143: 219-231; doi: 10.1242/dev.126326

Summary: Genome-wide screens identify direct targets of Notch involved in promoting neural stem cell tumours in Drosophila, tying Notch into the transcription factor network coordinating these stem cells.