科学家找到对付癌症、艾滋病消瘦的办法
New clues to wasting in cancer, AIDS patients
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with cancer, AIDS (news - web sites) or other chronic illnesses often suffer wasting, a decay in muscle and fat tissue that cannot be treated with better nutrition. But a treatment for the condition may now be closer, according to researchers who have discovered a key component in disease-related muscle loss.
While scientists have known about some of the links in the molecular chain that triggers muscle wasting, others have remained a mystery. Now researchers say that NF-kappa B, a natural substance that turns genes on and off, is a key missing link. They believe drugs that inhibit NF-kappa B may prevent the muscle-wasting syndrome known as cachexia.
Denis C. Guttridge and his colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill report their findings in the September 29th issue of Science.
``This is an important basic finding with implications for (cachexia) therapy,'' co-author Dr. Albert S. Baldwin, Jr., told Reuters Health.
It will, however, be ``a while'' before any new treatment is available, Baldwin said. Even though NF-kappa B inhibitors are under development, he noted, no one knows how they will behave in muscle.
Baldwin and his colleagues used mouse muscle cells to uncover the role of NF-kappa B in muscle wasting. They already knew that a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF) was involved. Because TNF is a key immune defense protein, its levels rise in response to illness. The current experiments showed that elevated TNF activated NF-kappa B, which in turn suppressed a muscle-replenishing protein called MyoD. Without MyoD, muscle cells cannot develop normally.
As many as one third of cancer patients die from cachexia, Baldwin noted. ``No matter how many calories they take in,'' he said, ``the body doesn't use them.'' The reason why this happens now seems clearer, according to Baldwin. ``We think we've figured out an important piece in the chain of command,'' he said., http://www.100md.com
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with cancer, AIDS (news - web sites) or other chronic illnesses often suffer wasting, a decay in muscle and fat tissue that cannot be treated with better nutrition. But a treatment for the condition may now be closer, according to researchers who have discovered a key component in disease-related muscle loss.
While scientists have known about some of the links in the molecular chain that triggers muscle wasting, others have remained a mystery. Now researchers say that NF-kappa B, a natural substance that turns genes on and off, is a key missing link. They believe drugs that inhibit NF-kappa B may prevent the muscle-wasting syndrome known as cachexia.
Denis C. Guttridge and his colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill report their findings in the September 29th issue of Science.
``This is an important basic finding with implications for (cachexia) therapy,'' co-author Dr. Albert S. Baldwin, Jr., told Reuters Health.
It will, however, be ``a while'' before any new treatment is available, Baldwin said. Even though NF-kappa B inhibitors are under development, he noted, no one knows how they will behave in muscle.
Baldwin and his colleagues used mouse muscle cells to uncover the role of NF-kappa B in muscle wasting. They already knew that a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF) was involved. Because TNF is a key immune defense protein, its levels rise in response to illness. The current experiments showed that elevated TNF activated NF-kappa B, which in turn suppressed a muscle-replenishing protein called MyoD. Without MyoD, muscle cells cannot develop normally.
As many as one third of cancer patients die from cachexia, Baldwin noted. ``No matter how many calories they take in,'' he said, ``the body doesn't use them.'' The reason why this happens now seems clearer, according to Baldwin. ``We think we've figured out an important piece in the chain of command,'' he said., http://www.100md.com
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