{"64038":{"#nid":"64038","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Discovery May Lead to Turning Back the Clock on Ovarian Cancer","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECancer\nresearchers have discovered that a type of regulatory RNA may be effective in\nfighting ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer isn\u0027t typically discovered until it\u2019s\nin the advanced stages, where it is already spreading to other organs and is\nvery difficult to fight with chemotherapy. This new discovery may allow\nphysicians to turn back the clock of the tumor\u0027s life cycle to a phase where\ntraditional chemotherapy can better do its job.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EScientists at the\nOvarian Cancer Institute Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology have\nfound in initial tests that a regulatory RNA called miR-429 may be successful\nin inducing metastatic or spreading cancer cells to convert back to a less\nmetastatic, non-invasive form. The research appears online in the\njournal Gynecologic Oncology.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cPrimary tumors\nare rarely fatal,\u201d said John F. McDonald, director of the Integrated Cancer\nResearch Center in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Biology and chief research\nscientist at the Ovarian Cancer Institute. \u201cMost cancer patients succumb\nbecause the cancer metastasizes, and current chemotherapies are not designed to\nkill metastasizing cancer cells.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;Cancer\ncells exist in two forms: epithelial cancer cells and mesenchymal cancer\ncells.\u0026nbsp; The primary tumor is mostly comprised\nof rapidly dividing epithelial cancer cells that are \u201csticky\u201d so they stay\ntogether, they\u2019re not mobile and generally not invasive. Cells at the edge of\ntumors often change into mesenchymal cancer cells; they lose their adhesiveness\nand become highly mobile and invasive, allowing the cancer to spread, or\nmetastasize, to other areas of the body.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;In the new\ntrial, McDonald\u2019s lab used two ovarian cancer cell lines, one with epithelial\ncharacteristics, like primary tumor cells, and the other with mesenchymal\ntraits, like metastasizing cancer cells. They used miR-429, one of a family of\nmicroRNAs previously implicated in epithelial to mesencymal changes in other\ncancers, to see if it could turn the mesenchymal cancer cells back into\nepithelial cancer cells. They found that miR-429 was highly successful in\nhelping cells turn back the clock.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe found that\nwhen we introduced miR-429 into the highly metastatic ovarian cancer cells,\nthey became less invasive, less migratory and more like the cancer cells\nassociated with primary tumors,\u201d said McDonald.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ECurrently the\nMcDonald lab is testing to see if cells that have been treated with miR-429 to\nchange from mesenchymal to epithelial cancer cells are more susceptible to\nchemotherapy than metastasizing cells that haven\u2019t undergone this change.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe are hopeful\nthat we have found an effective way to drive metastasizing ovarian cancer cells\nback to their primary cancer stage where they can be more effectively treated\nwith existing chemotherapies.\u201d added McDonald.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECancer\nresearchers have discovered that a type of regulatory RNA may be effective in\nfighting ovarian cancer. This new discovery may allow\nphysicians to turn back the clock of the tumor\u0027s life cycle to a phase where\ntraditional chemotherapy can better do its job.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers find a way to turn invasive cancer cells into cells more susceptible to chemotherapy."}],"uid":"27310","created_gmt":"2011-02-03 10:33:10","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:08:06","author":"David Terraso","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-02-03T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2011-02-03T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"64037":{"id":"64037","type":"image","title":"Turning Back the Clock on Ovarian Cancer","body":null,"created":"1449176720","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:05:20","changed":"1475894561","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:41","alt":"Turning Back the Clock on Ovarian Cancer","file":{"fid":"191918","name":"turn.back_.clock_.ovarian.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/turn.back_.clock_.ovarian_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/turn.back_.clock_.ovarian_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":186244,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/turn.back_.clock_.ovarian_0.jpg?itok=9bGEQHQ0"}},"64040":{"id":"64040","type":"image","title":"Starting Mesenchymal Cells","body":null,"created":"1449176720","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:05:20","changed":"1475894561","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:41","alt":"Starting Mesenchymal Cells","file":{"fid":"191919","name":"starting.mesenchymal.mir320-transfection.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/starting.mesenchymal.mir320-transfection_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/starting.mesenchymal.mir320-transfection_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":568394,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/starting.mesenchymal.mir320-transfection_0.jpg?itok=Ou0__FLi"}},"64041":{"id":"64041","type":"image","title":"Cells Treated with miR-429","body":null,"created":"1449176720","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:05:20","changed":"1475894561","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:41","alt":"Cells Treated with miR-429","file":{"fid":"191920","name":"mir429-transfection.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mir429-transfection_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mir429-transfection_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":570487,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/mir429-transfection_0.jpg?itok=6NrO4JKw"}},"64042":{"id":"64042","type":"image","title":"Control Cells","body":null,"created":"1449176720","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:05:20","changed":"1475894561","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:41","alt":"Control Cells","file":{"fid":"191921","name":"Negative-transfection.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Negative-transfection_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Negative-transfection_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":584596,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Negative-transfection_0.jpg?itok=kXxefTEx"}}},"media_ids":["64037","64040","64041","64042"],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"140","name":"Cancer Research"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"5634","name":"Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"11814","name":"John McDonad"},{"id":"2373","name":"Ovarian Cancer Institute"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}