Gene Therapy Disease Targets
The articles in this category describe the gene therapy approaches that have been adopted in an effort to treat cancer. Human malignancies such as cancer dvelop when cellular communication breaks down. Normal cells are under tight control and receive a multitude of signals telling them when to grow, differentiate and die. Cancer arises when these signals breakdown and the cell is allowed to grow without control, cease to differentiate and become immune to signals instructing it to die.
Here we describe some of the molecular approaches that can be used to prevent cells from turning malignant and for killing cells that already have transformed.
Aptamer Targeting of Osteopontin in Cancer Metastasis
- Details
- Category: Cancer
- Published on Monday, 10 August 2009 10:17
- Written by Syamal Bhattcharya, MD; Zhiyong MI, PhD; Hongtao Guo, MD, PhD; Paul C. Kuo, MD
- Hits: 3979
In recent years a novel crop of therapies called aptamers have been derived that take advantage of small segment nucleotides that tightly bind cell surface proteins. This interaction at the extracellular level impedes the normal cascade of the receptor protein, blunting or arresting the usual chain of intracellular events. In contrast to antibody directed therapies, aptamers are able to function at very low concentrations. In addition to the robust binding capability to target cell surface proteins (as described by the dissociation constant), added benefits of aptamer therapy include exquisite target specificity and a lack of immunogenicity (1, 2). When compared to antisense oligonucleotides, aptamers are superior in that the targets are extracellular.
Read more: Aptamer Targeting of Osteopontin in Cancer Metastasis
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