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Two new 'drug targets' on a cancer-promoting protein identified

2001 in us alone 9In US alone, astonishingly there were a total of 553,400 cancer deaths in 2001, according to the American Cancer Society.

But, this scary figure was only to rise through years, especially with cardiovascular disease as the number one cause of death. This was predicted long back by the World Health Organization.

Passing a chill down the spine, the WHO claims that there will be one day, chances of 1 in 3 adults dying of cancer. What is simply to be blamed is our diagnostic test, which seems to be not sensitive enough to pick it up.

But, a new research has spotted two new potential vulnerable points on a vital cancer-promoting protein — called XIAP. This discovery is a ground breaking discovery that could eventually help reduce the scary cancer-death figures.

Now, with this finding, drugs targeting either of these activities could help push cancer cells back into a more regular programmed cell death. This would reduce or eliminate the formation of the formed tumors.

Since, dysfunction in a biochemical cascade — the NF-kappa B pathway – leads tumor cells to sidestep programmed cell death – or apoptosis – to become dangerously immortal, spotting the targets can help aim at short-circuiting the NF-kappa B.

Explaining the discovery, lead researcher Dr. Miao Lu, a postdoctoral fellow of biochemistry at Weill Cornell said,

We wondered if we could find out how XIAP induces the NF-kappa B pathway.

The scientists are reasonably excited with this discovery, as it provides two new points of attack against cancer in a pathway; the pharmacological researchers are already very familiar with. Such ‘basic-science discoveries’ may one day help find a cure to the killer disease.

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