Knowledge Update

Novel drug may stop melanoma spread

Super User From Different Corners

New York, Jan 5 (IANS) Scientists have developed a new drug compound that has the potential to stop the spread of melanoma -- the most deadly form of skin cancer -- by up to 90 per cent.

About 10,000 people are estimated to die each year from melanoma, which spreads throughout the body quickly and attacks distant organs such as the brain and lungs.

"The majority of people die from melanoma because of the disease spreading. Our compound can block cancer migration and potentially increase patient survival," said Richard Neubig, Professor at the Michigan State University.

The study showed that the compound reduced the migration of melanoma cells by 85-90 per cent.

The new drug also reduced tumours, specifically in the lungs of mice that had been injected with human melanoma cells, the researchers said.

The findings are an early discovery that could be highly effective in battling the deadly skin cancer, added Kate Appleton, a postdoctoral student at Michigan State University.

The man-made small-molecule drug compound goes after a gene's ability to produce RNA molecules and certain proteins in melanoma tumours.

This gene activity, or transcription process, causes the disease to spread but the compound can shut it down.Until now, few other compounds of this kind have been able to accomplish this, the researchers stated.

The compounds were able to stop proteins, known as Myocardin-related transcription factors, or MRTFs, from initiating the gene transcription process in melanoma cells.

These triggering proteins are initially turned on by another protein called RhoC, or Ras homology C, which is found in a signalling pathway that can cause the disease to spread in the body aggressively.

"The effect of our compounds on turning off this melanoma cell growth and progression is much stronger when the pathway is activated. We could look for the activation of the MRTF proteins as a biomarker to determine risk, especially for those in early-stage melanoma," Appleton said, in the paper published in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.

China creating new map of Moon

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Beijing, Jan 5 (IANS) Chinese scientists are drawing a 1:2.5 million scale geological map of the Moon, a media report said on Thursday.

Ouyang Ziyuan, first chief scientist of China's lunar exploration programme, said five universities and research institutes have set standards for digital mapping and drawing of the Moon's geological structure.

A sketch version of the map, 4.36 metres by 2.2 metres, would be finished by 2018, and released by 2020, Xinhua news agency reported.

The map would provide information on geology, structure and rock types and would reflect the timeline of the Moon's evolution.

Chen Shengbo, a geologist with Jilin University in China, and his team are responsible for drawing the lunar structure outline, which was just one part of the work.

He said the map would clearly show lunar geography, such as geographic fractures and the size, appearance, and the structure of craters.

Chen said mapping depends on data and images sent by circumlunar satellites from home and abroad.

Lunar map making was not like drawing a map of the Earth, where scientists can go to the scene in person if they were not sure of their information.

China's satellites have captured images of the Moon, which contribute to the precision of lunar maps.