Portrait of a cancer drug at work. (Biomedicine).As researchers seek better drugs for breast cancer, they have a revealing new picture that could guide their way. It shows where the breast cancer drug Herceptin binds to and inhibits the protein HER2 on cancer-cell surfaces. In 20 to 30 percent of breast cancer eases, overproduction o·ver·pro·duce tr.v. o·ver·pro·duced, o·ver·pro·duc·ing, o·ver·pro·duc·es To produce in excess of need or demand. o of HER2 stimulates cell proliferation proliferation /pro·lif·er·a·tion/ (pro-lif?er-a´shun) the reproduction or multiplication of similar forms, especially of cells.prolif´erativeprolif´erous pro·lif·er·a·tion n. . To determine the structure of HER2 at the atomic level, Daniel J. Leahy, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Howard Hughes Medical Institute, (HHMI), nonprofit medical research organization founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes and largly funded from proceeds of the 1984–85 sale of Hughes Aircraft. Headquartered in Chevy Chase, Md. investigator at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, is a highly regarded medical school and biomedical research institute in the United States. in Baltimore and his colleagues shined X rays through crystallized crys·tal·lize also crys·tal·ize v. crys·tal·lized also crys·tal·ized, crys·tal·liz·ing also crys·tal·iz·ing, crys·tal·liz·es also crys·tal·iz·es v.tr. 1. HER2 with and without fragments of Herceptin bound to it. "It gives people a view of the exact interactions" between the drug and its target, says Leahy, whose team reports its work in the Feb. 13 Nature. The newly revealed HER2 structure also explains why the protein is a powerful cancer promoter. Unlike related proteins, HER2 is normally in an active state and doesn't need to be triggered by another molecule, says Leahy. --J.T |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion