Pancreatic cancer growth slowed by blocking key enzyme
Wednesday, March 12, 2014 - 13:01
in Biology & Nature
Blocking the function of an enzyme known as Hhat slows the growth and spread of pancreatic cancer by preventing a protein called Hedgehog from stimulating nearby normal cells to help the cancer, reserach shows. The study examined the role of Hedgehog, whose usual job is to send signals to cells in embryos to divide and grow into the correct body parts. But while Hedgehog usually switches off when the embryo is formed, in many cancers, including pancreatic, it becomes abnormally reactivated.