International Research Chemistry Awards

  A new drug-releasing system, TAR-200, eliminated tumors in 82% of patients in a phase 2 clinical trial for individuals with high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer whose cancer had previously resisted treatment. In the majority of cases, the cancer disappeared after only three months of treatment, and almost half the patients were cancer-free a year later. How the drug delivery system works TAR-200 is a miniature, pretzel-shaped drug-device duo containing a chemotherapy drug, gemcitabine, which is inserted into the bladder through a catheter. Once inside the bladder, the TAR-200 slowly and consistently releases the gemcitabine into the organ for three weeks per treatment cycle. Traditionally, gemcitabine has been delivered to the bladder as a liquid solution that only stays in the bladder for a few hours, which had limited effect destroying the cancer, said Daneshmand, who is also a member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. "The theory behind this study was tha...

  Scientists at Tsinghua University have developed a method to grow kidney tumors in the lab using cells from real patients, offering a potential new tool in the fight against renal cancer . Their research, published in the journal Biofabrication, outlines how 3D bioprinting technology can be used to replicate the unique characteristics of each patient's tumor. The team combined tumor cells with other cell types, including blood vessel-like structures, to mimic the environment within the body. The lab-grown tumors, called organoids, are created from real patients' tumor cells , and exactly mimic their traits. This realistic model provides a more accurate platform for studying tumor development and testing how different therapies perform. The technology also reduces the need for labour-intensive manual processes, enabling faster and more scalable testing. The incidence rate of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is increasing annually, posing a serious threat to human health. One of the ...

  Researchers at City of Hope®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States with its National Medical Center ranked among the nation's top cancer centers by U.S. News & World Report, today published a new study which found that some survivors of childhood cancer are more at risk for serious health issues as they grow older, including new cancers and chronic conditions like heart disease. While a cause for concern, the findings published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology also point to a silver lining: The ailments are potentially manageable if caught early and treated. The City of Hope-led study is the first to look at childhood cancer survivors who reached the age of 50, a population that is expected to grow as cancer treatments continue to improve and become more targeted and personalized. Nearly 15,000 children and adolescents in the United States are diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or other types of cancer each ye...

  Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and despite advancements in diagnosis and treatment, it continues to impose a significant health burden globally. Researchers have now started exploring various innovative methods, such as engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) that can enable targeted drug delivery to cancer cells . While promising, the in vivo behavior of pH-responsive ENMs, which continuously interact with body fluids once administered, remains poorly understood. To address this research gap, a team of researchers led by Professor Yuta Nishina from the Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Science, Okayama University, Japan, in collaboration with Assistant Professor Yajuan Zou from the same institution and Professor Alberto Bianco from CNRS, University of Strasbourg, France, aimed to investigate how pH-responsive ENMs convert their properties into dynamic interactions with proteins and cells in vivo. Their findings were published online in the journal Sm...

  In this review, the authors present recent findings that uncover a previously unappreciated nuclear signaling hub: the PIPn-p53 signalosome. This complex not only modulates AKT activation within the nucleus but also integrates two major oncogenic pathways-p53 dysregulation and PI3K-AKT amplification-into a unified mechanism driving cancer cell migration and invasion. Key points of the review include:Nuclear PIPn signaling expands beyond classical models: Phosphoinositides, long thought to be confined to plasma and endomembranes for cytoplasmic signaling, are now shown to form active signaling complexes in the nucleus , reshaping our understanding of lipid-mediated regulation. Wild-type and mutant p53 serve as nuclear scaffolds: Both forms of p53 anchor nuclear PIPns and facilitate the assembly of lipid-protein complexes (signalosomes), directly influencing gene expression, chromatin remodeling, and cytoskeletal dynamics. De novo AKT activation in the nucleus: Unlike canonical me...

  Tiny extracellular vesicles known as exosomes are emerging as key regulators of the tumor microenvironment (TME), influencing how cancer progresses, spreads, and responds to treatment. In a new review published in Med Research, researchers from Haikou Affiliated Hospital of Central South University Xiangya School of Medicine explore the dual nature of exosomes-highlighting their roles in both tumor promotion and immune modulation. The review focuses on tumor-derived exosomes (TDEs) and their diverse molecular cargo, such as microRNAs (miRNAs), long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs), which contribute to oncogenesis. These exosomes promote tumor cell proliferation, angiogenesis, metastasis, and drug resistance by activating key signaling pathways-including PI3K/AKT, MAPK/ERK, Wnt/β-catenin, and NF-κB. At the same time, TDEs also profoundly influence the immune landscape. They can suppress immune responses by delivering immunoinhibitory ligands like PD-L1 and C...