Research

Research on mouse models targets new ‘checkpoint’ that enables cancer stem cells to evade immune system

Researchers from the UCLA School of Dentistry have discovered a key molecule that allows cancer stem cells to bypass the body’s natural immune defenses, spurring the growth and spread of head and neck squamous cell cancers. Their study, conducted in mice, also demonstrates that inhibiting this molecule derails cancer progression and helps eliminate these stem cells.  

UCLA discovery opens a pathway toward the discovery more effective treatments

By targeting an enzyme that plays a key role in head and neck cancer cells, researchers from the UCLA School of Dentistry were able to significantly slow the growth and spread of tumors in mice and enhance the effectiveness of an immunotherapy to which these types of cancers often become resistant.

By identifying the underlying factors leading to bone loss and osteoporosis, UCLA dentist-scientists hope to pave the way to new treatments

Researchers from the UCLA School of Dentistry have identified the role a critical enzyme plays in skeletal aging and bone loss, putting them one step closer to understanding the complex biological mechanisms that lead to osteoporosis, the bone disease that afflicts some 200 million people worldwide.

Study to focus on using saliva in the analysis of cell-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to accurately and non-invasively detect non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Author: Stuart Wolpert

UCLA has been awarded a grant of more than $1.6 million from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, a division of the National Institutes of Health. The five-year grant will enable UCLA to expand its Bruins-in-Genomics Summer Undergraduate Research Program, which brings undergraduates from across the country, including from historically Black colleges and universities, to UCLA to conduct research and learn the latest data analysis techniques and skills.

Making Saliva a Serious Business

“Most people are surprised when I tell them that saliva can reveal as much, if not more, than blood or urine can. We have made it our mission to make saliva testing a clinical reality to detect for serious diseases. And we’re getting very, very close.” 

While researchers have a basic understanding of how primary cancer cells grow, less is known about metastasis, the deadly process by which cancers spread. A team led by Dr. Paul Krebsbach, dean of UCLA’s School of Dentistry and professor of periodontics, has found that mEAK-7, a gene they discovered last year, may play a significant role in cancer metastasis, at least in lung cancers.

UCLA Research Brief

FINDINGS

Researchers from the UCLA School of Dentistry have provided insight into how the mechanical process of bone loss works and have also identified a protein that is responsible for recycling of the cells that can also promote bone loss. The team showed that by eliminating a key protein responsible for the activation of bone loss, there is the potential to control the level of bone loss a person would develop.

BACKGROUND

Publication in Nature Communications

Bioengineers and dentists from the UCLA School of Dentistry have developed a new hydrogel that is more porous and effective in promoting tissue repair and regeneration compared to hydrogels that are currently available. Once injected in a mouse model, the new hydrogel is shown to induce migration of naturally occurring stem cells to better promote bone healing. Current experimental applications using hydrogels and stem cells introduced into the body or expensive biological agents can come with negative side effects.

Study published in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics
Republished press release by Elsevier/JMD