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Boys Town National Research Hospital Researcher Reveals Anti-cancer Mechanism
A new discovery reported by Dr. Sudhakar Akulapalli and a team of researchers at Boys Town National Research Hospital offers a significant advance in cancer research. Dr. Akulapalli’s discovery explains how angiogenesis – the growth of small blood vessels – is inhibited in the arrangement of blood vessels in a tumor.
The study, which appeared in the September 8, 2005, online publication of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, focuses on a protein signaling mechanism. The research of Dr. Akulapalli and his team could prove key to understanding how to stop the overgrowth of blood vessels that occur in cancerous tumors.
“Cancerous tumors are able to grow when tumor cells hijack the body’s system in order to capture sprouting new blood vessels and capillaries,” explains Akulapalli. “The newly formed vessels tap into the body’s blood supply and feed the tumor causing it to grow.” Akulapalli’s research found that anti-angiogenic molecules (protein signaling mechanisms) can disrupt this process, reducing the rate of tumor growth.
The newly discovered information represents a very significant advance in the field of cancer research and has prompted researchers to develop and test many classes of anti-angiogenic molecules. One of the most potent classes identified are small fragments of collagen peptides or endogenous angiogenesis inhibitors from the body. These fragments can be found in the blood circulation of the cancer patients, and have been shown to significantly reduce the rate of tumor growth in mice by disrupting tumor angiogenesis.
Dr. Akulapalli joined Boys Town National Research Hospital 2004. Before joining the hospital, he worked as postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. He established and directs the Cell Signaling and Angiogenesis Laboratory at the hospital, which is a critical component of the Center for the Study and Treatment of the Usher Syndrome.
Others instrumental in the research findings include Dominic Cosgrove, Ph.D. of Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha; Pia Nyberg, Ph.D. Hikaru Sugimoto, M.D., Ph.D. Raghu Kalluri, Ph.D. and Jain Li, M.D. Ph.D. of Harvard Medical School, Boston; Venkateswar G. Keshamouni, Ph.D. of University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor; Arjuna P. Mannam, M.D. of Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis.