New potential therapeutic target for breast cancer

A possible new target for breast cancer therapy comes from the discovery that the Tyk2 protein helps suppress the growth and metastasis of breast tumors, as reported in Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free online for the next week at http://www.liebertpub.com/jir.

Qifang Zhang and Andrew Larner, Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA), and colleagues from VCU, Temple University School of Medicine (Philadelphia, PA), Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland), and Miyazaki University (Japan), present data demonstrating that mice lacking Tyk2 tyrosine kinase that are injected with breast cancer cells exhibit enhanced breast tumor growth and metastasis compared to mice with normal Tyk2 protein expression.

The authors conclude that altered Tyk2 expression affects the ability of the animals' immune systems to respond to the tumor challenge. They present the evidence in the article entitled, “The Role of Tyk2 in Regulation of Breast Cancer Growth,” and they describe the role of Tyk2 in immunity-related biochemical signaling pathways.

“This study suggests that boosting Tyk2 activity may be beneficial for arresting breast tumor growth,” says Ganes C. Sen, PhD, Chairman, Department of Molecular Genetics, Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research.

Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research, edited by Ganes C. Sen, PhD, and Thomas A. Hamilton, PhD, Chairman, Department of Immunology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online that covers all aspects of interferons and cytokines from basic science to clinical applications.

Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research is the Official Journal of the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research. Tables of content and a free sample issue may be viewed online at http://www.liebertpub.com/jir

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Viral Immunology, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, and DNA and Cell Biology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at http://www.liebertpub.com