{"id":87805,"date":"2019-02-15T21:42:30","date_gmt":"2019-02-16T05:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/researchers-discover-a-weakness-in-a-rare-cancer-that-could-be-exploited-with-drugs"},"modified":"2019-02-15T21:42:30","modified_gmt":"2019-02-16T05:42:30","slug":"researchers-discover-a-weakness-in-a-rare-cancer-that-could-be-exploited-with-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/researchers-discover-a-weakness-in-a-rare-cancer-that-could-be-exploited-with-drugs","title":{"rendered":"Researchers discover a weakness in a rare cancer that could be exploited with drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/researchers-discover-a-weakness-in-a-rare-cancer-that-could-be-exploited-with-drugs.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cancer cells are, in some respects, impressive: They can grow relentlessly, sidestep the aging process by becoming immortal, and evade the immune system\u2019s persistent attacks. But in the process of acquiring such superpowers, the cells must occasionally relinquish other, more mundane skills\u2014including the ability to produce certain nutrients.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at The Rockefeller University now announce the discovery of a rare tumor type that is unable to synthesize cholesterol, a molecule without which <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/cells\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">cells<\/a> can\u2019t survive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese cells become dependent on taking up cholesterol from their environment, and we can use this dependency to design therapies that block cholesterol uptake,\u201d says Kivan\u00e7 Birsoy, the Chapman Perelman Assistant Professor, who reports the findings in Nature.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2019-02-weakness-rare-cancer-exploited-drugs.html\">https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2019&#45;02-weakness-rare-can...drugs.html<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cancer cells are, in some respects, impressive: They can grow relentlessly, sidestep the aging process by becoming immortal, and evade the immune system\u2019s persistent attacks. But in the process of acquiring such superpowers, the cells must occasionally relinquish other, more mundane skills\u2014including the ability to produce certain nutrients. Researchers at The Rockefeller University now announce [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-life-extension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}