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Article: Shared survival mechanism explains why 'good' nerve cells last and 'bad' cancer cells flourish.(Report)
- Article from:
- NewsRx Health
- Article date:
- January 4, 2009
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Cancer cells and nervous system neurons may not look or act alike, but both use strikingly similar ways to survive, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
The study published in the December issue of Nature Cell Biology is the first to describe how neurons (nerve cells) and cancer cells achieve the common goal of inhibiting the series of biochemical events called apoptosis that eventually causes cells to break down and die.
That's good in the case of neurons, but bad when it comes to cancer.
"In neurons, inhibiting cell death is physiologically important to ensuring their long term ...