Researchers identify phosphorylation process vital to cancer growth

So tumors thrive in hypoxic conditions. PHD2 senses these hypoxic conditions . Tumors suppress the PHD2 by releasing an enzyme called PP2A/B55 which removes the phosphate group from PHD2, ultimately rendering PHD2 useless and allowing the tumors to grow unaffected.

The goal of this study was to see how phosphorylating the PHD2 would promote the death of the cancer cells in the hypoxic areas of the tumor. Very interesting to say the least.

I am beginning to see the big picture how oxygen plays a huge part in growths of tumor/cancer cells...as well as a couple proteins and enzymes. The war within the body. Anyone else is seeing this too?

Researchers identify phosphorylation process vital to cancer growth
www.eurekalert.org...

Scientists at VIB-KU Leuven have identified a new mechanism that impacts tumor growth. The typical lack of oxygen in tumors doesn't only stimulate proliferation, but also offsets the important role of the protein PHD2 as 'cancer cell killer'. A possible solution lies in blocking the enzyme PP2A/B55, which restores the function of PHD2 and consequently slows down cancer growth.

Poor prognosis in cancer is typically correlated with hypoxia, a disturbance in the oxygen supply to the tumor cells. The protein PHD2 is known as a 'hypoxic sensor', as its function is highly dependent on the amount of oxygen.

When phosphorylated, PHD2 is more active, promoting the death of cancer cells in the low-oxygen areas of the tumor. However, tumors tend to overexpress the phosphatase PP2A/B55, an enzyme that removes the phosphate group ('dephosphorylation') from PHD2. As a result, PHD2 is partially inactivated, which offsets the positive effects of this 'cancer cell killer'.

Prof. Massimiliano Mazzone (VIB-KU Leuven): "Surprisingly, we found that the phosphorylation status of PHD2 is regulated by pathways such as mTOR, which in tumor and normal cells represents the main sensor of metabolic stresses such as lack of nutrients or growth factors.

"This leads us to the conclusion that PP2A/B55 is a promising potential target for cancer therapy. That is why we started working together with an interested partner to study the potential of specific drugs against PP2A/B55. The ultimate goal is to design molecules that block the function of this phosphatase, thereby fighting cancer in a targeted way."

I read this totally different than you do. As I understand it low oxygen proliferates cancer cells. This is consistent with much of the other research I have done that points to cancer not being able to survive in an oxygen rich environment. "typical lack of oxygen in tumors doesn't only stimulate proliferation," and "Poor prognosis in cancer is typically correlated with hypoxia, a disturbance in the oxygen supply to the tumor cells." These statements tell me that lack of oxygen (like abundance of sugar) feeds cancer. What am I missing?

It is really spooky that one's own body can attack and alter the DNA of one's own body.

It seems like some mad scientist's lab experiment gone awry, or, perhaps, our "owner's " sadistic bent.

originally posted by: AnnaBecker
I read this totally different than you do. As I understand it low oxygen proliferates cancer cells. This is consistent with much of the other research I have done that points to cancer not being able to survive in an oxygen rich environment. "typical lack of oxygen in tumors doesn't only stimulate proliferation," and "Poor prognosis in cancer is typically correlated with hypoxia, a disturbance in the oxygen supply to the tumor cells." These statements tell me that lack of oxygen (like abundance of sugar) feeds cancer. What am I missing?

I get that too from the article. It is an interesting article though, but if you do not read a lot of these articles and know how to properly interpret them, you can get things backwards. I do a lot of research on genetics and those articles are sometimes hard to decipher as to whether a snp is good or bad. I have to do extra reading in a search to understand because the authors of the articles are not writing down things their peers should already know. So the rest of us can get it backwards easily until you know quite a bit about the stuff.

The article in the link provided listed states in the first paragraph that low oxygen actually helps the tumor grow faster in this case. You can boost oxygen transfer by boosting molybdenum in the diet, many seed foods have this mineral in them. The molybdoptin can carry oxygen while balancing sulfite to sulfates in the blood.