Spontaneous inactivating p53 mutations and the “selfish cell”

Spontaneous inactivating p53 mutations and the “selfish cell”

Odell et al. reported in Aging that murine embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) undergo p53 mutations and subsequent immortalizations in culture. This “release from cell cycle arrest” occurs in murine fibroblasts with a humanized or murine WT p53 [1]. The authors also noted that the cultured cells had frequently sustained a mutation matching a human tumor p53 mutation. Jang, et al. also reported spontaneous “immortalization and tumorigenic transformation” of human keratinocytes associated with p53 inactivating mutations [2]. Odell’s remarkable findings are of great interest to us and support a recently proposed hypothesis for tumorigenesis. We and others have proposed that cells seek to survive, in a Darwinian sense [3,4,5]. Specifically we have presented evidence to suggest that while WT p53 might primarily function as the “guardian of the genome” (inducing cells to undergo apoptosis or cell cycle arrest under stress), the WT p53 gene sequence is evolutionarily maintained such that it is susceptible to inactivating mutations and consequent cell survival (with the untoward result of tumorigenesis). The facts that these mutations occur spontaneously and frequently are the exact mutations seen in human cancers lends key support to this notion. Taken together, spontaneous mutations allowing cell survival and tumorigenesis might be referred to as the “Selfish Cell Theory” in recognition of Dawkin’s The Selfish Gene published in 1976. 

oncoscience impact factor Misha Blagosklonny

Mikhail (Misha) V. Blagosklonny graduated with an MD and PhD from First Pavlov State Medical University of St. Petersburg, Russia. Dr. Mikhail V. Blagosklonny has then immigrated to the United States, where he received the prestigious Fogarty Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. During his fellowship in Leonard Neckers’ lab at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), he was a co-author of 18 publications on various biomedical themes, including targeting HSP90, p53, Bcl2, Erb2, and Raf-1. He also was the last author for a clinical phase I/II trial article. 

After authoring seven papers during a brief yet productive senior research fellowship in the El-Deiry Cancer Research Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Blagosklonny returned to NCI to work with Tito Fojo. Together, they published 26 papers. Moreover, Dr. Blagosklonny published many of experimental research papers and theoretical papers as sole author. The abovementioned sole-author articles discussed two crucial topics. The first of these discussed selectively killing cancer cells with deregulated cell cycle or drug resistance via verifying their resistance. The outcomes and underlying notion were so revolutionary that they were incorrectly cited by other scientists as “reversal of resistance,” even though the publication was titled, “Exploiting of drug resistance instead of its reversal.” One big supporter of this concept was the world-famous scientist Arthur Pardee, with whom Dr. Blagosklonny co-authored a joint publication in 2001.

The second theme throughout Dr. Blagosklonny’s sole-author articles is a research method to develop knowledge by bringing several facts together from seemingly irrelevant areas. This results in new notions with testable forecasts, which in turn can be “tested” via analyzing the literature further. Likewise, the concept was co-authored by Arthur Pardee in a 2002 article in Nature. The first success of the new research methodology was the description of the feedback regulation of p53, as confirmed by the discovery of mdm2/p53 loop; and the explanation why mutant p53 is always overexpressed, published in 1997. The most important result revealed by Dr. Blagosklonny’s research methodology is the hyperfunction (or quasi-programmed) theory of aging and the revelation of rapamycin as an exclusively well-tolerated anti-aging drug, published in 2006. As mentioned in Scientific American, Michael Hall, who discovered mTOR in 1991, gives Dr. Blagosklonny credit for “connecting dots that others can’t even see.”

In 2002, Dr. Blagosklonny became associate professor of medicine at New York Medical College. He agreed to accept responsibilities as a senior scientist at Ordway Research Institute in Albany, New York, in 2005, before receiving another position at Roswell Park Cancer Institute as professor of oncology in 2009.

Since coming to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2009, Dr. Blagosklonny has studied the prevention of cancer (an age-related disease) via stopping organism aging - in other words, “preventing cancer via staying young.” His laboratory closely worked together with Andrei Gudkov’s and conducted research on the suppression of cellular senescence, namely suppression of cellular conversion from healthy quiescence to permanent senescence. This led to the discovery of additional anti-aging medicines beyond rapamycin. The cell culture studies were complemented by studies in mice, including several models like normal and aging mice, p53-deficient mice, and mice on a high-fat diet.

Dr. Blagosklonny has also published extensively on the stoppage of cellular senescence via rapamycin and other mTOR inhibitors, life extension and cancer stoppage in mice, and combinations of anti-aging medicines to be taken by humans. A rapamycin-based combination of seven clinically available medications has been named the “Koschei Formula” and is now used for the treatment of aging in patients at the Alan Green Clinic in Little Neck, New York. 

https://www.apollo.io/people/Misha/Blagosklonny/57de39efa6da987b015ccadb

oncotarget predatory 

When people refer to contemporary medicine, precision plays one of the most crucial roles and people’s lives are directly dependent on it. Hence, any researches related to medicine are necessary to comply with the top standards. The problem today is that any outcomes of researches can be published online and used as a reference without being properly checked and approved. Mikhail (Misha) Blagosklonny of Oncotarget perfectly understood this problem and attempted to develop an alternative solution. That’s how a weekly oncology-focused research journal called “Oncotarget” has been established back in 2010. The key principle of this journal is related to Altmetric scores that are used as a quality indicator. That assists both readers and authors to quality-check publications with Altmetric Article Reports that provide “real-time feedback containing data summary related to a particular publication.” Oncotarget website demonstrates a complete publications list with corresponding scores above 100 as well as reports mentioned previously. Mikhail (Misha) Blagosklonny glad to share his new approach and hopes it provides the necessary help to anyone, who has interest in oncology.

“A diagnostic autoantibody signature for primary cutaneous melanoma” has the Altmetric score of 594. This article was released back in 2018 by Oncotarget and written by different experts from Hollywood Private Hospital, Edith Cowan University, Dermatology Specialist Group, St. John of God Hospital and The University of Western Australia. The introduction of the study mentions that “recent data shows that Australians are four times more likely to develop a cancer of the skin than any other type of cancer”, and provides an insight on melanoma that “is curable by surgical excision in the majority of cases, if detected at an early stage.”

The article has got an Altmetric score of 594. Mikhail (Misha) Blagosklonny realizes that most of readers are aiming to understand the very meaning of it. Based on the Altmetric website, the score indicates “how many people have been exposed to and engaged with a scholarly output.” Hereby, the article about melanoma, was used for citations in various news articles 69 times. Besides that, it was quoted in 2 online blogs, as well as 25 Tweets on Twitter and 1 Facebook post. FOX23 of Tulsa, Oklahoma has headlined their report on July 20, 2018 as “New blood test could detect skin cancer early”, using the main content of Australia study 

Another Oncotarget’s study with a top score of 476, is “Biomarkers for early diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma: Do we need another moon-shot,”. This article has appeared in 60 news stories, 1 online blog post and 6 Twitter posts. The majority of public may have seen a short overview only, however those who visit Mikhail (Misha) Blagosklonny at Oncotarget, do get helpful scientific facts. Oncotarget is proud to have the chance to share with online viewers this highly appreciated and top-quality information, that is trustworthy and reliable.

https://endnote.com/style_download/oncotarget/