Cancer cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome charaterized by irreversible weight loss. This weight loss entails both muscle and adipose tissue loss.
Cachectic patients have a poor response to chemotherapy or sometimes don’t qualify for the needed dose of chemotherapy. Cachectic cancer patients also have a poor survival prognosis as compared to non-cachectic cancer patients.
The Dasgupta Lab is interested in studying this syndrome in order to elucidate novel therapeutic avenues to improve patient outcomes.
Perp as a dual target in pancreatic cancer cachexia
We discovered the protein Perp to be overexpressed in pancreatic tumor and wasting muscle. A main aim of the lab is to investigate Perp-induced molecular mechanisms.
Novel Mechanisms in Cancer-associated cachexia
One of the main goals of the lab is to investigate novel targets in cancer-associated muscle wasting. We utilize in vitro and in vivo models of cachexia to attain this goal.
Investigating tumor-host crosstalk in cancer cachexia
We and others have reported decreased tumor-proliferation upon inhibiting muscle wasting in murine cancer models. The Dasgupta lab aims to investigate the underlying mechanisms of tumor-host crosstalk.
