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Article Date: June 5, 2013-0:00 PDT current ratings for:
Researchers reveal new potential means to suppress tumor growth
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues at the University of Rochester Medical Center have identified a new mechanism that seems to remove the tumor growth, opening up the possibility of developing a new class of anti-cancer drugs.
Written in first editions online this week by the proceedings of the Academy national of Sciences (PNAS), Willis X. Li, Ph.d., Professor in the Department of medicine at UC San Diego, reports that a particular form of signaling called STAT5A protein stabilizes the formation of heterochromatin (a form of chromosomal DNA), which in turn removes the ability of cancer cells to give instructions to multiply and grow.
Specifically, Li and his colleagues concluded that the place of STAT form promotes and stabilizes the heterochromatin, which keeps DNA closely packed and inaccessible to transcription factors. "As a result, genes 'buried' in heterochromatin are not expressed," said Li.
Phosphorylation is a fundamental cellular function in which a phosphate group is added to a protein or molecule, the cause to activate or disable or modify its function. A STAT place lack of this phosphate group.
Li said that in previous studies with the fruit flies, the place of STAT caused chromatin form to condense in heterochromatin, while the phosphorylated version prompted the dispersal and loss of the heterochromatin, promoting the expression of genes.
"STAT site promotes and stabilizes the formation of heterochromatin, which in turn removes the gene transcription," Li said. "when we have expressed either HP1 (the central element of the heterochromatin) or place STAT5A in human cancer cells, several genes important for the growth of the cancer are removed." These cancer cells do not grow as fast or as large as their cancer cells parental control in xenograft models mouse."
Most suppressors tumor known, such as p53 or Rb function by inhibiting the progression of the cell cycle or by stimulating cell death or apoptosis. Li said their findings indicate a potential new way to inhibit the expression of the genes of cancer and could constitute a new class of tumour suppressors.
"We are trying to identify drugs to small molecules that can promote the formation of heterochromatin without stopping cell division or causing the death of the cell," he said. "These drugs, if found, may be effective in treating cancer with fewer side effects."
Article adapted by Medical News Today press release original. Click on "references" tab above for the source.Visit our cancer / Oncology section for the latest news on this subject. Co-authors are Xiaoyu Hu, Amy Tsurumi and Hartmut Land, Department of biomedical genetics, University of Rochester Medical Center; Pranabananda Dutta, Jinghong Li and Jingtong Wang, Department of medicine, UCSD.
Funding of this research came, in part, grants from the National Institutes of Health R01CA131326 and RO1CA138249 and a leukemia & Lymphoma Society Research Scholar grant.
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