Key cancer-promoting gene discovered


New York, Jan 7 (IANS): A team of researchers, including an Indian-origin scientist, has discovered a key cancer-promoting gene that may explain how a protein - TGF-beta - can prevent cancer from forming and encourage its aggressive growth.

With the new insight into the cancer mystery, considered to be a major paradox of cancer biology, the findings could provide a potential target for treatment.

The researchers, including Shyam Nyati from University of Michigan, identified Bub1 as a key gene involved in regulating TGF-beta receptor.

"Bub1 is well-known for its role in cell division. But this is the first study that links it to TGF-beta. We think this may explain the paradox of TGF-beta as a tumour promoter and a tumour suppressor," said study director Alnawaz Rehemtulla from University of Michigan Medical School.

"Our data that Bub1 is involved at the receptor level is completely unexpected," Rehemtulla added.

TGF-beta is known as a tumour suppressor, meaning it is necessary to keep cells in check and growing normally. But at some point, its function flips and it becomes a tumor promoter, fostering aggressive growth and spread of cancer.

The team of researchers developed a way to screen for genes that regulate the TGF-beta receptor.

When 720 genes from the human genome were screened against lung cancer and breast cancer cells, Bub1 emerged as playing a strong role in TGF-beta signaling.

Bub1 was shown to bind to the TGF-beta receptor and allows it to turn on aggressive cell growth. When the researchers blocked Bub1, it shut down the TGF-beta pathway completely.

Because Bub1 is found in many types of cancer, developing a drug to target it could potentially impact multiple cancers.

The study was in Science Signaling, a weekly journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  

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  • Vadim Shapoval, Zaporizhia

    Mon, Jan 12 2015

    Iron-Related Cancer-Promoting Genes Uncovered. Now, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have uncovered a key gene Bub1 involved in regulating TGF-beta receptor. Primary tumors always develop at body sites of excessive iron deposits. Local/regional iron overload can be inherited or acquired. Iron disorders are inherited and can be confirmed with genetic testing. At the cellular level, cancer occurs when cellular iron overload affects cellular organelles. There are many types of organelles. Unfortunately, cellular iron overload can chaotically affect DNA, chromosomes, mitochondria, lysosomes, etc. The gene theory of cancer originated with Theodor Boveri’s suggestion in 1914 that cancer could arise from defects in the segregation of chromosomes during cell division. Otto Warburg argued that cancer should be interpreted as a type of mitochondrial disease. Lysosomal alterations are common in cancerous cells. The Father of Oncology recognizes that cancers are caused by iron-related genes or/and iron-related events. Chemical carcinogens, radiation, viruses, old age and some lifestyle factors non-genetically distort iron metabolism and create local/regional deposits within different tissues and organs. Clinical iron-deficiency methods will beat iron-related diseases (cancers).

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