Cancer cells to ' commit suicide '..?

Researchers in the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow have developed a novel technology to treat cancers. Researchers were already able to treat several types of tumors including bowel cancer, cervical and bone cells.

The new method involves the activation of a specialized gene by the cancer cells which in turn, causes their own death. The gene is described as p73. According to the researchers, this new technology can be effectively used as an alternative to some of the current existing cancer treatment methods as most of these methods are based on a gene called p53 which is also an important gene in controlling cancers. But the main need for an alternation is that in most cases of cancers, p53 gene is held disabled. Scientists are actively working on these disabled p53 gene in order to find out a successful method to restore their function as a way of treating the disease. But the main strategy is that in some cases these p53 genes are kept disabled in such a way that its function cannot be restored. This is where the gene p73 comes in to the action.

Scientists were able to activate p73 by synthetic DNA nano-particles in order to provide a way to force cancer cells to commit suicide.

“This technology, developed in collaboration with Professor Uchegbu's group, has allowed us for the first time to demonstrate that selective activation of the gene p73 can cause cell death in tumours. We showed that it is possible to force cancer cells to commit suicide in two ways: firstly through expression of a gene coding for a small peptide and secondly by using RNA interference. Both approaches activate p73 by reducing the activity of cellular p73 inhibitors.” Says Dr Schatzlein, Reader in the Cancer Research UK Biomolecular Structure Group.

Read the original article ; Category : Medicine, Molecular Biology, Cancer