Scientists have found a new method that can be used to identify targets for such cancers that lack specific specific tumor suppressor genes. They use this method to analyze a common prostate cancer and find a genetic site. This method can also identify other types of cancer, such as breast cancer, brain cancer and colon cancer precise treatment targets.
The study, published online February 6 in the journal Nature, is co-authored by prominent oncologist Ronald A. DePinho and Associate Professor Y. Alan Wang of the Anderson Cancer Center. The first author of the study was Zhao Di Dr., a number of Chinese scholars participated in the study. Professor DePinho is a leading researcher on many aspects of cancer research, including cancer drugs, human aging and degenerative diseases.
In the new study, the researchers proposed a new concept: synthetic essentiality, and use this concept to find a pattern of gene deletion in cancer, from which found a synthetic essential gene - chromatin helicase DNA binding factor (CHD1) can be used as a target gene for prostate cancer and breast cancer with deletion of PTEN. PTEN has been discovered more than a decade ago, and scientists believe it plays an essential role in preventing the development of many cancers. Thus, when PTEN is deleted or mutated, malignant cells can grow unconstrained, thereby leading to cancer formation.
"We searched for genes that were occasionally deleted in certain cancers but retained in specific cancers, such as PTEN," Dr. Zhao said. "We think that when cancer is missing a specific tumor suppressor, The synthetic essential genes that are retained may be required for cancer progression. "
When the PTEN gene is deleted, it usually causes prostate cancer and is usually associated with advanced prostate cancer. The CDC of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified prostate cancer as the second leading cause of cancer-related death among men in the United States, with 176,000 new cases and 28,000 deaths reported each year. Up to 70% of primary prostate cancer will appear PTEN defects.
By analyzing the cancer genome map and other sources of prostate cancer genome database, the researchers found that although CHD1 is only occasionally in some prostate cancer is missing, but PTEN-deficient prostate cancer is always in the presence of CHD1 defects. Further studies have shown that CHD1 plays a critical role in PTEN signaling and may therefore be a potential therapeutic target for prostate and breast cancer associated with PTEN deletion.
"Scientists have long sought to find targets necessary to survive tumor suppressor genes, and this study presents a conceptual framework for cancer 'traceable' targets that target specific tumor suppressor gene deficiencies," said Professor DePinho. Further analysis is needed to validate synthetic essential genes in cancer cells with specific genomic changes, and to identify this regulated interaction and cellular mechanisms of action, he added.
Dr. DePinho's group has a number of Chinese scholars who had previously developed a model of glioblastoma to help them determine the location of glioblast stem cells, which, like all stem cells, Can be transformed into other cell types. The researchers further discovered a gene: WNT5A when activated, can help the glioma stem cells to change, resulting in invasive tumor growth.
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