Scientists net new culprits for cancer
Combining the number-crunching potency of computers with an
exploration of the genetic code, scientists said they had identified a
new master gene in cancer as well as faulty genes implicated in breast
and skin tumours.
The research, published by separate teams in the journal Nature
Genetics, could open up avenues to identify people at risk and,
potentially, new drugs to block the mechanisms that let cancers
proliferate, they hope. British-based researchers said a gene called UTX,
found in the X gender chromosome, played the role of ringmaster in 10
percent of cases of multiple myeloma and one in 12 cancers of the
oesophagus.
UTX controls an enzyme that contributes to the structure of DNA in
our cells. The enzyme also acts as a switch, turning other genes on and
off.
In a massive genetic trawl through tissue samples from patients with
a form of kidney cancer, the scientists found a rare but telling
signature among a mutated form of UTX.
By expanding the search to other cancer types, they also found the
variant gene played a part in multiple myeloma - cancer of the immune
cells - and in throat tumours. "It influences some of the most
fundamental mechanisms controlling gene activity in our cells," said
Andy Futreal, co-leader of the Cancer Genome Project at Britain's
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, which led the study.
PARIS, (AFP) |