A group of scientists from University of Bern, Inselspital Bern and University of Connecticut found a weakness in some tumors that could be the key to developing highly effective weapons against cancer.
In particular, they studied it in prostate cancer. However, this mechanism can be found in many other tumors. Essentially, this cancer-fighting strategy is to attack one of the tools that tumors use to fight cancer. multiply. A tool that has not really been analyzed so far.
This is the most interesting part of this investigation. It’s about weakness this has not yet been known, so it may open the door to new cancer treatments, perhaps more effective than existing ones. Logically, this is still a long way off, but this news, published today in molecular cellLooks very promising.
The essential role of the spliceosome in protein synthesis
These scientists based their cancer research on a complex called spliceosome. It is a component of the cellular machinery that is involved in the process of converting genes into proteins.
We already know what DNA is instruction organism. That is, the genes indicate everything necessary for its functioning and even for its appearance. But not all genes are read at once, just as we usually do not read the instructions for a washing machine at the same time. As a rule, we resort to the part that we need at every moment. This is exactly what happens in our body. But in order for these instructions to be used correctly, they must be transmitted in a language that the cells can read. That’s why, The DNA is transcribed into something called messenger RNA. and then, translated into proteinswhich will finally make all this information effective.
But not all genes eventually become proteins. There are some known as non-coding genes, which have other functions but are not translated. To select them, like a worker removing bad parts on a production line, our cells have a spliceosome. Its function is mainly remove unreadable messenger RNA fragments and drain the rest so that they can be converted into proteins.
It consists of two parts, large and small spliceosome. The first is the one that processes the most genes. However, in minors, associated genes are processed in priority order. for cell growth and division. Considering that tumors come from cells that divide uncontrollably, it would not be strange if there could be some connection with cancer. Indeed, when these scientists were looking for a weak point there that would serve as a weapon against cancer, they found it.
Weak spot for fighting cancer
These scientists analyzed several samples advanced prostate cancer and noticed that they had more a special component of the minor spliceosome.
This important discovery indicates that, as they suspected, tumor cells will promote the synthesis of proteins that help them continue to divide. So they thought it might be the key to a future cancer drug, but they had to test it.
To do this, they resorted tolaboratory-grown cancer cells and organelles. These are small organs designed to study certain drugs. In both cases, they found that blocking this component of the minor spliceosome reduced the growth of prostate cancer. We might rightly think that this cannot be extrapolated beyond laboratory cultures. But another interesting fact is that when they compared the effects of this blockade with those of conventional treatments for prostate cancerhis new discovery was more efficient.
With all this, these scientists have already filed a patent application to continue the study of this weak spot located in the spliceosome. Since many other cancers multiply in the same way as prostate cancer, they suspect that this can be ideally extrapolated. There are still many steps ahead, but opening doors to new paths always increases chances of reaching the goal.
Source: Hiper Textual
