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news.In a breakthrough that may point the way to the development of future treatments, scientists from Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin have shown how a gene works in suppressing tumor formation and protecting humans from cancer.
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According to the researchers, the “Quaking” gene is likely to suppress tumor growth by inhibiting production of a protein associated with GLI1, a cancer-causing oncogene highly associated with severe birth defects and several childhood cancers.
“Results of the study open a new research direction for issues ranging from cancer formation to environmental interactions in development and will point the way to similar mechanisms of control in other genes,” said Dr Philip Iannaccone, professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University, and lead researcher in the study.
The form of regulation the researchers discovered occurs after the gene makes messenger RNA, the first step toward making a protein that controls cell fate.
Once the messenger RNA leaves the cell, it participates in a process called translation, during which the cellular machinery makes a protein by linking amino acids together according to the plan described in the messenger RNA and thereby based on the information from the DNA sequence of the gene.