W ASHINGTON , DC - Scientists have discovered a gene that some cancer cells destined to a period of limited life. Experts hope that the finding, reported this week at the American Society for the Annual Meeting of Cell Biology, could eventually lead to a new type of gene therapy for cancer.
Most adult human cells are at rest, meaning they stopped dividing, after receiving certain biochemical signals. But even without these signals, most cells will eventually stop dividing themselves, to achieve a permanent sort of quiescence called "senescence". signals cancer cells to ignore becoming idle, and many types never reach senescence. They are called immortal, because, in theory, they could continue to divide forever.
By using a careful combination of trial and error and standard genetic techniques, gerontologist Olivia Pereira-Smith and colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Texas, have now found a gene that ends in immortality one of the four classes of immortal cells. They used cell lines of brain cancer and cervical cancer. Based on its sequence, the group says the gene may encode a transcription factor, a protein that controls the expression of other genes -. Perhaps those that give the cells of limited life
The conclusion "will give us insight into the entire process of [cellular] immortality," says Harvey Ozer, a molecular biologist and cell at the New Jersey medical school in Newark, because this is the first time that researchers have found a gene involved in the process. the gene could one day be used to treat cancer, Ozer said. "If you should find a way of introducing a normal version of this [gene] in [patient's] cancer cell, you might stop growing. "
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