Group of researchers from the New York City, Rome and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have found major results that indicate a genetic link to cancer. The study has developed ways in which normal and cancer development can be driven and manipulated. The researchers have unearthed ways in which the genes present in the body respond and work in the background to encourage the growth of cancer cells. The studies have been published in Cell magazine. RNA groups have been unearthed that might be responsible for the development of cancer. The study has provided a new dimension to understanding the menace of cancer that has now become more common than ever before with the number of cancer patients in the United States increasing every year.
Four papers have been published on similar subject and each of them deal with a different aspect of growth and development of cancer. DNA and RNA in the body are responsible for the genetic makeup in a person. According to what is known until now, DNA sends instructions to the RNA, which in turn instructs and controls the genetic function. The new study has now unearthed a new role that RNA plans – that as a trigger for cancer. It is also known for its middle-management. It is, in fact, a whole group of interrelated cells in the body and the RNA of one gene has the power of controlling the RNA of other genes. In other words, the functioning of RNA of one gene can be controlled by hundreds of other genes.
The research has found that PTEN, which is an important gene responsible for suppressing tumors, can be controlled by a large group of RNA that are not recognized. This might cause a change in the functioning of the PTEN gene, which might reduce its ability to suppress tumor growths. This change in function of the tumor suppressor makes it as dangerous as mutations that cause cancer. The results of this study can be used to develop new forms of treatment that can be more beneficial than the existing treatments. The director of the Cancer Genetics Programs at BIDMC, Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi and a professor of medicine in Harvard Medical School, George C. Reisman who have together been the lead researchers of the study said that breaking the interaction of PTEN with the unrecognized set of RNA and “rewiring” them can instill back their ability to suppress tumors and hence, prevent cancers.