The same genetic mechanism that drives tumor growth can also act as a tumor suppressor! Yes, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine researchers have solved this 100-year-old genetic puzzle!
This decoding of the age-old mystery could one day help develop new drug targets for cancer therapies. It was nearly a century ago, a common characteristic of cancer cells called ‘aneuploidy’ was first proposed as the cause of cancerous tumors. But, till this discovery, the German biologist, Theodor Boveri’s this hypothesis remained unproven.
Explaining the findings, Don Cleveland, Ph.D., UCSD Professor of Medicine, Neurosciences and Cellular and Molecular Medicine and member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research said,
We questioned whether the wrong number of chromosomes contributed to tumor growth, or was a consequences of the accrued damage in cancerous cells.
We found that, with age, having cells which inherited the wrong composition of chromosomes resulted in a larger number of spontaneous tumors.
Adding that in tumors, there is always a balance between uncontrolled growth and death, Cleveland further explained,
When we created mice missing a tumor suppressor gene that also had a high rate of aneuploidy, tumor development was actually sharply delayed.
The first author of the study, Beth A.A. Weaver, of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and UCSD Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine said,
This study opens up a whole series of potential therapeutic targets for cancer... By increasing the level of genetic damage, we can kill those tumor cells.
