Tag Archives: massachusetts

Cancer gene link

Leave a reply

A gene has been linked to at least three cancers in different tissues in the body, US researchers say.

Their findings, reported in the journal Science, showed a fifth of melanomas (skin cancer), Ewing’s sarcomas (bone) and glioblastomas (brain) had a defective copy of the gene STAG2.

It controls the way genetic material is divided between cells.

A cancer charity said the study provided researchers with new ways of tackling the disease.

Human genetic information is bound up in 23 pairs of chromosomes. When a cell divides in two, there should be 23 pairs in each of the two cells produced.

However, this does not always happen. Too many or too few chromosomes – known as aneuploidy – is common in cancer.

Cancer cells

Cancer cells

Researchers at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, have found a gene which controls that separation of genetic material.

Defective copies of STAG2 were found in 21% of Ewing’s sarcoma tumours, 19% of glioblastoma and 19% of melanoma.

Professor Todd Waldman said: “In the cancers we studied, mutations in STAG2 appear to be a first step in the transformation of a normal cell into a cancer cell.

“We are now looking at whether STAG2 might be mutated in breast, colon, lung, and other common human cancers.”


Researchers believe that if they can find a drug which targets cells with defective STAG2 they will be able to stop some cancers forming.

A separate study, also published in Science, looked at the affect of aneuploidy in yeast.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created 13 strains of yeast with an extra chromosome. In all cases, the yeast’s genetic code become less stable and more susceptible to mutation.

The study’s authors suggest the “instability could facilitate the development of genetic alternations that drive malignant growth in cancer.”

Dr Julie Sharp, senior science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “Scientists have known for more than 100 years that having too many or too few chromosomes is linked to cancer and these results suggest that this is not just a characteristic but a cause of the disease.

“Their discovery sheds light on how chromosome numbers can be altered when cells divide and presents researchers with new ways to tackle cancer by designing drugs to upset this chain of events.”

Virus killing super drug

1 Reply

Scientists may have found a cure for the common cold, flu, HIV – and almost any other virus you can think of.

A drug that homes in on infected cells and makes them self-destruct has been created in the laboratory.

Its hit list includes human rhinoviruses – the bugs behind half of colds in adults and almost all colds in children – flu, polio, a stomach bug and deadly dengue fever.

But the drug, known by the acronym DRACO, is also expected to zap measles and German measles, cold sores, rabies and even HIV – and could be on pharmacy shelves in a decade.

Researcher Mike Rider said: ‘It’s certainly possible that there’s some virus that we aren’t able to treat but we haven’t found it yet.

‘The discovery of antibiotics revolutionised the treatment of bacterial infections and we hope that this will revolutionise the treatment of viral infections.

‘There aren’t very many anti-viral drugs out there at the moment.’

Flu virus

Flu virus

Dr Rider, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S., has exploited cells’ natural defences against infection.

When viruses infect the body, they hijack cells’ internal machinery to make copy after copy of themselves. During this procedure they create long double-stranded strings of the genetic material RNA.

Our cells usually defend themselves by making proteins that latch on to the RNA and stop the virus from breeding.

But many viruses can outsmart this defence system.


So Dr Rider has also harnessed a second natural process called apoptosis, in which diseased cells commit suicide.

His drug homes in on cells with double-stranded RNA, stops the infection in its tracks and then kills the cells to finish off the infection.

What is more, healthy cells are untouched, the journal PLoS ONE reports.
In lab tests, DRACO killed 15 viruses, including germs behind the common cold and two types of flu. It also saved the lives of mice given a dose of flu that should have killed them.

Amazingly, it works so quickly that if taken early enough it should stop any symptoms from appearing. Tests show it also wards off viruses, meaning it could stop people from becoming ill in the first place.

British experts welcomed the breakthrough but warned that the drug works in such an unusual way that it would have to go through years of testing before it is considered safe enough to test on people for the first time.