Death triggered in cancer-prone intestinal cells
Mon Sep 3, 2007 6:32am EDT
Free $50,000 Practice Account.HONG KONG (Reuters) - Researchers in
Singapore have worked out a way to kill intestinal stem cells that
may develop into colorectal cancer, the second largest cause of
cancer related deaths in western countries.
Writing in the latest issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, the
scientists said this potential method of cancer prevention had to do
with the protein Wip 1, which appears to bring down the risk of
cancer when it is inactivated.
In their experiment, the researchers cross bred male mice suffering
from intestinal polyps with Wip 1-deficient female mice - and their
offspring turned out to be relatively cancer free. Intestinal polyps
can develop into colorectal cancer over time.
"Presumably they were supposed to develop cancer because they got
this bad gene from the fathers, but it is not going to be working
because ... (of the good thing from the mothers)," Dmitry Bulavin,
principal investigator at Singapore's Institute of Molecular and Cell
Biology, said in a telephone interview.
While the adult male mice each had 70 adenomas in their intestines,
their offspring each had only 5 adenomas.
Adenomas are growths in many organs which are benign at first and
could progress to become malignant.
Looking ahead, the scientists will work towards narrowing down the
particular molecule in Wip 1 that suppresses cancer.
"We are trying to identify this potential molecule that can mimic Wip
1 deficiency ... so hypothetically, if you inject this small
molecule, then you would be able to suppress (the development of
cancer)," Bulavin said.
"This study is primarily about cancer prevention. If you are a group
of people who are predisposed to cancer, you need to have something
to suppress the cancer ... you don't want to have terrible side
effects," he added.
"So if you look at the Wip 1 mice, they live normal life spans, they
don't have accelerated aging and they are cancer resistant."
http://www.reuters.
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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