Onderzoekers ontdekken nieuwe genen
die kanker aanjagen
Using new technologies that make it easier
to sequence the human genome, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive
Cancer Center have identified a series of genes that become fused when their chromosomes
trade places with each other. These recurrent gene fusions are thought to be the driving
mechanism that causes certain cancers to develop. The gene fusions discovered could
potentially serve as a marker one day for diagnosing cancer or as a target for future drug
development. In the new study, published in Nature, the researchers identified several
gene fusions in prostate cancer cells. Some of the fusions were seen in multiple cell
lines studied, while other gene fusions appeared only once. The fusions were found only in
cancer cells, and not in normal cells. We defined a new class of mutations in prostate
cancer. The recurrent fusions are thought to be the driving mechanism of cancer. But we
found other fusions as well, some of which were unique to individual patients. Our next
step is to understand if these play a role in driving disease," says Arul Chinnaiyan,
M.D., Ph.D., director of the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology and S.P. Hicks
Endowed Professor of Pathology at the U-M Medical School. Chinnaiyan's team was the first
to identify rearrangements in chromosomes and fused genes in prostate cancer. Gene fusions
had previously been known to play a role in blood cell cancers such as leukemia and
lymphoma, and in Ewing's sarcoma. In the current study, the researchers showed that newer
techniques could identify these gene fusions more quickly and easily.
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