Protein identified as cancer trigger

Scientists have identified a protein that regulates the expression of hundreds of genes and may have a significant effect on cancers and other tumours.

A study by researchers Raul Mendez, ICREA Research Professor at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Barcelona, and Pilar Navarro at the Institut de Recerca Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, have discovered a protein that is responsible for a reprogramming mechanism that turns healthy cells into tumour cells.

Published in the Nature Medicine journal, the pair explained that protein CPEB4 activates hundreds of genes that are associated with tumour and cancer growth.

Furthermore, tumours that developed in the absence of CPEB4 were found to be around 80 per cent smaller than those where it was present.

The study only focussed on two types of cancer but the co-authors said: "Given the effects observed in the tumours examined and the type of genes regulated by this mechanism, it is expected to be involved in many other types of cancer."

The study opens new possibilities for cancer treatments in the future.

Posted by Neil Clark