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Sorry, no - scientists do NOT say that - they've found a tumour suppressor, not a cure for cancer. A tumour suppressor is something that normally prevents the uncontrolled division of cells, which can then occur if it is lost for whatever reason. It is NOT A CURE FOR CANCER, but is potentially a target for developing therapies. Here's the abstract;
The E3 ligase HACE1 is a critical chromosome 6q21
tumor suppressor involved in multiple cancers
Liyong Zhang1,2,5, Michael S Anglesio3,5, Maureen O’Sullivan3, Fan Zhang3, Ge Yang2, Renu Sarao1,2,
Mai P Nghiem1,2, Shane Cronin1, Hiromitsu Hara1, Nataliya Melnyk3, Liheng Li3, Teiji Wada1,
Peter P Liu2, Jason Farrar4, Robert J Arceci4, Poul H Sorensen3 & Josef M Penninger1
Transformation and cancer growth are regulated by the coordinate actions of oncogenes and tumor suppressors. Here,
we show that the novel E3 ubiquitin ligase HACE1 is frequently downregulated in human tumors and maps to a region of
chromosome 6q21 implicated in multiple human cancers. Genetic inactivation of HACE1 in mice results in the development
of spontaneous, late-onset cancer. A second hit from either environmental triggers or genetic heterozygosity of another tumor
suppressor, p53, markedly increased tumor incidence in a Hace1-deficient background. Re-expression of HACE1 in human
tumor cells directly abrogates in vitro and in vivo tumor growth, whereas downregulation of HACE1 via siRNA allows
non-tumorigenic human cells to form tumors in vivo. Mechanistically, the tumor-suppressor function of HACE1 is dependent
on its E3 ligase activity and HACE1 controls adhesion-dependent growth and cell cycle progression during cell stress
through degradation of cyclin D1. Thus, HACE1 is a candidate chromosome 6q21 tumor-suppressor gene involved in
multiple cancers.
Findings like these are important, but happen regularly. Also, the team was lead by Penninger, not Sorensen. Uncontrolled growth is also not necessarily the big problem with cancers - there are multiple reasons why they're fatal, including metastasis (cancer cells being able to escape the place that they started, and spreading to elsewhere, where they're sometimes able to start a new tumour forming).
Last edited by babychickens; 16-08-2007 at 11:38.
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