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Genetic disease prevents the development of cancer
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Scientists have noticed: patients suffering from Hattington's disease, practically do not get sick with oncology.
It turned out that the gene responsible for the development of brain damage simultaneously stimulates the synthesis of its own anti-cancer substance in the body.
Researchers representing the Northwestern University of Chicago provided a description of the experiment using a specific molecule for the treatment of rodents with a cancerous process in the ovaries.
"A specific molecule proved to be the ideal killer of any cancer cell. Previously, we have not yet encountered such a powerful anti-tumor weapon, "- says one of the authors of the experiment, Markus Peter.
Scientists assure: based on the discovered substance, a new universal drug will soon be developed that can successfully treat malignant processes, and also prevent their development.
Sad can be called only the fact that such a discovery of scientists led to another serious disease.
Huntington's disease is a genetic disorder of the nervous system, in which neurons are gradually destroyed. This pathology is not treated, but with time only worsens. The disease does not belong to the common: for example, in America about 30 thousand people are ill with pathology. Additionally under supervision there are about 200 thousand people with adverse heredity.
To date, there is no cure for this disease. This is a rare gene error, which consists in repeated repetition of an individual nucleotide sequence in DNA code.
What did the scientists discover? Malignant cells of a cancerous tumor have an increased vulnerability to short interfering RNAs. This moment allows doctors to get the opportunity to use genetic weapons in the fight against cancer.
"We believe that it is quite possible to cure a cancer tumor for a couple of weeks, without an adverse reaction affecting nerve cells, as with Huntington's disease," explains Dr. Peter.
Researchers have long been studying the question about the activity of the mechanism of cell death. In the course of an extreme study, they set the goal of finding a pathology with the required combination of factors: rapid tissue loss, minimization of cancer incidence and involvement of RNA in the process. More than others for the experiment, "approached" Huntington's disease. Scientists carefully studied the abnormal gene and found a remarkable picture: repeated repetition of C and G nucleotides is toxic for various cellular variations.
Specialists isolated short RNAs and tested them on the cellular structure of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, brain, liver, etc. The killer molecules demonstrated an unprecedented ability, causing the death of all tested forms of cancer processes. In this study included work on tumors, not only rodents, but also humans.
Molecules were delivered to the target using nanoparticles, which fell directly into the tumor tissue and were "unloaded" there. "The results showed that nanoparticles with short RNA suppressed the further growth of the malignant process, without harming the test organism and without causing resistance to the treatment," the experts concluded.
The study is described in the publication EMBO Reports.
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