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Scientists have developed a new method of treating blood cancer
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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In the United States, three thousand new cases of mantle cell lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, are recorded each year. With this diagnosis, the average life expectancy of a patient is about five to seven years, depending on the clinical picture of the disease.
Tel Aviv University staff have developed a new method for treating mantle cell lymphoma, which is based on the phenomenon of RNA interference.
One of the characteristics that can predict the development of mantle cell lymphoma is increased activity of the CCND1 gene, which encodes the protein Cyclin D1, whose function is to regulate cell proliferation.
As a result of the hyperactivity of the mutated CCND1, there is an overproduction of Cyclin D1 in thousand-fold volumes, which leads to uncontrolled growth of neoplasms.
Scientists have already attempted to "switch off" the CCND1 gene, but they have not been successful. Therefore, the researchers decided to use one of the natural processes of suppressing gene hyperexpression - RNA interference.
Their method, proven in experiments with human cells, is published in the journal PLoS One.
During the suppression process, the Dicer enzyme cuts long double-stranded RNA molecules into short fragments of 21-25 nucleotides in length. These enzymes then participate in a protein complex that is involved in damaging the messenger RNA, which results in suppression of gene expression.
RNA interference is part of the immune response to foreign genetic material. The process is activated by introducing double-stranded RNA, specially synthesized and complementary to a given gene.
“The fact that in mantle cell lymphoma, excess Cyclin D1 also triggers the production of B cells, cells that can produce antibodies in tandem with antigen, makes it an excellent target for RNA interference. This is because the process affects precisely those tumor cells that have excess Cyclin D1,” the researchers say.
As a result, it was discovered that with the help of this method, the growth of tumor cells stops and the process of malignant cell death begins.
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