Turning Off Cancer Cells?
Reported September 07, 2009
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — A team of Syracuse University researchers discovered a molecular switch they believe could prevent the production of cells found in several types of cancer, including leukemia. They discovered the switch within the Mixed Lineage Leukemia (MLL) protein complex.
Biologist Michael Cosgrove, assistant professor in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences, led the research team. Anamika Patel, a post-doctoral researcher in Cosgrove’s lab assisted.
In the course of their research to better understand MLL, a protein switch that helps regulate the formation of white blood cells, Cosgrove’s research group discovered a new molecular switch within the MLL complex, which they labeled W-RAD.
“We thought that MLL was the only switching mechanism present in this protein complex,” Cosgrove was quoted as saying. “However, we discovered the complex is really two switches.”
In normal cells, MLL combines with four proteins that comprise the W-RAD group to create a molecular switch that controls DNA events required to form white blood cells. When the MLL switch is broken, white blood cells do not mature properly, resulting in a dangerous proliferation of abnormal cells.
Similarly, the proteins that form the W-RAD complex are overproduced in several types of cancer cells, but until now, scientists did not know the function of these proteins. Cosgrove’s group discovered that the W-RAD proteins form a new kind of switch.
“The W-RAD switching mechanism signals the cell to create multiple copies of cancer cells,” Cosgrove said. “If we can find a way to turn off this switch, we might be able to slow or stop the production of abnormal cells and convert them to normal cells.”
SOURCE: Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC), September 4, 2009
