The link is here
I'm sorry I tried to find an English site, but my google skills are weak. It's in spanish, I'll post a google translation from the original site.
This is very good news. If somebody finds English news sources please post.El Pais translated by google wrote:A new gene to stop cancer.
An investigation directed from the United States by a Spanish has identified a gene that interferes with the ability to act on the cancer cells and suppresses. The discovery of this new cancer suppressor gene, called AHRR (SOW repressor of hydrocarbon receptor aril) is promising as it opens a new window for the investigation of new ways to stem the growth of tumors. Researchers have found beneficial effects suppressor gene in cancers of the lung, breast, stomach, colon, testis, ovary and uterus.
The suppressor gene has been observed in animals and in clinical cases.
In cancer cells the gene suppressor 'AHRR' is deactivated.
A person who does not have cancer, oncogenes and suppressor genes of the disease have normal functions within the body and its expression levels are balanced. However, a person who has the disease are totally unbalanced these genes: oncogenes are overexpressed and suppressors are disabled. What this new work has found is the relationship between oncogene AHRR and that should be deleted. Both in animal models as well as in cases of cancers in people, the research group has observed how cancer cells within this suppressor gene is completely disabled.
The work, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, was led by Spanish Enrique Zudaire from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States. Zudaire, who works in the division of Angiogenesis National Cancer Institute in the suburbs of Washington, explains telephone conversation that the identification of this gene is important because it has been serving in different types of cancers and also because if it reactivates within of a tumor, it ceases to grow and cancer cells are deteriorating and end up dying. Also, a healthy cell becomes cancerous if he disables the expression of AHRR.
"We have seen both models in vitro and in biopsies of human tumors that tumor cells have found a mechanism to block the expression of the suppressor gene and the fact that we have observed in many types of cancers, including lung, colon, ovary , breast and esophagus tells us that this is a very generalized mechanism, "says Zudaire. The investigator Navarre, which has been seven years working for the NIH in the United States, puts as an example the cases of polyps in the colon, which can range from a stadium in which they are not to become a malignant cancer, to explain the relationship of AHRR at different stages of cancer. "We saw that as polyps are more carcinogenic level suppressor gene is decreasing," he explains. "A more levels tumoricidad less presence of AHRR."
This gene acts as a repressor of oncogene (ARH receiver Oil aril), a molecule that responds to environmental contaminants such as benzopyrenes, dioxins and various components of the smoke and snuff whose role in the development of tumors has been shown. Zudaire, doctor of Cell Biology at the University of Navarre, explained that the AHRR is located on chromosome 5 and that some earlier research had suggested that in this part of the DNA could have cancer suppressor genes, but until now had not been identified. This is the first research that identifies the AHRR as a suppressor gene.
New therapeutic options:
Looking at the levels of expression of this gene in a biopsy can be reached know at what stage is the tumor. According Zudaire, this test is relatively simple to do. But the most interesting discovery is in their therapeutic options. The identification of the gene and its activity or inactivity in cells open the door to research into new drugs that may revive its expression in cancer cells and stem the growth of a tumor.
Now the intention of Zudaire and his colleagues further research is to better understand the genetic mechanism of this activity in cancer cells to learn how to reactivate its expression. So far, investigators know that the gene is deleted AHRR through a biochemical process modification which is called DNA methylation. When gene promoter metila is AHRR, the expression of it is silenced. "In colon cancers, ovarian and cervical note that 100% of the promoter is methylated.
According to the investigator Navarre, the reactivation of the gene can be achieved through gene therapy with the reintroduction of this gene or seeking ways to reverse the methylation of which we spoke earlier. Zudaire said that there are already some drugs that are undergoing clinical research that can reverse the methylation. "We are testing how the existing drugs and what to see is whether methylation always happens and at what level," explains Zudaire. "To know we need a much deeper investigation" Reduced ability to create blood vessels.
The results of this study published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation by the team of Enrique Zudaire also have application in the spread of cancers from the place where it has originated elsewhere in the body, a phenomenon known as metastasis, and that is they actually worsens the prognosis for a malignant tumor.
The spread of cancer cells occurs mainly via blood through angiogenesis, which is a physiological process that consists in the formation of new blood vessels from other existing ones.
The angiogenesis contributes to cancer cells oxygen and nutrients to continue to multiply. Moreover, once they penetrate the blood vessels, are transported to another part of the body that caused the metastasis of the tumor.
"The blockade of angiogenesis is a very important aspect in cancer research and in the case of AHRR suppressor gene, we have seen that if he is activated, the ability of the tumor to create new blood vessels is lower, and therefore has less promise to produce metastasis, "explains Zudaire.
In this paper, designed by Zudaire and Angiogenesis department director of the National Cancer Institute of the United States, Frank Cuttitta, have also participated three other Spanish researchers. One of them, Alfredo Martinez, is a researcher of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) in Madrid.
