Mar

8

Molecules That Control Our Cancer Destiny

Posted by cameron

March 8, 2007 |

In a recent post I wrote about breakthroughs in our understanding of the P53 gene. Although experimental successes have been achieved, cancer reversion occurred, meaning our understanding is far from complete. The P53 gene wields the power of life and death over cells in our body. It is supposed to kill mutant cells and let the good ones live. If it doesn’t cause mutant cell death then cancer can follow.

But the story is more complex. There is a protein molecule called the P300, which has a say in how P53 performs. It controls the controller. P300 has the ability to tell P53 how severely it can handle a cell. Shall it command the cell to commit suicide or merely put it to sleep? That appears to be one role of P300. If a mutant cell is merely put to sleep then it can live to fight another day, and how many times do we hear about cancer coming back? That is not what we want. The bottom line is that we need both P53 and P300 doing the right thing. So researchers looking at P300 and those looking at P53 need to come together. They cannot treat them independently.

In another interesting and related piece of research, the BBC reported on how this same mechanism causes cancer cells to escape chemotherapy death. Chemotherapy targets cancerous cells and damages the DNA. P53 recognizes that faulty cell and commands it to “commit suicide”. That is, unless P300 tells it to merely put the cell to sleep. So the effectiveness of chemotherapy is governed by P300. To understand it better, scientists in the UK have tested the impact of radiation on human cells with and without P300. Those without P300 and an active P53 successfully killed damaged cells. Those with an active P300 often just put bad cells to sleep and did not actually kill them. It seems that when tumor growth is stopped the cells are merely sleeping and they will “wake up” up one day.

This is a fascinating time in our history when solutions will be found to the worst scourges of mankind, if not for me then for my children and their children


Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. That Darn P53 gene again :: Empty Nest on August 18, 2007 5:38 pm

    [...] buried within this tiny regulator of our cellular systems. You can read my previous posts here and here. It was recently reported in Scientific American that the P53 is instrumental in protecting our [...]

  2. p53 on May 1, 2008 6:31 pm

    [...] Control Our Cancer DestinyThe p53 gene wields the power of life and death over cells in our body.http://empty-nest.contentquake.com/2007/03/08/molecules-that-control-our-cancer-destiny/IARC TP53 DATABASE - WelcomePetitjean A, Mathe E, Kato S, Ishioka C, Tavtigian SV, Hainaut P, [...]

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