A recent study from MD Anderson provides insight into a protein complex that plays a significant role in cancer.
In the study at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer center, similarities were drawn between bean sprouts and human cancer. In the sprouts, amino acids known as a protein complex, allows them to grow longer in the dark than in the light. In humans, there is a similar protein complex called CSN, which is thought to be a cancer-causing gene that impacts another gene, tied to the growth of tumors.
The study, led by Mong-Hong Lee, Ph.D, a professor of molecular and cellular oncology, may lead in the future to a new pathway for treating and killing tumors.
The full article can be accessed here.
New Research Leads to Potential Treatments
Exciting new research leads to potential treatments for GIST in the future. Tamas Ordog, member of the LRG Research Team at the Mayo Clinic is working on cutting-edge research on the interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC), which generate electrical rhythms in the gastrointestinal tracts. He is involved in identifying isolated ICC precursors and animal models of diabetes, eating disorders, aging and gastrointestinal stromal tumors, which will hopefully lead to novel therapies for restoring normal ICC networks and making neoplastic ICC more sensitive to targeted cancer therapies.
As Dr. Lee said about the MD Anderson study, “This has the potential to unlock a promising and completely new door to effectively eliminating tumors and suppressing cancers that overexpress Myc.” Myc is a gene that is linked to tumor growth.
