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Scientists Find Potential New Cancer Therapy

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Scientists Find Potential New Cancer Therapy

Wed Aug 7,10:38 AM ET

By Sonali

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australian scientists have found that

a master gene appears to play a key role in switching on and

off genes that kill cells, a discovery that could offer a new

way to fight cancer.

Researchers at Monash Institute in Melbourne found that

after deleting the molecule ETS1 from mouse embryonic stem

cells, the cells were less susceptible to programmed cell death

or apoptosis.

Apoptosis is the body's way of killing cells, including

pre-cancerous or damaged cells, that it does not want or need.

"It means that one day, cancers may be able to be treated

with therapies that focus on ETS1 in addition to the pathways

through which it works," Monash Institute of Reproduction and

Development researcher Dakang Xu said on Wednesday.

The findings, published in the European Molecular Biology

Organization Journal on August 1, identified the mechanism by

which ETS1 contributes to cell death.

As a potential target for fighting cancer, drug companies

could look to enhance the function of ETS1 to kill

pre-cancerous cells, said Xu's colleague Trevor .

"We've identified this in a mouse model system. The next

step is to go ahead and determine exactly what cancers and what

proportion of cancers this is really occurring in," told

Reuters.

To get the research from this stage to clinical trials

would take roughly another five to 10 years, he said.

The cells in the experiments were not cancer cells, but

said embryonic stem cells in culture, as used in the

research, mutate in ways similar to pre-cancerous cells.

Work on ETS1 could also have a role in future embryonic

stem cell research, which hinges on finding how cells grow,

differentiate and die as they transform themselves into the

different tissues of the body.

Stem cell research is a hot topic as scientists believe the

master cells could provide repair kits for a range of problems

from diabetes to spinal injuries.

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