Researchers identify two oncogenes that stimulate the development of medulloblastoma

Researchers identify two oncogenes that stimulate the development of medulloblastoma -

A study identifies two new oncogenes that cause the child's brain cancer when activated

A new collaborative study by researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical research Institute (Sanford-Burnham), UC San Diego, the German Centre for research on cancer, the University of Heidelberg (Germany), and 33 other research institutions identified two oncogenes, called GFI1 and Gfi1b, this drive the development of medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor in children.
results, published June 22 in Nature , suggest that GFI1 and Gfi1b are worthy candidate genes for molecular targeted therapy.
"Technology use state-of-the-art probe the genomes of tumors derived from patients with medulloblastoma, we identified new oncogenes that stimulate the growth of a significant proportion of the Group 3 and 4 medulloblastoma. patients with group 3 and 4 tumors had poorer results and smaller treatment options for all patients with medulloblastoma, "said Robert Wechsler-Reya, Ph.D., director of the induction program and maintenance of tumors in Sanford-Burnham, and co-author of the paper up.
Current therapy for patients with medulloblastoma includes surgery, radiation therapy and high-dose chemotherapy. Although these therapies have a significant impact on tumor growth, many children ultimately relapse and die of the disease. Furthermore, survivors suffer profound effects, including long term side cognitive deficits and increased susceptibility to other cancers to more aggressive treatment.
"in the future, we expect that genetic profiles of medulloblastoma tumors lead to markers that allow us to adjust the treatment of a patient to target genes which are actually stimulate growth of the tumor. Our results are promising in that they can ultimately lead to clinical trials genetically informed of new agents that target the genetic variations we discovered, "said Wechsler-Reya.
Misuse activators genes
the study also revealed how oncogenes-normal inactive in good health-brains are activated in medulloblastoma by elements "hijack" without DNA report called "activators". activators are short regions of DNA that activate genes, and there are hundreds of thousands of them in the human genome.
"chromosomal rearrangements merging oncogenes with activators has been observed in lymphoid cancers, such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, "said Wechsler-Reya." But this is the first report of this phenomenon in brain tumors. "
chromosomal rearrangements occur when the DNA double helix segments are deleted, amplify or switch positions that disturb the normal order and sequence of genes.
" rearrangements genes that activate oncogenes have implications for genomics reaching cancer, "said Paul Northcott, Ph.D., senior researcher at the German cancer Research Center and co-first author of the study. "It will be interesting to examine the genomes of other cancers using sophisticated analytical tools today to see if the process of activating oncogenes activation diversion is wider than we currently understand.
" in addition, these rearrangements leading to activation Gfi1b GFI1 and open new promising avenues for treatment of patients with medulloblastoma, that new therapies targeting specific enhancers their way now in clinical trials for other cancers. enhancers targeting bypasses some caveats associated with direct targeting of oncogenes themselves can be notoriously difficult to inhibit, "added Northcott.