Saturday, August 24, 2013

Study: cohesin mutations are common in melanoma and cancer of the bladder

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Study: cohesin mutations are common in melanoma and cancer of the bladder -

New mutations in cohesin proteins that are closely associated with cell division, are very common in various types of cancers such as bladder cancer and melanoma

massive sequencing of genomes of cancer highlights new genes every day that could be involved in the process of tumor formation. A good example of this is cohesin, a protein complex in a ring shape that embraces the DNA to control cell division. Just a few months and after several studies in the same direction, sequencing of thousands of tumor samples identified the gene-STAG2 whose product is part of cohesin-as one of the most frequently mutated gene in several types cancer such as bladder cancer and melanoma.

The challenge now is to understand the relationship between cohesin and the development and progression of cancer, an area where there is currently little data. Ana Losada, head of the Chromosome Dynamics Group at the Spanish National Centre for Cancer Research (CNIO), an international expert in cohesin, summarized in Nature Reviews Cancer the latest research on the role of cohesin, regulations ,. and its function was recently identified as a potential factor or facilitator for tumors

The article cohesin "prevents premature separation of sister chromatids [those that contain the duplicated genetic material before cell division]"; which facilitates both the equal distribution of genetic material between each daughter cell, and DNA repair.

"In recent years, several studies have added a new role for these complexes in maintaining the 3D structure of genome expression and the gene," said Losada. In this case, cohesin occurs during the interphase of the cell cycle where the cells do not divide, the longest in the cell cycle of life of a cell.

This new feature, besides the cells reproductive function, opens an unexplored field for the study of oncological diseases, which could help understand the functional importance of cohesin changes and their link Cancer.

bladder cancer, a paradigmatic case

review made special mention of several studies on cancer of the bladder, in which mutations STAG2 are the most common, which is "up to 30% of mutations in lower grade tumors and up to 10 to 15% in the most aggressive ones."

Among the mentioned studies is

Losada underlines that a better understanding of cohesin biology, and the generation of new animal models and cell deficient in these proteins could contribute to an improvement in the diagnosis and treatment of patients.

Since its discovery of cohesin in vertebrate organisms in the late 190s, Losada has continued to focus its research in this field of knowledge using different experimental models, such as the African frog Xenopus laevis or mouse.


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