Scientists at Northwestern and the University of Wisconsin have shown that a gene suppresses tumor formation in mice, and a similar gene might protect people from cancer.
Their research introduces a new way to study cancer and could advance cancer treatment and prevention, said Philip Iannaccone, the study’s lead researcher.
“This is very fundamental science, but it’s a new way of looking at cancer,” said Iannaccone, a pediatrics professor for the Feinberg School of Medicine and deputy director for basic research at Children’s Memorial Research Center. “It may lead to therapeutic approaches, but that’s not on the radar screen yet.”
The researchers found that the Quaking gene in mice stops tumor growth by interfering with the production of a protein associated with a cancer-causing gene, GLI1. This protein is associated with birth defects and childhood cancers.
The Quaking gene is now recognized as a “fundamental mechanism for regulating protein production,” said David Walterhouse, one of the study’s researchers and a pediatrics professor at Feinberg.
“It’s a whole new possible approach,” Walterhouse said. “Targeting cancer-causing genes at the time they make a protein by blocking with the Quaking gene is a new strategy.”
The four scientists who worked on this research published their work Nov. 1 in the journal Developmental Biology. NU scientists and researchers have been studying GLI1 for about 10 years, but Quaking gene research began five years ago, Walterhouse said.
Elizabeth Goodwin, one of the scientists and a professor of genetics at Wisconsin, discovered a version of the Quaking gene in worms when she worked at NU. Olga Lakiza, a postdoctoral pediatrics fellow at Feinberg, was the fourth scientist and author.
The scientists studied the Quaking gene that exists in mice for their published article. Humans have an equivalent gene, Iannaccone said.
With this new discovery, the scientists will examine how the Quaking gene’s proteins “stick,” or attach themselves, to RNA and GLI1, Iannaccone said. This interaction has not been researched at length before and will allow scientists to understand how Quaking proteins repress cancer, he said.
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