Cancer mutation found

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* Cancer mutation found:

 

Biologists say they have found a mutation implicated in at least four

types of cancer.

 

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070704_akt.htm

 

Biologists report that they have found a mutation implicated in at least

four types of cancer. The finding may add a key piece of information to

medicine’s arsenal of cancer-fighting strategies, the

researchers say. Like many other genes involved in cancer, the gene,

called AKT1, plays a role in cell growth and multiplication. Cancers of

all types are characterized by uncontrolled cell growth and

proliferation, which produces tumors. Dozens of cancer genes have been

identified already. But AKT1 could be a major addition to this list,

researchers said. This is because it’s a “central member

of possibly the most frequently activated†pathway of chemical

signals involved in cell multiplication and survival in cancer, they

wrote. Their paper describing the findings is to appear in an upcoming

issue of the research journal Nature. AKT1 is a member of a family of

proteins whose mutations have been suspected culprits in cancer. But to

date, no one had found a direct connection in the form of actual

mutations in the genes lurking in tumors. The new work by Kerry L.

Blanchard of Eli Lilly Co. in Indianapolis and colleagues suggest such a

direct role, the research team said. AKT1’s function is to

produce a protein molecule that can travel from inside the cell to the

inner side of the surface. There, it passes along signals from other

molecules that come from outside the cell, lodge on its surface and pass

chemical messages inside. Such messages include various commands

relating to growth and multiplication. The mutation in AKT1 causes a

change in its electrical interactions with other molecules, such that it

becomes abnormally “activated,†Blanchard and colleagues

said. The result is that the proteins go too often to the cell surface

location where they’re active. This disrupts the signaling and

makes cells cancerous. The team identified a recurrent mutation in the

AKT1 gene in samples from breast, colorectal and ovarian tumors. When

transferred into mice, the mutant form of AKT1 also induced leukaemia in

the rodents, they found. It’s too early to say how the findings

could translate into treatments, the researchers wrote, though one

possibility is that tests of AKT1 activation might eventually reveal

whether a patient will respond to a particular therapy.