Posted on 01/21/2005 4:30:24 PM PST by Main Street
Edited on 01/21/2005 4:58:27 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
A CLUE CALLED 'POKEMON'
Scientists identify a single 'master' gene that seems to turn on cancer-causing action of other errant genes
FRONT PAGE.
An international team of scientists believes it has found cancer's master switch with the discovery of a gene they dubbed ``Pokemon.''
Like the electronic game figures -- tiny monsters with bad tempers -- the cancer-triggering gene apparently instigates the misbehavior of other cancer-causing genes, leading to tumor formation.
In Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, in collaboration with teams in Japan and Britain, announced that the gene plays a key role in starting a malignancy. As a result, scientists now believe they have stumbled upon an important new target for an anti-cancer drug.
Dr. Carlos Cardon-Cardo, a molecular pathologist at the cancer center and a senior author of the research, defined Pokemon as an oncogene, which means it is capable of causing cancer. Dozens of oncogenes have been discovered over the past 25 years. But unlike the others, Cardon-Cardo said Pokemon has a governing role: It is needed for other genes to function. Eliminate Pokemon, he said, and you stop the activity of other cancer-causing genes.
``This is the master switch that interacts with other genes,'' Cardon-Cardo said. ``It acts differently than other oncogenes. Others regulate cell growth, but Pokemon impacts on critical properties of cancer cells.''
Among those key properties, Pokemon enhances a cancer cell's ability to resist aging and death. This immortalizing factor essentially endows cancer cells with a Peter Pan-like quality that renders them robust indefinitely, the very trait that makes tumors difficult to treat.
Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi, the study's lead investigator, said even though Pokemon shares a name with imaginary figures, whimsy was never intended. ``This is very serious and the name was serendipitous, pure serendipity,'' Pandolfi said. Pokemon stands for POK erythroid myeloid ontogenic factor.
Now they can worry about the problem of old age boredom and Viagra abuse.
Yes, and I should have to fend off Fox News babes with a pointy stick--not that I would.
"We know already that as an oncogene, Pokemon is involved in other ... tumors," and is likely active in a wide range of cancers: breast, prostate, bladder and lung malignancies, he said.
Pandolfi said the aim would be development of a drug that acts on the gene because it affects multiple forms of cancer, just as the drug Gleevec is used to treat a variety of distinct cancers that share one molecular flaw.
"This is going back to a unifying theme to understand how cancer works," Pandolfi said. "What is emerging is this idea that genes work in networks. Targeting specific sites will be important in drug development.
"Pharmaceutical companies do not like to invest in something like this when the gene is rare. This one is not."
This sounds like a major breakthrough. I hope people like John Edwards and the trial lawyers don't squelch future pharmaceutical research.
Is this an evolved state?
It's always been one of life's great ironies that organizations like the American Cancer Society have a vested interest in preservation of the disease. After, all, they are a big business. When they relocated from New York (or wherever) a few years ago they were wined and dined by many cities as if they were a manufacturing plant.
sad... funding will shift to those who are actually making the discoveries
Wow.
I've put some bubble gum on the end of my stick, hoping I can snare Janice Dean the Weather Machine...(Something to break the spell of my tagline)
NOT breaking news. They have known oncogenes trigger cancer for years.
Quick! Get Social Security into the Lockbox!!
Man is not God. It does take time to find vital information, and often too late for many.
"Will this make the American Cancer Society glad or sad?"
LOL!
Sad, I think.
However, they should take into account the mind/body connection between depression and sadness, and cancer. :)
It's only money, ACS! ;)
A lot of fundamentals are known about cancer in general, but since there are so many types of cancers, each with different mutations, it takes years to study the onset and manifestation of each.
Unfortunately, while there are many cancers which display mutations in a particular gene (one particular gene mutation= a specific cancer), there aren't many single genes that are implicated in being causative of many cancers.
It sounds like this new gene may fall into the latter group.
They know what it is. It's finding out why cells divide and don't die is the search.
This is good news. Too bad it won't save my Aunt. She going to die any day now from breast cancer. It will surely save many lives to come though.
I agree, Pokemon is very much worth hating. I hate cute stuff. Give me a 1940's Bugs Bunny cartoon where everybody got an anvil dropped on their head.
Who knows yet if this is The Answer. But there was a time when peptic ulcers were considered incurable. A whole industry grew up around reducing the harm from ulcers. It turned out to be a baterium treatable with antibiotics.
Cancer is probably the hardest medical problem this side of stopping ageing, but I think it will fall to Man's pursuit of a cure. So will heart disease.
You'd rather we did no research? Yeah, that'd be effective.
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