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.
Pika pika pika PIIIIKA!
My first thought was: the Onion, scrappleface, surely they are not series.
Actually, it is breaking news.
This is the master oncogene.
I guess I was just an optimist about Cancer and was hoping for a cure sooner than what we now know is possible, we just identified the enemy, now the work starts to try and eliminate it... Years of research for the drug/treatment, Years of testing for DFA approval... So 15-20 years :(
>>``This is very serious and the name was serendipitous, pure serendipity,''<<
If they wanted it named after a cartoon character, they could've named it Serendipity Dawg.
Seriesly, I hope this is true.
Wow, now to make it so that it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to find out if you have that gene.
Sounds like we are getting closer to the cure.
"master oncogene"??????
Not what they are saying.
Great. Now not only will I not give up smoking but I want a refund on the sin tax the government has been screwing me out of.
"It does take time to find vital information, and often too late for many."
Let me just say, before I leave this thread, that my own mother died way too early from cancer. She was only 60.
And I have so much faith in the ability of scientists, biologists, physicists, to find out answers to important questions. So yes, we need to support these organizations.
I just want donations to go solving a problem, not providing a job for a bureaucrat, or even worse, generous salaries for the top brass. I think most people feel like that.
bttt
And now you know why.
http://www.therazor.org/oldroot/Summer02/actup.htm
Thats not what I said, but isolating a gene is pretty basic science given the time and money we and spent on this disease.
"Pokemon is a member of a family of proteins that are known to be transcription factors and are mutated in human cancer," said Takahiro Maeda, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Pandolfi's laboratory who was the paper's first author. "It is likely that the protein plays a role in solid tumors as well, and we now have means to specifically interfere with the activity of these transcription factors."
The title of the thread is misleading, and has been altered.
My mother also died of cancer from a brain tumor...she had just turned 41. I hate that word and how it not only ravages the body, but ruins families that could have been. I hope your mother didn't suffer horribly from pain.
I've only been using it on and off for about 48 years. (get it...on and off....electricity....oh never mind)
Thanks very much for posting this fascinating article.
I wonder, though, if I'm the only one who noticed the two names, Dr. Carlos Cardon-Cardo, and Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi...I honestly thought it was a joke, at first...;-D
Thats just Govt. dollars, what about other funds charities etc. for like what 40 years 50 years?
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