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Scientists identify a single 'master' gene that seems to turn on cancer-causing action of other gene
NYNEWSDAY.COM ^ | Friday, January 21, 2005 | Delthia Ricks

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.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cancer; cancergene; gene; health; masterblaster; mastergene; pokemon; science
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To: WestVirginiaRebel
What does Pikichu have to say about this?

Pika pika pika PIIIIKA!

41 posted on 01/21/2005 4:55:55 PM PST by null and void (I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top...)
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To: Main Street
An international team of scientists ... a gene they dubbed ``Pokemon.''

My first thought was: the Onion, scrappleface, surely they are not series.

42 posted on 01/21/2005 4:56:28 PM PST by Michael.SF. ("My only regret in life is neither of my kids is gay." Sharon Osborn)
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To: RedBloodedAmerican

Actually, it is breaking news.

This is the master oncogene.


43 posted on 01/21/2005 4:56:33 PM PST by rwfromkansas ("War is an ugly thing, but...the decayed feeling...which thinks nothing worth war, is worse." -Mill)
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To: Main Street
I hope someday they can cure neuroblastoma. And other cancers that kill kids. There is nothing worse than watching a little one die like that. Nothing.
44 posted on 01/21/2005 4:57:13 PM PST by isthisnickcool (What do they do in the mosque on days when the guys in the front row have gas?)
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To: ScottFromSpokane

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 :(


45 posted on 01/21/2005 4:57:35 PM PST by Echo Talon
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To: Main Street

>>``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.


46 posted on 01/21/2005 4:57:36 PM PST by SerpentDove
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To: Main Street; Nightshift

Wow, now to make it so that it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to find out if you have that gene.


47 posted on 01/21/2005 4:57:48 PM PST by tutstar ( <{{--->< http://ripe4change.4-all.org Violations of Florida Statutes ongoing!)
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To: Main Street

Sounds like we are getting closer to the cure.


48 posted on 01/21/2005 4:58:15 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
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To: rwfromkansas

"master oncogene"??????

Not what they are saying.


49 posted on 01/21/2005 4:58:19 PM PST by RedBloodedAmerican (...........IN GOD WE TRUST..........everything else is just target practice............)
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To: Main Street

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.


50 posted on 01/21/2005 4:58:33 PM PST by Normal4me
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To: rwfromkansas

"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.


51 posted on 01/21/2005 5:00:01 PM PST by proud American in Canada
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To: Main Street

bttt


52 posted on 01/21/2005 5:00:41 PM PST by nicmarlo
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To: freebilly
I've always hated Pokemon....

And now you know why.

53 posted on 01/21/2005 5:00:42 PM PST by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: Echo Talon
Divide the money by the deaths and the US government spends $243,210 trying (and failing) to prevent each AIDS death - while only spending $11,613 attempting to save the life of a man who dies from prostate cancer. Sources: CDC: Table 53.

http://www.therazor.org/oldroot/Summer02/actup.htm

54 posted on 01/21/2005 5:00:54 PM PST by sure_fine (*not one to over kill the thought process*)
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To: Endeavor
You'd rather we did no research? Yeah, that'd be effective.

Thats not what I said, but isolating a gene is pretty basic science given the time and money we and spent on this disease.

55 posted on 01/21/2005 5:01:24 PM PST by Echo Talon
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To: rwfromkansas
From the author of the paper:

"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.

56 posted on 01/21/2005 5:01:27 PM PST by RedBloodedAmerican (...........IN GOD WE TRUST..........everything else is just target practice............)
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To: proud American in Canada

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.


57 posted on 01/21/2005 5:02:53 PM PST by nicmarlo
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
...we've been using electricity for ~100 years ...

I've only been using it on and off for about 48 years. (get it...on and off....electricity....oh never mind)

58 posted on 01/21/2005 5:03:26 PM PST by FReepaholic (Proud FReeper since 1998. Proud monthly donor.)
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To: Main Street

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


59 posted on 01/21/2005 5:03:27 PM PST by Judith Anne (Thank you St. Jude for favors granted.)
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To: sure_fine

Thats just Govt. dollars, what about other funds charities etc. for like what 40 years 50 years?


60 posted on 01/21/2005 5:04:35 PM PST by Echo Talon
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