RNA interference is a natural process by which RNA molecules inhibit gene expression, but it can also be used by scientists to block a gene’s function and look for those that contribute to certain diseases. "For years, fruit flies and worms have been great model organisms because of the ability to carry out rapid genetic screens," says Elaine Fuchs, Rebecca C…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs, gefitinib (Iressa) and erlotinib (Tarceva), are prescribed for lung and pancreatic cancer patients but only a few who have mutations in the EGFR gene usually benefit with a prolonged reduction of tumor size. The two drugs block the gene’s ramped-up protein production, but patients’ response to the drug varies widely — from no survival benefit to several years. The average is several months. …
Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, found a genetic variant that influences the ageing process among four new variants they linked to myeloma — one of the most common types of blood cancer. …
The researchers analyzed DNA sequence variations in 651 non-small cell lung cancer patients, paying close attention to 53 inflammation-related genes. They found that four of the top 15 variants associated with survival were located on one specific gene (TNFRSF10B). In the study, these variants increased the risk of death as much as 41 percent. …
In the current issue of PLoS Genetics, Michigan State University genetic scientists have begun to understand how the rest of the genome interacts with such mutations to cause the differences we see among individuals. "It’s been known for a while that genetic mutations can modify each other’s effects," said Ian Dworkin, MSU associate professor of zoology and co-author of the paper. "And we also know that the subtle differences in an individual’s genome — what scientists call wild type genetic background — also affects how mutations are manifested." Dworkin and Sudarshan Chari, zoology doctoral student and the paper’s lead author, wanted to know how common it was for wild type genetic background to alter the way genetic mutations interact with each other. …
The technique could lead to earlier and more accurate diagnoses of genetic diseases, even when the embryo consists of only eight cells. The study was led by Guoping Fan, professor of human genetics and molecular biology and member of both the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. The findings were published in the online edition of the journal Nature and will appear later in the print edition…
The research, published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology today (Thursday), provides a comprehensive picture of the risk of developing various different types of cancer in families where there is a history of the disease, and is one of the few large studies of this kind that takes into account other important factors, such as individual characteristics and lifestyles, that could affect the degree of risk as well. Results from the study supported known associations, such as the increased risk of developing the same cancer as a close relative, and the 1.5-fold increased risk of breast cancer in women with a history of colorectal cancer in the family. However, the study also found a 3.3-fold increased risk of developing oral and pharyngeal cancer among people who had a first-degree relative with cancer of the larynx, and a four-fold increased risk of cancer of the gullet (esophageal cancer) where a first-degree relative had oral or pharyngeal cancer. If a first-degree relative had breast cancer, female family members had a 2.3-fold increased risk of ovarian cancer…
"We split the samples into two groups: poor responders who had gone less than 100 days after treatment before the progression of their disease, and strong responders who had made it more than 300 days after their treatment without disease progression. Then we could explore the genetic differences between these two groups," says Dawn Duval, PhD, CU Cancer Center investigator and associate professor of molecular oncology at Colorado State University. Specifically, Duval and colleagues including first author Deanna Dailey, DVM, looked at the expression of a protein called HES1, which is used as a proxy to test for NOTCH activation. High HES1 means that upstream, NOTCH is firing…
The findings were published July 11 in Molecular Cell. Telomeres have been compared to the plastic tips at the end of shoelaces because they prevent the ends of chromosomes from fraying and sticking to each other, which scrambles the genetic information and may promote cancer…
In a report published on July 9 in the journal eLife, the Johns Hopkins scientists describe how a cluster of four phosphate groups, first found 13 years ago to bind to PTEN’s tail, controls its activity. …