British scientists from the University of East Anglia (UEA) have discovered that a “rogue gene” which helps cancer spread around the body could be blocked with the right kind of drugs and could stop many types of the disease in their tracks.
The researchers said their findings could lead to the development of new medicines to halt a critical late stage of the disease known as metastasis.
The researchers explained in their study that the culprit gene is an enzymic bonding agent found inside cancer cells.
It attacks and breaks down a naturally occurring protein in the body, which normally prevents cancer cells from spreading.
The UEA team found in laboratory tests that blocking the culprit gene’s levels, the natural inhibitor proteins were boosted and the cancer cells remained dormant.
Surinder Soond, who worked on the study, told Reuters that it was a “novel and exciting approach to treating cancer and the spread of tumors which holds great potential.”
“The challenge now is to identify a potent drug that will get inside cancer cells and destroy the activity of the rogue gene,” Andrew Chantry of UEA’s school of biological sciences, who led the research, told Reuters.
He said this was “a difficult but not impossible task” and one that would be made easier by the better understanding of the biological processes gained in this early research.
Chantry said in a telephone interview that the findings mean drugs could be developed in the next 10 years that could be used to halt the aggressive spread of many forms of cancer.
He said that if a drug was developed that deactivated the gene, conventional therapies like chemotherapy and radiotherapy could be used on primary tumors with no risk of the disease taking hold elsewhere.
Chantry said that his team is now working with other scientists to try and design a drug that could interrupt the gene’s activity.
The study results were published in today’s issue of Oncogene.
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