A doctoral thesis presented at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, show that three genes that lie behind a number of malignant tumour diseases are normally involved in several fundamental processes in the cell. This provides a possible explanation as to why tumours arise early in life and principally affect children and young people.
A family of genes known as the "FET" genes contains three genes that are found in modified forms in several malignant soft-tissue tumours and several forms of leukaemia. Within the tumour, FET genes are located in the form of what is known as ‘fusion genes’ in which parts of two different genes have merged to form one gene. Abnormal fusion proteins are translated from fusion genes, which can in certain cases transform normal cells to cancer cells.
Fats cells, nerve cells and intestinal cells are examples of a variety of specialised cell type that the body consists of. These are formed when stem cells multiply and mature gradually along different developmental pathways. Cancer may arise if something goes wrong in this process. Activities of the genes in the FET family fall as the cells mature. Scientists therefore suggest that these genes in the PET family play a role during the early stages of cell maturation. The normal maturation pathway of a cell becomes blocked when fusion genes that contain FET genes arise. The result is a cancer cell with properties similar to those of stem cells having the ability to multiply in an uncontrolled manner.
"We found that the FET genes are also involved in the response of the cell to external and internal stress, and when cells spread. Alterations of such processes are common in cancer cells", says Mattias Andersson.
Cancer cells develop when damage to several genes occur which usually takes a significant amount of time. However, since the FET genes are involved in several of the normal cell processes, scientists believe that in their rearranged form they can affect in parallel several of the control systems that prevent a normal cell from becoming a cancer cell. This may give rise to rapid development of cancer, and it may be the reason that tumours with FET fusion genes are often found in children and young people.
"Studying normal FET genes has increased our understanding of what may go wrong in cancer cells having rearrangements of these genes. This may in the long term lead to new methods of treatment for tumour diseases that contain FET fusion genes", says Mattias Andersson.
Available at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090310120355.htm
By 42042505
