Scientists unlock cancer gene

Medical experts have made a breakthrough in cancer treatment after unlocking the secrets of a gene which could combat the condition, it was announced today.

The naturally-occurring human gene, called Alternate Reading Frame (Arf), appears to shield healthy cells from "sinister signals" which may otherwise turn them cancerous.

A team of scientists at the University of Dundee found that mimicking the action of the keystone molecule, commonly known as Arf, could herald an exciting anti-cancer treatment.

The scientists believe such a procedure could kill cancer cells outright, or at least make them more sensitive to the effects of chemotherapy.

Their study is published in the international scientific medical journal, Molecular Cell.

Dr Neil Perkins, who leads the Cancer Research UK-funded team at the Division of Gene Regulation and Expression at Dundee, said today: "We've uncovered an important natural mechanism which protects healthy cells from cancer, but which we think occasionally malfunctions to allow some cancerous cells to slip through the net.

"Knowing how the safeguard works is an important advance, because it highlights a new and potentially valuable route to attack cancer cells."

The scientists investigated whether Arf, which controls the growth of and destroys damaged cells, could prevent some of the critical stages in the development of cancer.

They found that feeding it to cancer cells knocked out the action of NF-kappaB, a molecule which encourages the transformation of healthy cells to cancerous ones.

Researchers believe that during the development of cancer, Arf becomes inactive, leaving NF-kappaB free to encourage the disease to progress.

Knocking out NF-kappaB could be an effective treatment, they said, since it might prevent cells from reacting to messages telling them to grow and spread.

In healthy tissue, NF-kappaB, which also operates as a barrier for anti-cancer drugs, is usually only activated in response to infection or cell damage, helping tissue to recover and keeping damaged cells alive.

In cancer, its function becomes subverted and it uses these abilities to allow tumours to resist the cell-killing effects of chemotherapy.

Dr Richard Sullivan, head of clinical programmes for Cancer Research UK, said today that because cancer was an incredibly complex group of diseases, research had to remain innovative and wide-ranging if ways of tackling some of the more stubborn forms were to be found.

"This study has suggested an intriguing new avenue of attack against cancer, which aims to exploit one of the body's own defence mechanisms to keep the disease at bay," he said.

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