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WEDNESDAY, April 19 (HealthDay News) -- A genetic switch involved in animal growth and development also helps normal cells from becoming cancerous, a U.S. study finds.
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and the University of Minnesota say the findings may lead to new kinds of cancer drugs.
Reporting in the April 18 issue of Current Biology, they studied a tiny roundworm called Caenorhabditis elegans, and found that a tumor suppressor gene called PTEN also functions to keep the animal in a waiting state by blocking cell growth when food is absent.
If the worms hatch from their eggs and are unable to find any food, they can remain in a young state for a long period of time without growing. When they do find food, they start growing and mature into adults. This process is controlled by PTEN. When PTEN is defective, young worms start to mature even when they have no food.
"The attempt of these animals to grow when they should not is not only analogous to the inappropriate growth and proliferation of cells during the formation of tumors in cancer, it also involves the same players," researcher Joel H. Rothman, a professor in the department of molecular, cellular and development biology at UCSB, said in a prepared statement.
He and his team found that PTEN functions with two other proteins (called protein kinases) that are also involved in cancer progression.
"Now that we have information about the switch that keeps animals developmentally arrested, we can readily identify other genes involved in this process," Rothman said.
Those other genes may also be involved in the formation of cancers and could offer new targets for cancer therapy.
More information
The American Cancer Society has more about cancer.
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