Cancer gene may be key in treatment

OU Cancer Institute researchers have identified a gene that both causes and may prevent cancer.

The research appeared online Sunday in the cancer journal Oncogene.

Cancer biologist Shrikant Anant and colleagues have found the gene RBM3 can cause cells to become cancerous and cause cancer cells to die.

"For a normal cell to become a cancer cell, one of the requirements is that the cell starts dividing at a very fast rate in an uncontrollable manner,” Anant said.

Genes produce proteins. The RBM3 protein helps cells divide by attracting blood vessels and blood cells. Too much of this protein makes cells become cancerous.

"We are excited about this discovery because most cancers are thought to come from mutations in genes, and our studies, for the first time, have shown that too much of this type of protein actually causes normal cells to turn into cancer cells,” he said. The protein can also cause cancer cells to die, he said.

Instead of looking at mutations that lead to cancer, Anant and his team looked further back, at the complex interplay of proteins and genes that can lead to cancer.

A ‘different way of thinking'

Anant said his team identified the interplay between the gene and the protein.

"We had a different thought process,” he said, detailing how mutations don't adequately explain cancer.

"This is a very novel, different way of thinking, and this is the first protein to be identified,” Anant said.

Anant's team "silenced” the RBM3 protein, reducing its level in cancer cells and stopping them from growing.

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