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Down's syndrome reveals one key to fighting cancer
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 20 - 05 - 2009


People with Down's syndrome
rarely get most kinds of cancer and U.S. researchers have
nailed down one reason why -- they have extra copies of a gene
that helps keep tumors from feeding themselves, according to Reuters.
The findings could lead to new treatments for cancer, the
researchers reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday, and
further study of Down's patients might reveal more ways to
fight tumors.
The researchers at Harvard University and elsewhere made
use of a new kind of embryonic-like stem cell called an induced
pluripotent stem cell or iPS cell. These cells, made from
ordinary skin, can be transformed to act like powerful stem
cells, the body's master cells.
Using iPS cells from a volunteer with Down's syndrome and
mice genetically engineered to have a version of the condition,
the researchers pinpointed one gene that protects against
tumors.
"It is, perhaps, inspiring that the Down's syndrome
population provides us with new insight into mechanisms that
regulate cancer growth," they wrote.
Down's syndrome is the most common genetic cause of mental
retardation, occurring in 1 out of 700 live births.
The Down's syndrome theory had long been explored by
Harvard's Dr. Judah Folkman, who died last year. Folkman, whose
name is on the study, developed theories about how tumor cells
grow blood vessels to nourish themselves in a process called
angiogenesis.
Folkman also noticed how rare cancer is among Down's
patients, except for leukemia, and he wondered whether the
genes explain why. A study of nearly 18,000 Down's patients
showed they had 10 percent the expected rate of cancer.
People with Down's syndrome have a third copy of chromosome
21, where most people have two copies. The extra copy gives
them extra versions of 231 different genes.
"One such gene is Down's syndrome candidate region-1
(DSCR1, also known as RCAN1)," Harvard's Sandra Ryeom and
colleagues wrote.
This gene codes for a protein that suppresses vascular
endothelial growth factor or VEGF -- one of the compounds
necessary for angiogenesis.
Down's patients have extra amounts of this DSCR1 protein,
as do the genetically engineered Down's mice, the researchers
showed. Genetically engineered mice with an extra copy of DSCR1
were resistant to tumors.
DSCR1 affects a compound called calcineurin, long a focus
of cancer research.


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