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microRNA Inhibits Cancer Gene in Human Cancer Cells
By admin | June 12, 2006
The June edition of Cancer Cell offers new research from Peter A. Jones and colleagues that “demonstrates that agents known to regulate gene expression can also impact regulatory RNAs that may function as tumor suppressors in normal cells and proposes a novel strategy for treating human cancers.”
- DNA methylation and histone deacetylation are epigenetic processes involved in the regulation of gene expression. In the case of cancer, these processes are thought to turn off genes that may protect cells from abnormal cell growth. Drugs that inhibit DNA methylation and histone deacetylation, known as chromatin-modifying drugs, can reactivate genes that have been abnormally silenced in cancer cells. It is conceivable that these processes may also regulate expression of some RNAs.
MicroRNA (miRNA) is small and noncoding RNA that can regulate gene expression by inhibiting protein translation. Recent research has implicated miRNAs in cancer development and has led to the observation that some miRNAs are reduced in various human cancers and may normally function as tumor suppressors. According to study author Dr. Peter A. Jones from the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, “Although the biological importance of miRNA is becoming increasingly apparent, regulation of miRNA expression is not fully understood.”
Dr. Jones and his colleagues examined whether miRNAs can be controlled by epigenetic alterations linked to chromatin remodeling. Cancer cells and normal cells were treated with chromatin-remodeling drugs to simultaneously inhibit DNA methylation and histone deacetylation. A subset of miRNAs was upregulated in the cancer cells but not the normal cells. Importantly, miR-127, which is downregulated in 75% of the human cancer cells tested, was highly induced after treatment with the chromatin-remodeling drugs. Induction of miR-127 resulted in downregulation of BCL6, a known proto-oncogene. Therefore, induction of miR-127 by treatment with chromatin-remodeling drugs may have an anticancer effect.
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Topics: cancer, commentary, research articles |
June 19th, 2006 at 11:05 am
[...] A new carnival devoted to covering the latest writing in the realm of genetics, Mendel’s Garden, has published its debut edition at The force that through…. Among the myriad of links included is one to a primer on a interference RNA (RNAi), including microRNA (miRNA), that may provide some helpful background information pertaining to the recent research implicating miRNA in the inhibition of a cancer gene in human cancer cells. Link [...]