Scientists in the US have discovered a cancer-promoting gene that acts like a master switch, helping to turn on other cancer genes. The New York-based researchers believe new drugs could block the master gene and so reduce the risk of cancer.
A team led by Dr Pier Paolo Pandolfi, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, made the discovery, details of which are published today in Nature.
Named Pokemon by the investigators, the key gene acts to promote other cancer genes that lead normal cells to become cancerous, Dr Pandolfi said.
"There are a number of genes that can cause cancer, the so-called oncogenes, but Pokemon is unique in that it is needed for other oncogenes to cause cancer," he explained.
"More important, because the Pokemon protein plays such a crucial role in the formation of cancer, it could prove to be an effective target for new drug therapies."
The researchers tested the protein produced by Pokemon (for POK Erythroid Myeloid Ontogenic factor) both in vitro using cultured cells and in mouse models.
In both cases increased Pokemon availability also increased the transformation of healthy cells to cancerous cells.
They blocked Pokemon production in mice and found that cancers did not arise, even when the mice carried other oncogenes known to promote tumours.
They also tested for Pokemon levels in human patients who already had cancers. They found it was present at "very high levels" in a subset of a variety of cancers, including those of the lymph, breast, lung, colon, prostate and bladder.
"If we could turn Pokemon off, it may block this oncogenic circuitry and stall the malignant process," Dr Pandolfi said.