Supersuppressor
Despite the fact that there are no two identical cancers, the basis of cell malignancy, as a rule, are two common mechanisms: overexpression of genes that stimulate tumor growth, and the loss of genes that normally suppress tumor formation.
Most of the techniques under development are aimed at modulating proteins and signaling pathways that exhibit hyperactivity in cancer cells, while the re–inclusion of "lost" proteins, such as the tumor suppressor PTEN and the p53 protein, is a much more difficult task.
Scientists from Boston Children's Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Solan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center have combined their knowledge of biology with nanotechnology, developing a method for delivering the PTEN gene into the cell, the product of which is able to suppress tumor growth. As a "carrier" of the gene, scientists have developed special targeted information (matrix) molecules RNA (mRNA), on which the cell's own ribosomes assemble the corresponding protein.
In experiments on prostate cancer cell culture, it was shown that hybrid polymer-lipid nanoparticles coated with polyethylene glycol and carrying the mRNA of the PTEN oncosuppressor gene are able to penetrate cells, thereby restoring the natural function of the cell to suppress tumor growth.
At the next stage of the study, the researchers used mice whose prostate cancer had begun to metastasize to the bones. The results of these experiments indicate the safety and effectiveness of the approach, since after the introduction of nanoparticles, a significant decrease in tumor size was observed due to the activation of the natural function of destroying cancer cells, but there was no decrease in the body weight of the experimental animals, as well as disruption of their internal organs.
Of course, before we can talk about the use of the technique in humans, it is necessary to study its effect on the body in more detail. Scientists plan to use the new method to combat other types of tumors, as well as to deliver mRNA of other oncosuppressors to the cell, for example, p53.
The article by Islam et al Restoration of tumour-growth suppression in vivo via systematic nanoparticle-mediated delivery of PTEN mRNA is published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
Anastasia Poznyak, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru / based on materials from Harvard Medical School: Super Suppressor.