To age cancer cells
Cellular aging – against cancerStemcells.Ru
Irreversible cessation of cell growth – a process called cellular aging – may be one of the internal mechanisms suppressing tumor growth.
It is assumed that oncogen-induced aging is always preceded by increased cell reproduction, accompanied by replication errors and activation of the reaction to DNA damage. All this makes the enhancement of this process unsuitable for therapeutic use in the treatment of cancer.
A group of American scientists from Harvard Medical School on a mouse model of prostate cancer showed that inactivation of tumor-suppressing phosphatase and deletion of the tensin homologue on chromosome 10 (Pten) causes an aging reaction that counteracts tumor formation. In the following series of experiments, it was shown that cellular aging caused by the loss of Pten is different from aging caused by oncogenes, and this process can be used to treat oncological diseases.
Using mouse fibroblasts, the scientists determined that cellular aging occurs immediately after Pten inactivation, without prior enhanced cell reproduction, accompanied by replication errors and activation of the reaction to DNA damage. Moreover, the translation of p53 is enhanced. It has been shown that in mice, p53 stabilizing agents enhance cellular aging caused by Pten inactivation and its ability to suppress tumor development. Pharmacological suppression of Pten in vivo also causes aging and suppresses the development of tumors, which was shown in the xenograft model of human prostate cancer.
Thus, the experimental results suggest that aging of this type can be caused in non-dividing cells and is not associated with DNA damage, and the method can be used to prevent and treat cancer.
The research materials are presented in the article Alimonti A, et al. A novel type of cellular senescence that can be enhanced in mouse models and human tumor xenografts to suppress prostate tumorigenesis. J Clin Invest. 2010 Mar 1;120(3):681-93.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru12.04.2010