The City of Hope, based in Duarte, California, the U.S. leading research,
treatment and education center for cancer, diabetes and other
life-threatening disease, and designated as a comprehensive cancer
center, recently released a study made by its researchers, Drs.
Sanjay Awasthi and Sharad Singhal, in the Journal of Biological
Chemistry, that may pave the way for a cure for cancer, and an end to
obesity.
The study
made by the two scientists discovered that deleting the gene that
produces protein RLIP76 in mice kept the rodents from developing
cancer and becoming overweight. This particular protein, RLIP76, is
little in number in normal cells, but it is numerous in cancer cells.
Thus, the
researchers got the idea to turn off the RLIP-producing gene in mice,
and so far, ten types of cancer were tested on the animals. According
to Dr. Awasthi, RLIP works like a fan, with an exhaust sucking out
toxins from cells. He continued to say that, after turning off the
RLIP-producing gene, the lab-tested mice became almost completely
resistant to those types of cancer. “You can’t even take a cancer
and implant it into their skin because the cancer fails to grow,”
Awasthi said.
Moreover,
they found out that blocking RLIP production prevented mice in the
study from gaining excess weight, even when given a high-fat diet. At
the same time, the two researchers stumbled upon a surprising
side-effect: “Inhibiting (the gene) causes the blood sugar to drop,
the cholesterol to drop and triglycerides to drop,” Dr. Awasthi
said.
In
addition, the team also discovered that inhibiting the growth of the
gene did not have any adverse impact on all the mice they studied,
for their regular cells have all the RLIP they need, which means the
protein is not completely lost.
At this
point, Drs. Sanjay Awasthi and Sharad Singhal said that there are
some promising drugs that show the potential for blocking the protein
from forming in humans. They are now in the process of submitting an
application together for the Food and Drug Administration for an
approval to begin human trials within the year.
View City of Hope jobs at DiversityWorking, the largest job board online, and start a fulfilling career with this great diversity company.
No comments:
Post a Comment