
AsianScientist (Apr. 7, 2011) – A newly discovered hybrid gene appears to play a direct role in some stomach cancers, according to scientists from Singapore and South Korea.
The hybrid gene is a fusion of two separate genes, and is one of the first described in gastric cancer. Gastric cancer is the most lethal malignancy worldwide after lung cancer, and kills an estimated 740,000 people a year.
“This is an extremely exciting area, as it opens up a potential role for fusion genes in solid cancer diagnostics and treatment, similar to the fundamental role they have played in the blood cancers,” said Patrick Tan, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Program at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School.
Tan was principal investigator of the study published yesterday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
The research team – which also included scientists from the Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea – used a novel genomic approach to isolate the fusion gene.
The technology, called genomic breakpoint analysis (GBA), has been used to identify fusion genes in leukemia, but has had less success in pinpointing them in complex solid tumors.
By using the technology to home in on abnormal genes in 133 stomach cancer tumors and cell lines, the research group found evidence of a single genetic error that was common to four of the cancer samples.
Finding the error led the scientists to the CD44-SLC1A2 fusion gene, which resulted when two nearby genes blended into one. The SLC1A2 gene is associated with the metabolism of the amino acid glutamate, which can work like a fertilizer encouraging tumor growth and survival, while the CD44 gene serves as a sort of “on” switch.
Tan’s team estimates that the fusion gene may be at work in up to 2 percent of stomach cancers.
As part of the study, the researchers used a gene silencing approach to reduce the levels of CD44-SLC1A2 in cancer cell lines. They found that this caused a reduction in the glutamate levels of cancer cells, and made the cells more vulnerable to the effects of cisplatin, a common chemotherapy.
These findings may someday lead to improved therapies for this subset of stomach cancers.
The article can be found at: Tao J et al. (2011) CD44-SLC1A2 Gene Fusions in Gastric Cancer.
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Source: Duke Medicine.
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