A photo from open sources
The hero of Samuel L. Jackson in the movie M. Knight Shyamalana “Invulnerable” – a person born with a severe form of brittle syndrome bones – asks the hero of Bruce Willis, “is there in the world anyone like me, and if I’m at one end of the spectrum, maybe is it that there is my opposite on the other end? Someone, who is not sick, and who cannot be injured like the rest? “. Some cancer researchers are trying to answer the same question; however in real life, it’s not so easy to expose a superhero. We know, that women who inherited a defective copy of the BRCA1 breast cancer genes or BRCA2 are at high risk for developing breast cancer or ovaries – but cancer is not inevitable. Also we know that smokers are at increased risk of developing lung cancer, larynx and oral cavity – but not all of them. Why? The answer lies in the complexity of cancer. The first mutation that triggers the first idioblast along its path to the tumor, can be caused by a combination of any factors: genetic predisposition, radiation, chemical means, viruses. In the same way, any combination of factors may affect the direction in which it will later develop disease. Before you become truly dangerous, first a mutated cell must avoid everything that will be against it direct the body: DNA repair, stop cell division, programmed cell death, the immune system. From this Complexity follows a number of possible points of intervention. Many of them, especially related to the health of the immune system, at least partially related to lifestyle factors, but this article focuses will be made only on naturally born superheroes – that is, those who have inherited the genetic factors that protect them from cancer. Unusual suspects An offer to study people with known mutations that have the potential to develop cancer, but not ill with them – a grandiose, but this is not an easy task. If somebody doesn’t know that he has such a mutation and remains healthy, doctors and researchers cannot identify it as a subject interest. In addition, now many people who know about their presence such mutations may take precautions (e.g. Angelina’s recent proactive double amputation Jolie after she recognized the mutation status of her cancer gene breasts BRCA), and we don’t know if they would have developed cancer or not, if they had not taken these measures. All this leads to education. extremely small sample to study, which greatly complicates identification of subtle genetic correlations. However among the entire population can search for “superhero” genes, and associate finds with more specific groups, e.g. people with inherited mutations of the gene for breast cancer and other cancer susceptible genes. Finding Superman Many years ago scientist Michael Hayden conducted a workshop on the use of a very rare hereditary disease at one end of the spectrum, to find new ways to deal with common diseases at the other end of the spectrum. For example, Hayden found out about the family with hereditary inability to feel pain and managed to identify the defective protein responsible for this; recently his lab published the results of a preliminary drug test, aimed at the same protein in people without deviations, and able to introduce a whole new class of painkillers. TO Unfortunately, finding people with genetic protection against cancer isn’t simply. Man unable to feel pain from an early age will attract the attention of doctors when a week will go with a broken bone or show other external signs of mutation. However anyone with an unusual degree of genetic protection against cancer is unlikely to show something like that, making it harder to determine the appropriate gene variants and, based on this, find a way to prevent cancer other’s. But scientists are resourceful people, and even despite these restrictions, they begin to make progress. One approach is to search for gene variants in the entire population, comparing the nucleotide sequence of the gene of cancer patients and healthy people same age and with the same risk factors. For example, in 2004 year, a group of Angela Cox from the University of Sheffield sought connections between breast cancer and gene sequences, involved in programmed cell death. (This process, also known as apoptosis, is one of the protective mechanisms an organism that a cancer cell must bypass in order to continue develop into a tumor. Apoptosis can be triggered by several by intracellular signal transmission, each of which consists from several components; see diagram). Cox team found that women who have inherited an option called D302H in related apoptosis of the CASP8 gene were less likely to develop breast cancer glands. Since then it has been revealed that this option is associated with reduced risk of prostate cancer and other cancers, and in 2010, Community Hereditary Cancer Research Group Valencia reported that “CASP8 D302H polymorphism delays age the beginning of the development of breast cancer in carriers of BRCA1 and BRCA2 “- making carriers not completely invulnerable, but certainly more persistent than all of us. Latest technological advances mean that in this area of research, as in many others, large-scale studies of the full genome dominate. In 2011 year, a major European consortium for cancer genetics called COGS (Collaborative Cancer Gene Environment Study) published a series of documents describing the results of a major study connections of the whole genome with the participation of one hundred thousand patients with cancer and one hundred thousand healthy people. Study was designed to detect variants of genes that affect the risk of developing hormone indirect cancer (i.e., breast, ovarian and prostate gland). As expected, it was found that most gene variants increased cancer risk however there were several protective options have been identified. For example, option in a component of telomerase, which restores the servant structures protective shells of hormones found to be associated with longer membranes and a reduced risk of certain forms of breast cancer, including which breast cancer is associated with BRCA genes. Sequencing power the full genome is also used in studies of elderly people the age that escaped the most common causes of death, including number and cancer. Today, a number of so-called “super-age” studies of this type. Dr. Angela Brooks-Wilson leads a study that includes gene sequencing of older people aged 85 years and older who are in good health, who have never been diagnosed with cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes or illness Alzheimer’s. Research has just begun, but they are entrusted big hopes.
DNA Life
