Scimex: Ground breaking cell biology research out of Adelaide's Centre for
Cancer Biology could open the door to new ways to stop the spread of
cancer. The researchers have discovered how RNAs, which are produced by
genes and control their activities, are made and how their production is
controlled.
Ground breaking cell biology research out of Adelaide's Centre for
Cancer Biology could open the door to new ways to stop the spread of
cancer.
The CCB's Gene Regulation Laboratory has discovered how
circular RNAs (ribonucleic acids) are made and how their production is
controlled.
Laboratory head Professor Greg Goodall says the
discovery could lead to new avenues for blocking cancer metastasis, the
name given to the spread of cancer through formation of secondary
tumours.
The research has been published today in Cell, the world's highest ranked journal in biological and medical sciences.
Prof
Goodall says in recent years biologists have been aware that genes can
produce various different types of RNA molecules that help to control
the activities of genes and the orderly functioning of cells.
"Very
recently they discovered that yet another, unusual type of RNA molecule
– circular RNA – is made in all tissues in the body, but they had
little idea of what the function of these circular RNA molecules might
be. It was even possible they were by-products of cellular processes
with no real function," he says.
Dr Simon Conn and colleagues in
the CCB's Gene Regulation Laboratory – aided by the powerful technology
of next generation DNA sequencing and high power bioinformatics provided
by the CCB's Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF) Cancer
Genomics Facility – have now discovered that these circular RNA
molecules are produced in a highly controlled way.
"However, we
found that their numbers increase dramatically when cells undergo a
process – called Epithial-to-Mesenchymal Transition, or EMT – that is
strongly linked to cancer metastasis," Prof Goodall says.
"We
also discovered that a protein, called Quaking, controls the
circularisation process. Because metastasis is what makes cancers
lethal, there is great hope that our discovery of how circular RNAs are
made and how their production is controlled will lead to new avenues for
blocking the growth and spread of cancers."
The research, titled: 'The RNA binding protein Quaking regulates formation of circRNAs', can be downloaded in full from Cell.
The Centre for Cancer Biology is an alliance between SA Pathology and the University of South Australia.