Scimex: An Australian-led study has used small molecules to target DNA regions
and silence them, successfully blocking the genes that a cancer cell
needs to move around the body. The researchers say that this method
could offer an alternative way to control the spread of cancerous cells,
making it difficult for them to shift location and metastasize
elsewhere in the body. They find here that promoter directed small antisense non-coding RNAs (sasRNAs) can induce transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) of Periostin that results ultimately in a loss of cellular motility. The observations suggest that cell motility and possibly metastasis can be controlled by transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of Periostin offering a potentially new and novel manner to control the spread of cancerous cells.
