Imagine trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle, but some of the pieces are missing or duplicated. That’s how cancer cells are – they have abnormal numbers of chromosomes, a condition called aneuploidy.
But, does aneuploidy lead to cancer or is it simply a side effect of the disease? This has been a long-standing debate among scientists.
The Complexity of Aneuploidy
The mystery around aneuploidy is tough to solve because it involves big changes in DNA.
When entire parts of chromosomes are duplicated or deleted, it can impact hundreds or even thousands of genes, making it hard to figure out how it’s helping or hurting cancer cells.
About Aneuploidy and Cancer: An Unsettling Relationship
Aneuploidy is quite common in cancer. Almost 90% of human cancers have it. These abnormal chromosome numbers usually show up early in the development of cancer and tend to be linked with more severe outcomes.
The Road to a Breakthrough: BISCUT to the Rescue
To unravel the impact of aneuploidy on cancer, researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute developed a new computational tool called BISCUT.
They compared the changes in chromosomes in more than 10,000 cancer patients and managed to identify key regions that when duplicated or deleted, were either harmful or beneficial to cancer cells.
BISCUT: How Does It Work?
BISCUT is like a detective that can figure out where large changes in chromosomes begin and end. If these changes were random, then aneuploidy probably wasn’t affecting cancer growth.
But, if a specific region was often involved in a big chromosome change, it would suggest that aneuploidy was helping cancer cells to survive.
The Evidence Unfolds: Aneuploidy as a Driver of Cancer
BISCUT analysed a massive number of tumour samples. The results were striking: it discovered that aneuploidy does have an impact on how cancer cells survive.
It also found that cancer cells seemed to be picking and choosing certain chromosome changes, indicating that aneuploidy was not just a random byproduct of cancer but a key player in its progression.
An Unexpected Discovery: The WRN Gene
Interestingly, the research team discovered something new about a known cancer gene called WRN. It seems that cancer cells often remove parts of this gene.
In fact, almost a third of all cancers had a deletion in one part of chromosome 8 where the WRN gene is located.
This led the researchers to suspect that the loss of this gene might actually be helping cancer cells to survive.
Looking Ahead: New Hope for Cancer Treatment
This groundbreaking research offers a new angle to approach cancer treatment.
By understanding the specific roles of aneuploidy and genes like WRN in cancer, scientists can develop drugs that target these areas.
For example, drugs could be designed to specifically kill cancer cells that have lost parts of the WRN gene.
Conclusion: A New Era of Cancer Research
This new insight into the role of aneuploidy in cancer has paved the way for a more targeted and effective approach to cancer treatment. But, the journey isn’t over.
The data from the BISCUT analysis could lead to dozens more insights, pointing researchers toward new drug targets and ways to match patients with the most effective treatments.
In the world of cancer research, where roadblocks often seem insurmountable, every step forward brings renewed hope.
If you care about cancer, please see recent studies about new ways to increase the longevity of cancer survivors, and results showing new ways to supercharge cancer-fighting T cells.
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The study was published in Nature.
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