Protein is linked to lung cancer development

Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 03:14 in Health & Medicine

A protein that normally helps defend cells from infection can play a critical role in the development of lung cancer, according to MIT cancer biologists. Their findings suggest that the protein, NF-kappaB, could be a promising target for new drugs against lung cancer, which kills more than one million people each year. NF-kappaB is a transcription factor protein that is normally activated when a cell is under attack from a virus or bacterium. Previous studies have suggested that constant activation of NF-kappaB enhances survival of tumor cells. In the new study, reported in the Oct. 22 issue of Nature, the MIT team found that a particular pair of genetic circumstances is required to activate NF-kappaB in mouse lung tumors: expression of the cancer gene ras, and loss of the tumor suppressor gene p53. They also showed that inhibition of NF-kappaB in mice with that genetic profile can...

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