Ancient viruses that function in early human development may play role in cancer
Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - 09:30
in Biology & Nature
Novel non-coding parts of the human genome known as vlincRNAs (very long intergenic, non-coding RNAs) triggered by ancient viruses, participate in the biology of stem cells, and in the development of cancer. Importantly, scientists found that the elimination of these vlincRNAs caused the death of cancer cells.