January 13, 1998
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Scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered a previously unknown genetic mechanism by which tumor suppressor genes can inhibit the growth of cancer cells in humans.
In an article in the Jan. 15 issue of the journal Nature, the UIC researchers report that the gene INGI, which they discovered a year ago in collaboration with researchers at the University of Calgary, is a crucial partner to the well-known tumor suppressor gene p53.
The discovery of INGI and its action will immediately influence the search for genetic therapies for cancer, as well as the diagnosis of disease.
"A year ago it was clear that this gene, INGI, could be important," said Andrei Gudkov, an assistant professor of molecular genetics at UIC and leader of the laboratory where the work was done.
"This paper shows that INGI is in direct cooperation with one of the most important known tumor suppressors, p53, which determines a cell's response to numerous types of stress. The proteins encoded by the two genes physically interact in a cell, and one cannot work without the other."
About half of all human tumors lose functional p53. In the tumors that retain the p53 gene, Gudkov suspects, the malignancy could be related to a failure of the closely-related INGI gene. INGI, in fact, may be a tumor suppressor itself.
Finding the INGI gene required the use of a new cloning technology, called the "genetic suppressor element" approach, that was developed at UIC. The technology was designed to identify genes involved in cell growth inhibition.
Researchers from UIC and their collaborators from the Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow, who are co-authors of the Nature paper, continue to use the approach to search for other tumor suppressor genes. - UIC -
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