Doctor+Creates+a+new+Tumor+Suppressor

[|Docter creates a new tumor suppressor] March 24, 2008

At Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. William Kaelin and other colleagues, try to identify a potential new neuronal tumor suppressor. They did this by putting the neural crest cells under normal developing conditions hoping that it will respond to diminishing growth factors signaling by inducing apoptosis ( a natural process of self-destruction in certain cells) using a pathway involving the enzyme EglN3. But what they found is the acquisition of mutations that enable cells to avoid apoptosis under low growth factor conditions which actually is a growth advantage to tumorigenesis (formation of tumors). Dr. Kaelin later found out that the problem was a protein (KIF1B{beta}) that mediates EglN3-induced neuronal apoptosis which resulted in the growth of tumors. While further research is needed to explain the mechanism by which the protein, KIF1B{beta}, induces apoptosis, this work opens up several avenues for investigation. Dr. Kaelin points out that an interesting possibility is that an increase in the enzyme EglN3’s activity is responsible for the spur-of-the-moment reversion that is frequently observed in new born babies who present with Neuroblastoma ( a nasty tumor of immature nerve cells ). ehamilton March 10, 2010