Decoded: How key defence protein triggers cancer
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London: A team of Swiss and Russian scientists has decoded how a defence protein that fights viral infections in our body takes advantage of a weakness in our DNA replication process to induce mutations in our genome, leading to cancer.
The defence protein called “APOBEC” is a useful yet dangerous, intrinsic cellular protein.
The researchers have observed that mutations induced by APOBEC can be found in many tumourous cells throughout the genome.
How can APOBEC - which can affect only single-stranded DNA - be the cause of so many cancers in human beings?
“We were very surprised to observe that in APOBEC cancers, the mutation rate is equally distributed in all regions. When APOBEC is involved, mutations occur early during replication, and affect important genes,” explained Vladimir Seplyarskiy from the Russian Academy of Sciences and fist author of this study.
The defence protein called “APOBEC” is a useful yet dangerous, intrinsic cellular protein.
The researchers have observed that mutations induced by APOBEC can be found in many tumourous cells throughout the genome.
How can APOBEC - which can affect only single-stranded DNA - be the cause of so many cancers in human beings?
“We were very surprised to observe that in APOBEC cancers, the mutation rate is equally distributed in all regions. When APOBEC is involved, mutations occur early during replication, and affect important genes,” explained Vladimir Seplyarskiy from the Russian Academy of Sciences and fist author of this study.
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