Researchers in Canada have made a discovery they hope will one day lead to better treatments for cancer.
The study details
The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta is studying DNA and how this complex universe of cells works within cancer. They have discovered an enzyme that repairs DNA. When cancer cells move into a system, doctor’s typically use radiation to zap the cancer cells, but this enzymes the Canadian team has found works to repair those cancer cells.
The team of scientist has isolated this enzyme and now they want to see if they can stop it from “fixing” cancer cells and essentially helping them grow.
“We’ve trapped the enzyme bound to the damaged DNA before it actually repairs the damage. One of the surprising things that comes out of this study is that we also see that the enzyme has to unwind the DNA double helix,” said Mark Glover professor in the Department of Biochemistry.
The next step
Cancer cells become resistant to treatment after awhile, but Glover and his team are hoping this new information will lead them to other treatments.
“We find a lot of tumors become resistant to radiation and chemotherapy,” said Glover. “The holy grail of cancer therapy is to find drugs that we could give to people that would sensitize their tumors to these therapies. One way you could sensitize tumors is to target what they’re using to repair damaged DNA.”
Glover has already moved on to the next step of his study, which is to find compounds that might work as inhibitors, stopping the enzyme from repairing harmful cells.
“It requires a lot of basic research to find out what’s going on in all these different cancers,” he said but he hopes the research will eventually help patients fight deadly cancers in a new way.
