It all points in a certain direction, and suggests that there’s a rationale for the selective targeting of cancer cells.
- Shankar Balasubramanian
Scientists have identified where a four-stranded version of DNA exists within the genome of human cells, and suggest that it may hold a key to developing new, targeted therapies for cancer.
In work funded by Cancer Research UK and EMBO, the researchers, from the University of Cambridge, found that these quadruple helix structures occur in the regions of DNA that control genes, particularly cancer genes, suggesting that they may play a role in switching genes on or off. The results, reported in the journal Nature Genetics, could also have implications for cancer diagnostics and the development of new targeted treatments.
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Image: Crystal structure of parallel quadruplexes from human telomeric DNA.
Credit: Thomas Splettstoesser
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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