Cancer is typically triggered by some kind of change to our genetic coding that interferes with a cell's ability to manage its growth. Targeting these

Scientists Just Identified Hundreds of Genes That Could Cause Cancer

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2024-09-20 16:00:17

Cancer is typically triggered by some kind of change to our genetic coding that interferes with a cell's ability to manage its growth. Targeting these disruptions with tailored treatments can often prevent tumors from expanding out of control.

To date, more than 600 genes are known to cause tumors when their sequences are spoiled by a mutation. Yet there are other ways cancers can emerge on the pathway between a gene's transcription and its end product.

Where most previous research in the field has looked at abnormalities inherent in the DNA itself, this study looks at abnormalities that occur as the instructions from DNA are passed on to the rest of the body.

Researchers from the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) in Spain used carefully constructed algorithms to look for bugs in the genetic code related to exons: the parts of a genetic sequence that translate directly into proteins.

Non-coding parts of a gene, called introns, are typically removed as a gene's DNA is transcribed into an RNA version in a process called splicing. Cancer cells can interfere with splicing to create mutated proteins from an otherwise normal, unmutated protein gene.