How is Breast Cancer Treated
Table of Contents
- What is cancer?
- How Does Cancer Develop?
- Genes that Cause Cancer
- Types of Cancer
- Molecular Targeted Therapy to Treat Breast Cancer – RNA-Binding Proteins | Modern Method Of Treatment
- What is YTHDF2?
- RNA-binding proteins role
What is cancer?
Cancer is a molecular disease where irregular cell division takes place with abnormal increase in cell and spread to other parts of the body. Cancer tumors may also be known as malignant. Malignant tumor is harmful as it spread in the body. Benign tumors do not spread into, or invade, nearby tissues. When removed, benign tumors usually don’t grow back, whereas malignant tumors sometimes do grow.
Normal cells only grow when they receive such signals whereas cancer cell grow in the absence of signals telling them to grow. Metastatic cancer is cancer that has spread from its original location in the body to another part of the body. The process called metastasis.
Signals that tell cells to cease dividing or die are ignored (a process known as programmed cell death, or apoptosis).
How Does Cancer Develop?
Cancer is a genetic disease and can happen like:-
- Cancer-causing genetic alterations.
- Cancer causing genes like oncogenes that get active.
- As a result of mistakes that occur when cells divide.
- Irregular in Cell cycle.
- Hazardous compounds in the environment, such as chemicals in cigarette smoke and UV rays from the sun, cause DNA damage.
Genes that Cause Cancer
The three types of gene that cause cancer are: – Proto-oncogenes, tumour suppressor genes, and DNA repair genes are all affected by the genetic alterations that contribute to cancer. These changes are commonly referred to as cancer’s “drivers”.
Types of Cancer
- Carcinoma – epithelial cells caner.
- Sarcoma – bone and soft tissues, including muscle, fat, blood vessels, lymph vessels, and fibrous tissue cancer.
- Leukemia – blood-forming tissue of the bone marrow cancer.
- Lymphoma – lymphocytes (T cells or B cells) cancer.
- Multiple Myeloma – plasma cells cancer.
- Melanoma – melanocytes cancer.
- Brain and Spinal Cord Tumors – CNS cancer.
- Germ Cell Tumors – cells that give rise to sperm or eggs cancer.
- Neuroendocrine Tumors – endocrine & nervous system cancer.
- Carcinoid Tumors – neuroendocrine cancer.
Molecular Targeted Therapy to Treat Breast Cancer – RNA-Binding Proteins | Modern Method Of Treatment
Breast cancer has been identified as the most common malignant tumors among women and the morbidity of breast cancer is still increasing rapidly.
Inhibiting RNA-binding proteins, may give a novel approach for treating some cancers, according to research conducted on human cell lines and tumours produced in mice.
This strategy, known as molecular targeted cancer therapy, has made a lot of progress. Some modern cancer therapies block hyperactive enzymes, allowing cells to multiply, disseminate, and survive beyond their normal limits. The problem is that many known cancer-causing molecules are “undruggable” meaning that medications cannot bind to them because of their type, shape, or location.
RNA-binding proteins, a largely untapped category of cancer-driving molecules, are now being studied for their therapeutic potential. These proteins provide an extra layer of cellular regulation after genes (DNA) are transcribed into RNA, determining which RNA copies are translated into other proteins and which are not. When RNA-binding proteins go wrong, they can contribute to tumour development, just like many other molecular mechanisms that control cell proliferation. Given by University of California.
In human cells and mouse models, a team from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine discovered that RNA-binding proteins represent a new class of drug targets for cancers, including triple negative breast cancer, which is particularly difficult to treat because it lacks most other molecular drug targets.
YTHDF2, an RNA-binding protein, stood out in particular. The tumours decreased 10-fold in volume when the researchers genetically deleted YTHDF2 from human triple-negative breast cancers implanted into mice.
What is YTHDF2?
Methylation at the N6 position of adenosine (m6A) is the most common RNA alteration in eukaryotes, occurring in both protein-coding and long noncoding RNAs. It is a reversible process with essential biological effects. The YTHDF (YTH N6-methyladenosine RNA binding protein 2) proteins, whose binding alters the translation efficiency and stability of m6A-containing RNAs can help in the field of breast cancer.
RNA-binding proteins role
RNA-binding proteins appear to represent a promising new class of cancer therapeutic targets. RNA-binding proteins as cancer drug targets are now in progress.
Using the CRISPR gene editing technology, the researchers suppressed RNA-binding proteins in these cancer cells one by one. They discovered 57 RNA-binding proteins that, when blocked, destroy cancer cells that are driven by a known hyperactive cancer-driver. YTHDF2 appeared to be the most promising of the 57 RNA-binding proteins. The synthetic lethal technique has the advantage of leaving normal cells unaffected by the treatment because they don’t make the cancer-causing chemical.
In this work, the researchers used STAMP (Surveying Targets by APOBEC-Mediated Profiling) to see how the numerous cells that make up a breast tumour behave without YTHDF2. Stress-induced apoptosis, a well controlled mechanism by which cells destroy themselves, it kills YTHDF2-deficient cancer cells, according to the method.
Apoptosis is designed to stop tumours from forming by shutting down faulty cells, but it doesn’t always work. They were able to reactivate this cell death signal by deleting YTHDF2; it might be to treat cancer by inhibiting YTHDF2. Now days research going on to explore the details of treating breast cancer by gene manipulation.
As a target for small molecule chemical probes and lead therapeutics, RNA has practically limitless possibilities. Many RNAs fold into structures that tiny compounds can target selectively. Now days using RNA and its binding proteins have helped medical science to fight against breast cancer. By going through the article my reader will get a good knowledge about breast cancer and its future treatment.
