Half-Broken Gene Is Enough To Cause Cancer

Main Category: Colorectal Cancer
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology;  GastroIntestinal / Gastroenterology;  Genetics
Article Date: 04 Nov 2008 - 4:00 PST

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Tumour suppressor genes do not necessarily require both alleles to be knocked out before disease phenotypes are expressed. Research published in BioMed Central's new open access journal PathoGenetics reveals that only one allele of SMAD4 has to be damaged to put a person at risk of pancreatic and colorectal cancer.

Riccardo Fodde led a team of researchers from Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, who investigated SMAD4, a tumor suppressor gene implicated in pancreatic and colorectal cancer. They found that having one mutated SMAD4 allele was associated with the development of gastrointestinal polyps. This research is the first to address the molecular and cellular consequences of SMAD4 damage on a genome-wide scale.

This high quality research is typical of that which will be published in PathoGenetics, an open access journal created to meet the need for a resource focused solely on the pathogenesis of genetic diseases. The journal's co-Editors in Chief are Professor Stylianos Antonarakis and Professor Andrea Ballabio. Ballabio said, "PathoGenetics will give scientists a unique opportunity to publish exciting research on the molecular mechanisms underlying the manifestations of disease phenotype".

PathoGenetics will focus on both in vitro and in vivo studies on the cascade of events leading from gene mutations or genomic rearrangement to disease. The discovery of novel molecular and metabolic pathways relevant to disease pathogenesis will be given specific emphasis. The first issue includes a review by James Lupski and colleagues that deals with mechanisms for human genomic rearrangements and a groundbreaking piece on the methodology of knock-in vector construction by Nicholas Hastie and colleagues. According to Antonarakis, "Given its unique characteristics, PathoGenetics is likely to become the ideal journal for scientists from different backgrounds to publish and read exciting research on disease pathogenesis".

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Notes:

1. Smad4 haploinsufficiency: a matter of dosage.
Paola Alberici, Claudia Gaspar, Patrick F Franken, Marcin M Gorski, Ingrid de Vries, Rodney J Scott, Ari Ristimäki, Lauri A Aaltonen and Riccardo Fodde
PathoGenetics 2008,1:2 doi:10.1186/1755-8417-1-2
Article available at journal website: http://www.pathogeneticsjournal.com/
All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.

2. PathoGenetics is a peer-reviewed, online open access journal, which features studies on the pathogenesis of genetic diseases, phenotypes and traits. Such studies may use molecular, biochemical, cellular, and physiological methods, as well as genome-wide approaches, to provide novel insights into the biological mechanisms underlying the phenotypic manifestations of genetic diseases.

3. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an independent online publishing house committed to providing immediate access without charge to the peer-reviewed biological and medical research it publishes. This commitment is based on the view that open access to research is essential to the rapid and efficient communication of science.

Source: Graeme Baldwin
BioMed Central