S Korea - New Gene Effective in Battling Cancer

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 28 Jan 2004 - 0:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

South Korean researchers have discovered a new gene that serves as an enzyme that plays a central role in effectively battling cancer.

According to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) on Tuesday, a local research group, led by Prof. Baek Kwang-hyun at the Cell and Gene Therapy Research Institute affiliated with Pochon Cha University, discovered the gene and plans to apply soon for an international patent.

In its recent study, Baek and his colleague found that herpesvirus-associated ubiquitin-specific protease (HAUSP) in humans interacts with the p53 protein and removes the ubiquitin, a type of tiny protein, from ubiquitinated p53.

p53 is a tumor suppressor protein that regulates abnormal cell growth and is able to cause potentially cancerous cells to destroy themselves. The protein is maintained at a low amount during normal cell growth due to its rapid turnover, but after a broad range of stress conditions, it is accumulated and activated.

Baek explained that HAUSP in humans specifically removes ubiquitin from the ubiquitinated p53 protein, stabilizes the p53 protein, and promotes p53-dependent cell growth arrest and apoptosis.

``When we isolated and characterized the HAUSP gene in a mouse, the gene, which we named mHAUSP, showed deubiquitinating enzyme activity and also inhibited ubiquitination and degradation of p53 proteins,'' Baek said.

He said this implies that human HAUSP might function as a cancer tumor suppressor in a living body through the stabilization of p53.

Baek and his team are currently testing their discovery on animals and plans to develop a cure for cancer and conduct a clinical experiment next year.

``We have discovered that HAUSP is effective in curing cancer by preventing the decomposition of p53 proteins, but we have not found out how HAUSP would affect other genes of the human body yet,'' Baek said. ``It will be the key to the development of cancer cures in the future.''

Baek's research paper on HAUSP has been published in the International Journal of Oncology and will be printed in the International Agency for Research on Cancer's gazette next month.

Baek's research was supported by a grant from the Stem Cell Research Center of the 21st Century Frontier Research Program funded by MOST.

Ubiquitination involves the covalent modification of proteins with ubiquitin, a highly conserved 76 amino acid protein, and is the most widely employed proteolytic mechanism in eukaryotic cells.

The ubiquitin system has key roles in every aspect of biology, including cell growth, cell cycle, apoptosis, DNA repair and antigen processing and ion-channel regulation.

Not surprisingly, the misregulation of the ubiquitin-mediated process has been implicated in several diseases, including cancer.

• Additional
• References
• Citations