New Molecular Switch Causes The Development of Cancerous Cells

A study conducted by a team of researchers from Syracuse University found out that a molecule that can be reversibly shifted between two or more states which is part of the Mixed Lineage Leukemia protein complex can be used in preventing the occurrence of malign cells which represent the cause of several cancer types, including leukemia. This study was so complex that it became the work of the week in the September issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The fact that this article is one of the 1% top articles shows how prestigious it actually is.

Biologist Michael Cosgrove was the leader of the research team. During their experiments on the Mixed Lineage Leukemia (MLL) protein complex, they discovered that the MLL was not the single molecular mechanism in the protein. In fact, there were two molecular switches present in the complex, one of which no one ever knew before. They named it W-Rad.

Healthy cells contain MLL which comprises four proteins that include the second molecular switch discovered by the research team. Their role is to control the DNA pack activities needed to create white blood cells. If this switch is broken, the white blood cells develop in a bad manner which causes abnormal cells to form. Same as the Mixed Lineage Leukemia, if the proteins forming the W-RAD complex grew in large numbers they would determine the appearance of various types of cancer cells. However, researchers do not properly know which the functions of these proteins are.

The research team studied this processes and discovered that the newly found W-RAD proteins created a brand new molecular switch which was never known before their study. A switching process of the W-RAD complex leads to an overproduction of abnormal cells. This is why Cosgrove`s team hopes that they would be able to find a method to stop the W-RAD`s mechanism in order to stall of prevent the multiplication of the cancer cells and maybe transforming them into healthy ones.

Cosgrove`s scientific team discovered many interesting and important things in the field of leukemia. They managed to approach a damaged Mixed Lineage Leukemia switch with an artificial peptide. This synthetic peptide is thought to have the ability to program the way DNA is wrapped in leukemia infected cells in order to transform the ill cells into normal ones.

This new research is also published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Due to these two major studies, the scientific team received from the American Cancer Society a research grant in total value of $720,000 in order to continue their exploration in the field of leukemia.