Deregulations of the SPAK Protein protect B-Cell Lymphoma
A recent study having as leading investigator doctor Michael Teitell from the University of California, Los Angeles discovered that the deregulations in the SPAK protein may be the causes for the appearance and development of the B-cell lymphoma.
For those who do not know, the B-cell lymphomas represent those types of cancer that affect most commonly the human being immune system. Some of the triggering causes for this type of tumors are the epigenetic transformations like for example the hyper-methylation of the DNA. Due to these changes, the B-cell lymphomas start appearing mainly because the epigenetic transformation affect the cancer suppressor receptors that are, in this way, unable to stop the development of the mutating tissues.
The SPAK protein has as main role in the human body to supervise and fix the response of the cells to the stress they encounter during their life span. The study from the University of California observed that during the tumor development, the levels of the SPAK protein are significantly diminished.
The team of scientists experimented on samples comprising human and mice tissues affected by the B-cell lymphomas. Balatoni and his team state that part of the B-cell cancers comprise lower expression levels of SPAK mainly due to the DNA hyper-methylation. In addition, the diminished levels of the SPAK protein act as defenders of the B-cell lymphomas and this affected by the human body`s stressors that would trigger the healthy cells` death instead of that of cancer cells. Due to this, the tumors are kept alive and unthreatened, free to spread in the whole body, leading to metastasis.
Doctor Teitell`s team concluded that the fact that the levels of SPAK protein were lowered in the patients suffering from B-cell lymphomas would aid the tumor cells in growing and getting to advanced stages of cancer. The team of researchers explained that the role of the SPAK protein is to prevent the evolution of the B-cell lymphomas by damaging the activation genes of the sick cells. It appears that the findings of the scientists from the University of California are valid in general also for other types of cancer such as breast, prostate and maybe other tumors ahead of the B-cell lymphomas. Furthermore, the investigators stated that the protection offered by the SPAK proteins diminishes and the organism cannot attack the genetic material of the cancer cells in order to counteract their deadly effects. In addition, it appears that the role of protection from the SPAK`s behalf is somehow deactivated in the stages in which the tumor cell evolve.
Taking a closer look at the expression of SPAK in the human body, one can examine this protein`s levels and see whether they are diminished. This process is a key element in counteracting the cancer cells due to the fact that a thorough research may show those people suffering from cancer that must or not receive genotoxic treatments. This is a milestone in the process of the individualizing treatments and alongside them, the medicine in its whole, in order to develop better therapies and encounter success in counteracting cancer.
