Now the metastasize of cancers can be prevented!!!

Can we finally stop breast cancer from spreading?! Blog by Kaz Ju, X., Katiyar, S., Wang, C., Liu, M., Jiao, X., Li, S., et al. (2007, May). Akt1 Governs Breast Cancer Progression In Vivo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104: 7438 – 7443.
“What’s the Bladder? A Look into Bladder Cancer and the Tumor Suppressor Gene RhoGD12” blog by PattyP13 Titus, B., Frierson, H.F., Conaway, M., Ching, K., Guise, T., Chirgwin, J., Hampton, G., Theodorescu, D. (2005). Endothelin Axis Is a Target of the Lung Metastasis Suppressor Gene Rho GD12. Clinical Cancer Research 65, (16).

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women living in the United States. As years go by, researchers are trying their best to fine a cure for breast cancer. They are trying to find the cause of breast cancer as well as a therapeutic drug to block the cancer from traveling through the other parts of the body a process called metastasis. Instead of just removing a women’s breast, medical researchers are trying to figure out a way to just stop the cancer from metastasizing through the body. Since nowadays the researchers are getting closer and closer to find the cure for breast cancer fewer women are dying from this cancer each year. I found the article by Ju, X., Katiyar, S., Wang, C., Liu, M., Jiao, X., Li, S., et al.to be very important because the result the scientist discovered pave the way for a new therapeutic drug for breast cancer. The drug that the scientists are studying is an anti-Akt which would be a good treatment for women who are at the earlier stage of breast cancer. I was amazed when I discovered that the researcher had found the protein that enables the breast cancer to proliferate. The mice that did not have two copies of the Akt1gene did not develop cancer, but the mice that had one copy had a small tumor which was growing slowly. The mice who had two copies of Akt1 had the cancer, which grew extremely fast. This article is novel because researchers are getting closer in finding what causes breast cancer. They are also trying to find a new drug that can block breast cancer metastasizing throughout the body or a treatment for it. The scientist found the protein that helped beast cancer to spread all over the body.
The two article I have chosen to comment on are Can we finally stop breast cancer from spreading by Kaz B and “What’s the Bladder? A Look into Bladder Cancer and the Tumor Suppressor Gene RhoGD12 by PattyP3.
The two articles did not have any molecular event in common expect they both are trying to prevent proliferation of cancer cells. The articles were related to what I have studied in class so far: a cell that has the ability to metastasize is a cell that is not functioning properly and has a mutation in its DNA. In class I studied that an ocogene is a mutated or abnormal form of proto-ocongene. In class I have learned that Akt1 is a kinase (adding of phosphate groups) that takes parts in normal pro-growth signaling pathways in the cell and it encodes for proteins.

As I was reading and learning about my classmate’s blog, the two articles that I choose to comment on are Kaz and Patty. I found these two blogs to be very significant because both of these articles explain how it is important for scientist to come up with a new strategy to prevent the spreading of cancer in other part of the body, and how to stop it from the first place that it began. On Kaz’s article the scientist were trying to find the protein that helps with the spreading of tumor cells in breast cancer. During the research in both article the scientist used mice to perform their experiment. On Kaz’s article the researcher raised a few mice that had no Akt1 gene with other mice with ErbB2 onocogen. After the experiment was done the researchers found the protein in some of the mice. The mice that did not have two copy of Akt1 gene did not develop cancer.
The other mice that had one copy of the gene had a small tumor that was slow growing. The mice with two copy of the gene had cancer that was spreading fast. Patty’s article it emphasized that patients that had late stage bladder cancer relapse with fatal lung cancer. RhoGD12 gene is a tumor suppressor gene that is found in bladder cancers, whenever the RhoGd12 expression is not working, the genes ET-1 is present which encodes for endotheline and is controlled by RhoGd12. When the gene RhoGD12 is present, ET-1 turns “off”. Endothelin which is an amino acid helps tumor cells metastasize, the gene RhoGD12 make ET-1 stay of so the cancer will not proliferate.
The research did a DNA microarrays and an RNA isolation they study a metastasis and a non-metastasis bladder cancer cells. They gave a group of mice ET-1 suppress in the mice’s drinking water this would of give them the role of ET-1 cancer metastasis. They watch the mice for twelve weeks and while the cancer spread through their lungs. The mice that were DNA microarray had many genes including RhoGD12 that were not express.
Questions
1. When a gene loses its function is it possible for it to regain?
2. Why did the researchers do a DNA microarray and an RNA islocation?