By Philippe Hupé - Emmanuel Barillot, Laurence Calzone, Philippe Hupé, Jean-Philippe Vert, Andrei Zinovyev, Computational Systems Biology of Cancer Chapman & Hall/CRC Mathematical & Computational Biology , 2012, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18530796
The cancer stem cell hypothesis postulates that at least some cancers are driven by carcinogenic stem cells, that are resistant to treatment. Forcing those cancer stem cells to stop proliferating (stopping self-renewal) and differentiate (become a more specialized cell type with decreased or no ability to reproduce) is a possible therapeutic approach. A small RNA that affects gene expression (micro-RNA) called miR-600 can promote a “switch” between self-renewal and proliferation of these cancer stem cells; an example of basic science discoveries that one day can be used for cancer therapy. Abstract:
Tumors are organized in a cellular hierarchy with a population of cancer stem cell (CSC) driving cancer progression and resistance to treatment. Recently, we identified miR-600 as a bimodal switcher that balances breast CSC-fate from a self-renewing to a differentiation state, with a direct impact on tumor progression.
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