Job Of Small RNA Known in Breast Cancer by Galway Research Group

A pair of research labs in Galway have discovered a new genetic manage system implicated in breast cancer.

Led by Prof Charles Spillane’s group at the Genetics and Biotechnology Lab, NUI Galway, and Prof Michael J Kerin’s researchers at the National Breast Cancer Research Institute (NBCRI), Galway, the findings appear to have been posted in the latest issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, which is considered the seventh-most significant scientific journal internationally by the Eigen factor ranking system.

“Breast cancer will be the most frequent cancer internationally in females and though therapies and end result are improving, there is a compelling necessity of continued study into its cause and therapy,” stated Prof Kerin. “About 2,700 new cases of breast cancer are identified in Ireland every year. Improvements in cancer biosciences research provide the reason for earlier diagnosis and new therapy regimes for breast cancer.”

Both research labs are assisting to investigate a new line of genes called microRNAs, which generate small RNA molecules that can change off other genes in typical and cancer cells

Working closely along with Profs Spillane and Kerin, molecular biologist Dr S Duygu Selcuklu made the invention that a particular microRNA gene known as miR-9 acts to suppress tumour development of breast cancer cells.

In the project, the group also noted a brand new gene involved in breast cancer known as MTHFD2, the degrees of which are kept down by the small RNA miR-9. However, in the event that miR-9 levels go down within the cancer cell, levels of MTHFD2 rise and promote cancer cell progress.