A new study has provided insights into an important biological mechanism that supports survival of aggressive, hard-to-treat cancers, and in the process, has uncovered fascinating new information about how cells divide and grow.
Nature Communications
The study also provides potential new targets, against which cancer drugs could be developed for patients who currently have limited therapeutic options.ALT is short for"alternative lengthening of telomeres." Telomeres have an incredibly important function in cells. They act like a protective cap during normal cell division but shorten every time a cell divides, which makes cell death inevitable over time.
Importantly, the study also found that EXD2 depletion killed ALT-dependent cancer cells if combined with the loss of other DNA repair proteins—such as BLM, DNA2 and POLD3. Professor Wojciech Niedzwiedz, Leader of the Genome Instability and Cancer group at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said,"Some 10% to 15% of cancers support cell proliferation via the ALT mechanism, including up to 50% of hard-to-treat osteosarcomas, soft tissue sarcomas and primary brain tumors— including childhood brain tumors.
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