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Cancer patients can now have better and safer treatment by the use of less toxic drug for cancer treatment.
Synthetic lethal interactions could inhibit the growth of tumors in mesenchymal cells, cells that develop into connective tissue such as those found in bones, soft tissues, and the central nervous system.
Presently, chemotherapy is the only available treatment for persistent cancers known as alternative lengthening telomere ALT cancers.
In healthy stem cell reproduction, the enzyme telomerase prevents the shortening of linear DNA ends called telomeres with each replication.
The enzyme can also be re-activated to promote genetic stability and immortality in many cancer cells. While many cancers that multiple through telomerase re-activation may be treated with therapies other than chemotherapy, ALT cancer cells lack telomerase and few treatment options have been developed to inhibit their proliferation.
ALT cancer cells account for fifteen percent of cancer cases, these incidences include some of the most deadly cancers like glioblastoma.
Researchers investigated three human genes associated with cancer development: FANCM mutations of which are associated with blood cancers), BRCA1 (mutations of which are commonly found in patients with breast and ovarian cancers), and BLM (mutations of which cause a variety of cancers).
FANCM, known to repair DNA damage where two DNA strands have been incorrectly linked, was removed from cells also deficient of BRCA1 or BLM. As a result, the team found that simultaneous inactivation of BLM and FANCM or of BRCA1 and FANCM resulted in dramatic increases of unrepaired DNA damages, preventing the cancerous cells from further reproducing.
Their discoveries suggest that if drugs are developed to simultaneously inhibit BLM and FANCM, or BRCA1 and FANCM, they should kill the ALT cancers without posing the same toxic effects as the conventional chemotherapy drugs.
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