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March 24, 2008
Study: 'A MicroRNA Molecule Can Reduce Lung Cancer Growth'
Topics: lung cancer"... A small RNA molecule, known as let-7 microRNA (miRNA), substantially reduced cancer growth in multiple mouse models of lung cancer."Lung cancer is the world's top cancer killer and the most common cancer worldwide, with more than 1 million new cases every year and a million or more deaths from it. Although treatments are improving and recent studies have found that chemotherapy can help survival, about 6 out of 10 people with lung cancer die within one year of finding out they have it. However, new research by scientists at Yale University offers support for the importance of miRNAs in the development of cancer and for miRNA replacement therapy as an important component of effective cancer treatment regimens in the future. The research indicates a direct role for a miRNA in cancer progression and introduces a new paradigm of using miRNAs as effective therapeutic agents to treat human cancer.
[...] A small RNA molecule, known as let-7 microRNA (miRNA), substantially reduced cancer growth in multiple mouse models of lung cancer, according to work by researchers at Yale University and Asuragen, Inc., published in the journal Cell Cycle.[...] "We believe this is the first report of a miRNA being used to a beneficial effect on any cancer, let alone lung cancers, the deadliest of all cancers worldwide," said senior author Frank Slack, associate professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale.
Slack's research group initially discovered the let-7 miRNA in C. elegans, a tiny worm used as a model system for studying how organisms develop, grow and age. They went on to show that in humans, let-7 negatively regulates a well-known determinant of human lung cancers, the RAS oncogene.
In collaboration with scientists at Asuragen, the Slack lab has studied the tumor suppressor activity of this small RNA. Their work revealed that let-7 is commonly present at substantially reduced levels in lung tumors -- and that reduced levels of let-7 likely contribute to the development of the tumors. These discoveries focused public attention and research efforts to understand the potential use of naturally occurring microRNAs like let-7 to combat cancer.
This new work demonstrates that let-7 inhibits the growth of lung cancer cells in culture and in lung tumors in mice. They also showed that let-7 can be applied as an intranasal drug to reduce tumor formation in a RAS mouse model lung cancer.
Posted by Richard at March 24, 2008 1:35 PM
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