Stopping genetic mutations that cause a rare but aggressive brain tumor in children may be the key to preventing the cancer’s development in the first place, according to researchers in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. The deadly cancer, called pediatric diffuse midline glioma, arises along the midline of the brain or spinal cord and is impossible to remove with surgery. It is linked to mutations in certain DNA-packaging proteins, which disrupt a system that is so evolutionarily ancient that it operates almost identically in species as distinct as humans and fruit flies.
Melissa Harrison, PhD, and Peter Lewis, PhD, professors in the Department of Biomolecular Chemistry, set out to study how mutated proteins — called oncoproteins — cause the gene control system to go haywire. After expressing the oncoproteins in fruit flies, which caused developmental defects, they then screened hundreds of other genes to identify which ones improved or worsened the defects. They discovered interacting gene pathways that would help restore normal development, making them strong candidates for future treatment targets in cancer patients.
Read more about the possible new treatment for a childhood brain cancer
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