Breast cancer treatments may benefit from protein discovery
The drug Tamoxifen helps many women fight breast cancer, which is the second most common cancer in American women.
The drug Tamoxifen helps many women fight breast cancer, which is the second most common cancer in American women. These treatments may now benefit from a new finding by researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, who discovered that blocking a protein vital to cell division could slow the progression of breast cancer and other malignant tumors.
The team studied the protein UNC-45A. Previous research had shown that this structure was a "chaperon protein," which helps other proteins function more efficiently, the scientists said. UNC-45A acted as a chaperon to two other proteins that are needed for cell division. In the past, it had also been linked to ovarian tumors.
Cancer is the result of cell division run amok, which made UNC-45A a target worth studying.
The researchers experimented on a line of cancer cells by creating two separate groups. While one had UNC-45A proteins that worked, the other did not. The former group of cells behaved in a much more malignant manner.
Knowing that high levels of UNC-45A can actually drive breast cancer activity will open new doors to therapy for patients who buy Tamoxifen and other medications to fight breast cancer. Different targets will lead to different strategies in attacking the disease and increasing the chances for recovery.
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