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Key Points: * Scientists discovered a relationship between cancer and extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in 1965, but considered ecDNAs rare and not worth investigat
by panabee 5y ago
Key Points:
* Scientists discovered a relationship between cancer and extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in 1965, but considered ecDNAs rare and not worth investigating.
* Researchers subsequently learned that ecDNAs are common and central to the behavior of some of the most aggressive forms of cancer, enabling remarkably elevated levels of oncogene transcription, creating new gene regulatory interactions, and providing a powerful mechanism for rapid change that can drive very high oncogene copy numbers or allow cancer cells to resist treatment.
* Like Ptolemy’s flawed map that placed Earth at the center of the solar system, cancer researchers today may be analyzing genes and diseases with flawed maps.
Related Articles:
* https://www.the-scientist.com/features/cancer-may-be-driven-by-dna-outside-of-chromosomes-68590 https://www.the-scientist.com/features/cancer-may-be-driven-...
* https://chemh.stanford.edu/news/shining-light-extrachromosomal-dna https://chemh.stanford.edu/news/shining-light-extrachromosom...
- jcims 5y agoWould be interesting to see if the mechanisms underlying cancer's genetic agility could ultimately be put to use to search for solutions to other problems.
- panabee 5y agoexactly. cancer is a scourge that must be eradicated, but on the way, we may discover the solution to other health issues.
- clipjokingly 5y agoAre cancer cells immortal? It would be very poetic that the key to cancer would also unlock amortality.
- akiselev 5y agoThey're immortal in the sense that they no longer listen to tumor suppression genes that trigger apoptosis (programmed cell death). Based on our current understanding of senescence, that doesn't really help with the main causes of aging.
- tg180 5y agoWhy? The presence of telomerase prevents telomere shortening in cancer cells and gives the ability to divide an unlimited number of times in a laboratory cell culture plate. But the aging process is not reversed, so a multicellular complex organism would eventually die.
- emmelaich 5y agoThe cells of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks are immortal.
- ncmncm 5y agoWhat it doesn't say is whether the "DNA circles" or "double minutes" have any role in normal cell activity Except, they seem to have that in yeast, which are distinguished by a need to reproduce fast like tumor cells. If they have been ignored all this time, maybe they are just a normal part of eukaryote biology?
- beowulfey 5y agoYes the recent paper [1] that confirmed they were circular mentioned the similarities to plasmids in bacteria too! In the nematode world, we create extrachromosomal arrays of transgenes by injecting plasmids into the worm’s gonad that then get passed down to progeny; the expression we see is almost always variable and mosaic and not every cell ends up showing it. I would guess this technique used for decades in the field is actually an induced version of these! [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1763-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1763-5
- djmips 5y agoOne of the articles posted suggests that weeds use DNA circles to quickly adapt to herbicides.