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If p53 is so critical that many cancers disable it, couldn't we genetically replicate it in our genome many times, to make it far harder for cancer to disable?
by Peaker 15y ago
If p53 is so critical that many cancers disable it, couldn't we genetically replicate it in our genome many times, to make it far harder for cancer to disable?
Why didn't this happen naturally, by evolutionary processes?
Is it because all copies of p53 can be disabled simultaneously via RNAi? If so, maybe particular disablers of p53 can be targeted too?
- alexholehouse 15y agop53 operates as a tetramer (4 individual p53 [monomeric] proteins come together to form the active protein complex), and can have a dominant negative effect if one of the two p53 genes are mutated. This basically means we have two copies of the gene, but if one is mutated and you form a tetramer and 1 or more of the tetramer's monomers are mutants then that tetramer is far less active. Even if you had lots of copies of p53, its effect could still be down-regulated by a single mutant. There's been some work to try and reactivate p53 where it's been knocked out, although I'm not sure how successful it's been. http://www.ejcancer.info/article/S0959-8049(03)00454-4/abstract http://www.ejcancer.info/article/S0959-8049(03)00454-4/abstr...