Researchers from the Université de Montréal and the Université de Sherbrooke have apparently found a new molecular mechanism that could avert cancer.
The scientists clarify as to how they discovered that the SOCS1 molecule may ward-off the cancer-causing activity of cytokines, hormones that seemed to be offenders in cancer-prone chronic inflammation diseases like Crohns, in smokers and people in contact with asbestos. The research team supposedly did not foresee that SOCS1 would be apparently connected to p53 which appears to be the chief controller of natural anticancer defenses.
Dr. Gerardo Ferbeyre, senior author and a Université de Montréal biochemistry professor, commented, “Excessive cytokine activity promotes cancer. Discovery of these mechanisms will enable scientists to design a cancer-prevention strategy for people with chronic inflammatory diseases and lead to better understanding of the human body’s natural defenses against cancer.”
First author and Université de Montréal student, Viviane Calabrese, mentioned, “Our team showed that SOCS1 is a direct regulator of the p53 gene and that in its absence the p53 pathway is significantly disabled.”
The new research proposes that the consequences of SOCS1 loss in patients might also hinder the p53 tumor repression trail. The scientists also illustrated that the reintroduction of SOCS1 into tumor cells apparently protected them into a lasting latent condition called cell senescence, thereby averting them from increasing uncontrollably as is usual of cancer cells.
The research was published in the journal Molecular Cell.