Drugs and therapies might be developed to give the average person a preventive measure against cancer.
The preventive drugs are meant to give the average person the same low chance of developing cancer that people with Down syndrome have, thanks to U genetics professor Julie Korenberg and her associates’ breakthrough.
In fact, it was research about those with Down syndrome that gave way to the development. People with Down syndrome are born with one chromosome more than the average human, who is born with 46. Within the extra 21st chromosome is a specific gene, which researchers found suppresses tumor formation by stopping the creation of certain blood vessels. It’s these blood vessels that provide the nutrients that cancer needs to grow. Blocking them would essentially kill the tumor, according to a U press release.
This helps explain why people with Down syndrome have statistically lower occurrences of solid-tumor cancers, such as breast, lung and colon.
The discovery “may provide more confidence that clinical scientists can develop effective new treatments for human cancer,” Korenberg said in a statement.
Korenberg and her associates made their discovery by studying two sets of mice. One set had the extra gene associated with Down syndrome while a control group did not. The researchers injected the rodents with lung and skin cancer, and the mice with the extra gene were able to suppress tumor formation far better than their gene-less counterparts, according to the study.
Korenberg said in a statement that they also examined the biology of people with Down syndrome.
Korenberg was brought to the U through the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative. Despite the findings, it will be several years before she or anyone else puts out a patented drug or treatment based on the breakthrough, said Phil Sham, spokesman for U Health Sciences.
“It can definitely take a long time,” Sham said.
Harvard Medical School’s Sandra Ryeom led the research team, which included Korenberg and Kwan-Hyuck Baek of Children’s Hospital, Boston.
Korenberg did not respond for comment.