Archive for May, 2010

Researchers from the University of Leeds, UK, the Charité University Medical School and the Max Delbrück Centre for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin, Germany, have discovered a new driving force behind cancer growth. Their studies have identified how ‘junk’ DNA promotes the growth of cancer cells in patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The work focused on cancerous cells of Hodgkin’s lymphoma (the Hodgkin-/Reed Sternberg cells) that originate from white blood cells (antibody-producing B cells). Unusually, this type of lymphoma cell does not contain a so-called ‘growth factor receptor’ that normally controls the growth of other B-cells.

They found that the lymphoma cells’ growth was dependent on a receptor that normally regulates the growth of other immune cells, but it is not usually found in B-cells. However in this case, the Hodgkin-/Reed Sternberg cells ‘hijacked’ this receptor for their own purposes by activating some of the ‘junk DNA’. In fact the lymphoma cells activated hundreds, if not thousands, of LTRs all over the genome, not just one.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100502173845.htm