Source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Date: December 13, 2010
Summary:
A close collaboration between researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Institute for Advanced Study found that the tumor suppressor p53, long thought of as the "Guardian of the Genome," may do more than thwart cancer-causing mutations. It may also prevent established cancer cells from sliding toward a more aggressive, stem-like state by serving as a "Guardian against Genome Reprogramming."
The new work, reported by Geoffrey M. Wahl, Ph.D., and Benjamin Spike, Ph.D., at Salk Institute and Arnold J. Levine, Ph.D., and Hideaki Mizuno, Ph.D., at IAS, Princeton, in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed striking parallels between the increased reprogramming efficiency of normal adult cells lacking p53, the inherent plasticity and tumorigenicity of stem cells, and the high incidence of p53 mutations in malignant cancers.
