Source: University of Southern California
Date: July 18, 2011
Summary:
Oncogenes are generally thought to be genes that, when mutated, change healthy cells into cancerous tumor cells. Scientists at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have proven that those genes also can change normal cells into stem-like cells, paving the way to a safer and more practical approach to treating diseases like multiple sclerosis and cancer with stem cell therapy.
Zhong and colleagues at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) in California and Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in New York successfully converted human skin cells into brain cells by suppressing the expression of p53, a protein encoded by a widely studied oncogene. This suggests that p53 mutation helps determine cell fate — good or bad — rather than only the outcome of cancer.
The study is slated to appear in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, the week of July 18, 2011.
