In cancer research, one of the key points is trying to determine if there are some sort of biological switches that turn on or off cancers. If for example, scientists are able to determine a point in the body / a protein / a gene that plays a key role in controlling the spread or rate of increase of cancer, the next effort would be find a chemical or biological agent that can control the spread of cancer. This article (link to article) is about scientists discovering a molecule in the blood that can slow down the growth of cancer in different types of cancers such as prostate, breast, colon and blood cancer:
Scientists have discovered a "pied piper" molecule in blood cells, called LIAR, which they claim can allow growth signals into red blood cells - and if turned off, might slow certain cancers. The scientists from Western Australian Institute for Medical Research, have also identified the function of a known cellular enzyme, Lyn, as a switch that "turns on" blood cell development.
"LIAR is like a key, which opens a pathway into the nucleus of a blood cell for a number of other molecules, allowing them to flow in - and these molecules are what signal the cell to develop and divide. "From here, if we could control Liar, the hope is that we could use it to switch off the growth of abnormal, or cancerous, cells. Because Liar is present in every blood cell, this knowledge could help treat a huge range of conditions and diseases, but where it has most potential is in cancers of the prostate, breast, colon and blood where activity of the enzyme Lyn is heightened," team leader Evan Ingley said.
Such research puts hope in the minds of people suffering from some of these cancers, since even if the research takes some time to come to actual results, there is always the hope, and hope can be a big factor as well.
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