Master control gene used to kill cancer tumors

Scientists say they have found a master control gene for cancer and say a drug that controls that switch could offer a major advance in the fight against the disease.

Starting with the fruit fly and then moving into mice and humans, researchers at VIB and K. U. Leuven show that expression of the same gene suppresses cancer in all three organisms. Reciprocally, switching off the gene--called Ato in flies and ATOH1 in mammals--leads to cancer. The authors show there is a good chance that the gene can be switched on again with a drug. 

In collaboration with colleagues from the United States, they show that loss of one of those genes, Atonal homolog 1 (ATOH1), causes colon cancer in mice. The gene regulates the last step in the specialization to epithelial cells of the colon. Humans with colon cancer frequently have an inactivated ATOH1 gene, the researchers show. The researchers could reactivate the gene in human colon cancer cells grown in culture. This caused the tumor cells to stop growing and commit suicide. The result, they say, suggests that it may be possible to switch the gene back on in living patients to target their cancers.

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