University researchers make cancer breakthrough

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have made new discoveries about the way in which cells divide that could offer better ways of treating cancers.

Scientists working at the university’s Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology have been studying two proteins that are crucial for the division of cells or mitosis. Their findings were published in the journal PLoS Biology in January.

When a eukaryotic cell divides, its chromosomes are separated into two identical nuclei which form the basis of two new cells. The proteins the researchers looked at, named ‘Aurora B’ and ‘Polo’, are key to this process of separating the chromosomes into new nuclei.

Dr Mar Carmena of the Wellcome Trust Centre and one of the authors of the study said that, “there is a lot of interest in the development of new drugs that inhibit Polo and Aurora; so far they are still on clinical trials.”

It is hoped that new anti-mitotic drugs will be developed that will target these proteins in cancer cells, helping to kill off dividing cancerous cells.

Anti-mitotic drugs are currently used in the treatment of some forms of cancer, but Dr Carmena said that, “there is a needs to find better drugs with less undesirable secondary effects and toxicity.”

While some drugs currently used in chemotherapy treatments have been shown to be effective in the treatment of some cancers, they also have serious side effects such as bone marrow suppression (which consequently decreases the production of blood cells which help fight off infection.)

For other drugs, the parts of the cell that they target in order to prevent division can become resistant to treatment, lessening their effectiveness.

The team used powerful microscopes to view the cells in 3D to map the position of proteins within cells. They could then identify how different proteins and enzymes work to activate mitosis.

Dr Carmena said that, “cell division is a complex and tightly regulated process, and when it goes out of control this can lead to cancer. The greater our understanding of the proteins that control cell division, the better equipped scientists will be to design more effective treatments against cancer.”

Originally published in The Student newspaper, 21/02/2012