FLANDERS, Belgium, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Researchers in Belgium showed that the same gene suppresses cancer in the fruit fly, the mouse and human patients.
Researchers at the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology and the Center for Human Genetics said, reciprocally, switching off the gene leads to cancer.
The scientists used Atonal genes, which are very similar to each other in all species, from flies to humans.
The researchers said that in mice, they showed that loss of one of those genes -- Atonal homolog 1 or ATOH1 -- causes colon cancer. The gene regulates the last step in the specialization to epithelial cell of the colon. Humans with colon cancer frequently have an inactivated ATOH1 gene, the researchers observed.
The study, published in the journal PLoS Biology, said the researchers could -- in a test tube -- reactivate the gene in human colon cancer cells.
The tumor cells stopped growing and committed suicide. Since they were able to switch the gene on with a reasonably simple chemical, this opens possibilities to one day perhaps switch the gene back on in living patients.
