3-D image of the huntingtin geneWIKIMEDIA, EUROPEAN BIOINFORMATICS INSTITUTE, JAWAHAR SWAMINATHAN/MSD STAFF
Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) responsible for brain damage in Huntington’s patients are also toxic to cancer cells, according to researchers at Northwestern University. The findings, published yesterday (February 12) in EMBO Reports, could provide a novel approach to cancer therapy.
Huntington’s is caused by trinucleotide repeat (TNR) expansions, excessive repeats of RNA sequences in the huntingtin gene, which generate proteins and RNA that gradually damage brain cells. Of these, small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are also toxic to cancer cells, the researchers report.
Study coauthor Andrea Murmann of Northwestern University discovered the molecules’ cancer-fighting ability while she was investigating diseases in which patients have low rates of cancer for a “kill-switch” that was present in all cells. “I thought maybe there is a situation where this ...
