Cancer Protective Genes In People With Down Syndrome

Disorders Cure

oi-Staff

By Staff

Friday, May 22, 2009, 17:03

When John Langdon Down first discovered this chromosomal disorder in human body way back in 1866, little was known to the world about how one could counter the same. In retrospect, there have been a lot of measures that people find it effective today. Now a new study unfolds a chapter that lets one know a bit more on the disease. For those who are still to figure out what the disease here is talked about, it?s Down Syndrome.

A new study sheds light on why people with Down syndrome are less likely to develop cancer. The research team from Children's Hospital Boston has showed that since the patients have an extra copy of chromosome 21, it appears that people with Down syndrome may be getting an extra dose of one or more cancer-protective genes.

Lead researcher Dr Sandra Ryeom discovered that a single extra copy of Dscr1 is capable to suppress angiogenesis, the development of blood vessels essential for cancer's growth and tumour growth in mice. The gene has also been found to inhibit angiogenesis in human cells.

With an extra copy of Dscr1, the cells, which make up blood vessel walls showed a decreased growth response to VEGF in mouse model. "I think there may be four or five genes on chromosome 21 that are necessary for angiogenesis suppression," Nature quoted Ryeom, as saying. "In huge databases of cancer patients with solid tumors, there are very few with Down syndrome. This suggests that protection from chromosome 21 genes is pretty complete," she added.

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