Lani
12-20-2007, 06:30 AM
Epigenetic change responsible for infiltrating ductal bc phenotype in breast cancer discovered and other high frequency epigenetic changes responsible for tumorigenesis identified
Article has some long words, but the introduction should be readable by all--happy to translate those sentences you most for clarification
First explanation: epigenetic changes--
those changes which are not of the DNA subparts which make up the code which determines (via mRNA--messenger RNA an intermediate translation of the code or blueprint) which proteins are made or not made
but rather changes caused by blocking off the chromatin structure so that the information stored in the DNA cannot be read ( due to external compounds sitting on and blocking access to the code) by the code reading machinery. Think of this as a ball of yarn. Within that skein DNA represents not the stretch of yarn(fibers wrapped around each other) but one of the parallel threads within that stretch. Epigenetic changes are like your child
dripping drops of warmed caramel he/she is making on to the ball of yarn, which when dried, keeps the yarn from being unrolled in such a way it can be used in a knitting machine.
A different analogy would be if he/she dripped it on an old piece of audiocasette tape (although that is not made out of multiple fibers wrapped around each other)--its effect would be to keep the magnetic message encoded on that stretch of audiotape from being accessible by the magnetic head of the tape player so it could be detected, the information from the code translated into and transformed into sound.
In this paper they found areas, which when they serve as the areas where the melted caramel falls, it globs up the code reading machinery in such a way that breast cancer tumors of a certain type are initiated.
Thus even if the person's genes are normal, this could cause them not to be able to make certain tumor suppressor genes, etc which cause development of tumors in the breast.
http://www.plosone.org./article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0001314
If the link doesn't work try to google plosone (it stands for Public Library of Science One)
Another article in this journal (started by scientists eager to have the general public and other colleagues have access to their findings without having to pay) was also fascinating and covered a hot topic at the SABCS this year --PTEN deficiency. At SABCS, they discussed it as a major cause of resistance to herceptin and an article published shortly before SABCS discussed it as being a necessary contributor and bystander to the development of BRCA breast cancer.
Article has some long words, but the introduction should be readable by all--happy to translate those sentences you most for clarification
First explanation: epigenetic changes--
those changes which are not of the DNA subparts which make up the code which determines (via mRNA--messenger RNA an intermediate translation of the code or blueprint) which proteins are made or not made
but rather changes caused by blocking off the chromatin structure so that the information stored in the DNA cannot be read ( due to external compounds sitting on and blocking access to the code) by the code reading machinery. Think of this as a ball of yarn. Within that skein DNA represents not the stretch of yarn(fibers wrapped around each other) but one of the parallel threads within that stretch. Epigenetic changes are like your child
dripping drops of warmed caramel he/she is making on to the ball of yarn, which when dried, keeps the yarn from being unrolled in such a way it can be used in a knitting machine.
A different analogy would be if he/she dripped it on an old piece of audiocasette tape (although that is not made out of multiple fibers wrapped around each other)--its effect would be to keep the magnetic message encoded on that stretch of audiotape from being accessible by the magnetic head of the tape player so it could be detected, the information from the code translated into and transformed into sound.
In this paper they found areas, which when they serve as the areas where the melted caramel falls, it globs up the code reading machinery in such a way that breast cancer tumors of a certain type are initiated.
Thus even if the person's genes are normal, this could cause them not to be able to make certain tumor suppressor genes, etc which cause development of tumors in the breast.
http://www.plosone.org./article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0001314
If the link doesn't work try to google plosone (it stands for Public Library of Science One)
Another article in this journal (started by scientists eager to have the general public and other colleagues have access to their findings without having to pay) was also fascinating and covered a hot topic at the SABCS this year --PTEN deficiency. At SABCS, they discussed it as a major cause of resistance to herceptin and an article published shortly before SABCS discussed it as being a necessary contributor and bystander to the development of BRCA breast cancer.