I am guessing that you all want to know what the new discovery is right? Well there is no discovery.....................haha just kidding; I fooled you for a second didn't I? Well researchers from The George Washington University Medical Center, have discovered something that could possibly "revolutionize the way scientists think about key aspects of cellular lifecycle." It can also offer new opportunities for cancer researchers to help reduce the progression of cancer. This new discovery can shed some light into the understanding of mitotic cell division.
What is mitotic cell division, you may ask? Well mitosis is the process by which a eukaryotic cell separates the chromosomes in its cell nucleus into two identical sets, resulting in the production of two daughter cells from a single parent cell. According to Rakesh Kumar, Ph.D., chair of the GW Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, "this represents a crucial moment when the division of genetic material is still equally distributed. An even exchange is critical for stable genetic changes." Therefore, if something were to go wrong during cell division, such as chromosomal mutations (deletions, duplications, inversions, and translocations), it could lead to an unequal production of abnormal cells and quite possibly result in cancer.
Researchers from the GW Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology may have discovered a missing link about the protein, Arpc 1b, which acts as an activator as well as a substrate for Aurora A, "an enzyme which plays a central role in cellular reproduction in normal cells but is over-expressed in several cancers." The missing link found is the role that Arpc 1b plays in beginning the cell cycle and how the process is kept in balance.
Not only is this finding beneficial in keeping the cell cycle in harmony, it may also offer a potential target for pharmaceutical therapy. You might be asking, how can this happen? Well researchers discovered that Arpc1b promotes tumorigenic properties of breast cancer cells when it is over-expressed. With this new discovery, researchers hope to uncover a way to suppress Arpc 1b activity in cancer cells, in order to have this important biological event kept in pristine balance.
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