Caspase-2, a gene in the human body plays an important role in suppressing lymphoma, a type of blood cell cancer, researchers find.
Lymphoma is a type of blood cancer that occurs when B or T lymphocytes, the white blood cells that form a part of the immune system and help protect the body from infection and disease, divide faster than normal cells or live longer than they are supposed to. Lymphoma may develop in the lymph nodes, spleen, bone marrow, blood or other organs and eventually forms a tumor.
In a new study, researchers found that a type of gene in the body known as caspase-2 plays an important role in suppressing this type of cancer. The gene is related to a family of proteins responsible for destroying cells when the need arises, a process known as apoptosis.
"Cell death and survival are controlled by a large number of genes, and aberrations in these genes are often linked to diseases. For example, an inability for cells to evade apoptosis is a well-known hallmark of cancer," Professor Sharad Kumar, Co-Director of the Centre for Cancer Biology within SA Pathology said in a press statement.
Owing to its destructive nature, this caspase-2 gene can help prevent the formation of tumors in the human body that can lead to Lymphoma.
"It does this by ensuring that cells predisposed to cancer maintain a healthy number of chromosomes. By some unknown mechanism, caspase-2 appears to prevent cells from losing and gaining copies of the chromosomes, which is a trait frequently observed in tumor cells," Dr. Kumar said. "This research not only provides new information on the development of cancer, it also defines how caspase-2 can potentially work as a tumor suppressor gene. This is an exciting finding and one that we're already investigating further."
Kumar first discovered the caspase-2 gene about 20 years ago. The gene has been indentified in nearly all mammals for which complete genome data are available. This gene exists as inactive proenzymes that undergo proteolytic processing to produce two subunits that dimerize to form active enzyme.
Findings of the study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
