Small RNA Molecules Starve Cancer Cells

Cancer cells have an “unfair advantageous capacity” to carry the property called autophagy that “literally means self eating”. It is a genetically programmed “housekeeping” process where lysosomes digest or degrade the proteins and other organelles. “The defects in this process can cause cancer”. microRNAs regulate the process of autophagy in cells. The study conducted by the scientists at the University of Copenhagen showed that inhibiting the microRNA or miRNA molecules could therefore turn off the autophagy process in cancer cells. The clinical study was conducted to study the “autophagic flux” in breast cancer cells to measure the “intrinsic effect of over expressing miRNAs on the autophagic flux”. The activity was measured at the moment, at 12hr period and also 24hr period. The reduction of autophagy “component Beclin-1” effectively decreased autophagy as it was evident in the measurement of flux. This screening was repeated thrice to clarify and confirm same results. Although the results provided with clear clinical evidence, the scientists are not yet clear about the precise mechanisms of autophagy and these microRNA molecules. However, the next step includes further research into the role of these processes especially microRNA molecules in the “development of cancer”.

http://www.nature.com/emboj/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/emboj2011331a.html
http://medgadget.com/2011/10/small-rna-molecules-starve-cancer-cells.html