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Posted on Thursday, Mar 24, 2011

Key to Slowing DNA Damage May Lead to Mesothelioma-Free Life

Asbestos is a carcinogen, which means that it is a substance that is known to cause cancer – both lung cancer and mesothelioma.  Breathing in asbestos dust results in microscopic fibers penetrating the lungs and damaging the healthy mesothelial cells.  In effect, asbestos damages DNA, the material within a cell that provides each person’s genetic blueprint, causing “errors,” or faults, in genes that then leads to cancer.

In new research led by Robert Bambara, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, scientists are seeking the key to the body’s natural preservation of genetic information, or the DNA.  By finding this, the researchers believe that in the future physician’s can maintain the integrity of DNA over a patient’s lifetime leading to a longer, disease-free life.

The scientists have found that through a process called acetylation, DNA is maintained and regulated.  Building on past research where scientists established that DNA follows two routes through the body to eliminate errors, the researchers hope to find methods in which they can intervene and preserve DNA.

The “elite” DNA route is used to direct the portion of DNA that creates proteins, or all the cells of which humans are made, and the effort expends more energy resulting in higher “costs” to the body.  The standard route processes the rest of the DNA, not responsible for creating proteins, and requires fewer resources.

Mesothelioma is a serious lung disease in which the cells of the mesothelium (membrane of the lung) become abnormal, divide and multiply without control, resulting in cancerous tumors.  The prognosis for mesothelioma patients is usually grim with the average survival time varying from 4 – 18 months after diagnosis.

“If we found a way to improve the protection of DNA that guides protein production, basically boosting what our body already does to eliminate errors, it could help us live longer,” said Lata Balakrishnan, Ph.D., postdoctoral research associate at the Medical Center, who helped lead the work. “A medication that would cause a small alteration in this acetylation-based regulatory mechanism might change the average onset of cancers or neurological diseases to well beyond the current human lifespan.”

The risk of developing mesothelioma corresponds to how much asbestos a person was exposed to and how long the asbestos exposure lasted. The latency period can extend to 50 years or more after the initial exposure.  The risk of developing any cancer is often correlated with a person’s age.  Through intervention with the body’s natural process for managing DNA, the aging process may no longer be a cause for developing cancer and other diseases.

The study can be found in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Key to Maintaining DNA