'Start/stop switch' for retroviruses found

London, Apr 8 (ANI): A previously unknown mechanism for silencing retroviruses, segments of genetic material that can lead to fatal mutations in a cell's DNA, has been discovered by a University of British Columbia doctoral candidate.

Published in the journal Nature, the finding could lead to new cancer treatments that kill only tumour cells and leave healthy surrounding tissue unharmed.

Danny Leung, a 27-year-old graduate student in the laboratory of Asst. Prof. Matthew Lorincz in the Dept. of Medical Genetics, UBC Faculty of Medicine, found that a protein called ESET is crucial to preventing the activity of endogenous retroviruses in mouse embryonic stem cells. Distant relatives of such retroviruses are more active in the cells of testicular, breast and skin cancers in humans.

If ESET can be blocked, retroviruses would become dramatically more active, thus either killing the cancer cells hosting them or flagging them as targets for the immune system. (ANI)