American researchers have discovered a set of proteins involved in the immune response that contribute to the appearance of DNA mutations that cause cancer. This discovery was published in the journal Nature Genetics.

These antiviral proteins belong to a group called APOBEC cytidine deaminases. The researchers found that mutations associated with APOBEC are responsible for a significant percentage of malignant tumors.

The current work is the continuation of the research of the same team of scientists that was published in Molecular Cell last year. The previous study revealed the presence of APOBEC-associated mutations in the genome of cells of certain types of cancer.

Dr. Dmitry Gordenin, a researcher at the National Institute of NIEHS USA, co-authored a report on a new study.

He says that a team of scientists led by Dr. Mikhail Reznik was surprised to discover the ability of APOBEC to cause mutations in human DNA. They only knew that APOBEC is involved in the neutralization of viruses that attack a person.

Dr. Gordenin says: "The presence of APOBEC-related mutations in the tumor cell genome indicates the important role of APOBEC in causing mutations throughout the genome".

Doctor G. Goetz and his colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University analyzed the mutagenesis with APOBEC using data from the National Cancer Institute Atlas database. They identified about 1 million APOBEC mutations in only 2,680 cancer specimens.

In some cases, up to 70% of mutations in the tumor were caused by APOBEC mutagenesis.

The main author of the study, Dr. Stephen Roberts, said that because of the important role in the regulation of the immune system, APOBEC react very strongly to environmental factors. He says that identifying precise links between external factors and these mutations will lead to the creation of reliable cancer prevention strategies.

medbe. en.

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