麻豆影院

麻豆影院 State Chemists Create Microscopic Environment to Study Cancer Cell Growth

According to the American Cancer Society, the U.S. will see an estimated 1,688,780 new cancer cases diagnosed and 600,920 cancer deaths in 2017.

These numbers are stark and sobering; and worse yet, we still do not know exactly why cancer develops in its victims or how to stop it.Han Mao, professor of chemistry and biochemistry 麻豆影院 State, helped create a microscopic environment to study cancer cells.

An online publication in Nature Nanotechnology this week by 麻豆影院 researchers and their colleagues at Kyoto University in Japan, however, may offer new understanding about what turns good cells bad.

Hanbin Mao, professor of chemistry and biochemistry in 麻豆影院 State鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences, along with his graduate students, Prakash Shrestha and Sagun Jonchhe, and four Kyoto University colleagues, co-authored a paper titled 鈥淐onfined Space Facilitates G-quadruplex Formation,鈥 which was published March 27 on the esteemed journal鈥檚 . The article discusses the genetic factors that influence formation of cancer cells.

鈥淭raditionally, DNA has a two-strand shape 鈥 the double helix 鈥 and its purpose is to code the proteins that form life,鈥 Mao says. 鈥淏ut recently, people have discovered that some DNA has four strands, and we call this the G-quadruplex. This is associated with the inhibition of cancer cells.鈥

However, while most G-quadruplex DNA is beneficial, Mao says some strands go bad and such mutations will enable cancer cell growth. To understand why this happens, scientists first had to learn why DNA sometimes develops into four-strand structures.

All DNA is generated by enzymes and operates like an assembly line. However, Mao says, there comes a point where DNA makes a decision to form a double helix or a quadruplex. He says most DNA takes the two-strand route simply because it is the easiest path.

Mao says nanometer-sized (one billionth of meter; 25,400,000 nanometers = 1 inch) spaces inside the enzymes are where these formations occur. The inability to mimic these spaces in laboratory settings has prohibited deeper study of the G-quadruplex formation. That is, until now.

With help from chemists and engineers at Kyoto University in Japan, 麻豆影院 State鈥檚 Mao and graduate students Shrestha and Jonchhe used 鈥淒NA origami鈥 to create a 鈥渘ano cage.鈥 They accomplished this through single-molecule mechanochemical sensing 鈥 a technology Mao鈥檚 lab developed in 2014. Over the past few years, he has published several studies involving the use of 鈥渓aser tweezers,鈥 a tool that provides the ability to hold micrometer- and nanometer-sized biological materials in place.

That technology allowed Mao to create 6-by-6 nanometer-sized cages and then observe how DNA folded into different shapes inside the space.

鈥淚t鈥檚 easier for the DNA to fold inside the cage,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t folds to adapt to the small space, and here DNA naturally folds into the G-quadruplex.鈥

He says the process occurs two to three orders of magnitude faster inside the cage than out, folding 100,000 per second 鈥 a speed that makes forming G-quadruplex as fast and easy as forming a double helix.

鈥淲ith that observation, we may follow the fate of the cell to be cancerous or healthy,鈥 he says. 鈥淪o we can perhaps learn how to introduce molecules or chemicals to interfere with that process.鈥

He says scientists can use ligands 鈥 bonded molecules 鈥 to facilitate this effect with greater potency, thereby reducing the likelihood that cancer cells will form.

鈥淲e can prevent or better treat cancer by stabilizing G-quadruplex structures,鈥 Mao says.

Learn more information about 麻豆影院 State鈥檚 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Learn more information about research at 麻豆影院 State 

POSTED: Thursday, April 6, 2017 12:47 PM
Updated: Tuesday, April 11, 2017 01:07 PM
WRITTEN BY:
Dan Pompili

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