Progenitor cells definition9/13/2023 ![]() Some theories, hypotheses and concepts have been put forward to establish a unified connection between these cancer related genes, gene mutations and the acquirement of cancer properties in cells. There are more than 3000 genes, including the classical oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, that have been considered as ‘cancer related’ because of changes in their gene sequences or their expression levels/activities in cancer. Mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes might cause these genes to change their expression levels or activities that could eventually lead to neoplastic transformation in normal cells. Molecular studies have identified enormous amount of somatic gene mutations, when considering around 30,000 somatic mutations in TP53 alone, that could be related to these malignant properties in cancer cells. Tumorigenesis is the gain of malignant properties in normal cells, including primarily dedifferentiation, fast proliferation, metastasis, evasion of apoptosis and immunosurveillance, dysregulated metabolism and epigenetics, etc., which have been generalized as the hallmarks of cancer. The review will also present some brief suggestions for cancer research based on the proposed model of tumorigenesis. This synthesis provides fresh insights into a unified explanation for and a previously unrecognized nature of tumorigenesis, which might not be revealed by studies on individual molecular events. I also discuss cancer EMT, a concept having been under intense debate, and possibly the true meaning of EMT in cancer initiation and development. Synthesis of the information strongly supports that cancer cells share much more similarities with neural progenitor/stem cells than with mesenchymal-type cells and that tumorigenesis represents a process of gradual loss of cell or lineage identity and gain of characteristics of neural cells. I collected the evidence from various aspects of cancer development in many other studies, and integrated the information from studies on cancer cell properties, cell fate specification during embryonic development and evolution. Based on the study, I will address the relationship between tumor and neural cells in more details. Our recent work demonstrates that cancer cells share similar regulatory networks and characteristics with embryonic neural cells. Cancer is a complex disease without a unified explanation for its cause so far.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |