Designed genetic circuit may force cancer cells to commit suicide

According to MIT News , synthetic biologists from MIT and ETH Zurich have designed a genetic circuit that programs cells to detect cancerous cells and force them to commit suicide, while still keeping healthy cells unharmed. This genetic circuit is programmed to make a "decision based on multiple inputs." In other words, this genetic circuit is made of genes programmed to detect molecules that are specific to a particular cervical cancer that these researchers have chosen to work with, HeLa cells.   According to Popular Science, this genetic circuit contains genes that could identify up to "five cancer-specific molecules and their concentrations." Once cancerous cells are detected, the genes from this designed circuit would release protein that would provoke the cells to commit suicide, or apoptosis (cell death).  For the cells to undergo apoptosis, the five "characteristics" must be present.

The researchers that took part in this project designed this genetic circuit by studying a type of newly discovered genetic material known as microRNA and choosing that to be their "target."  MicroRNA, according to MIT News, is a snippet of RNA that helps regulate gene expression by selectively destroys messenger RNA. The reason why these researchers chose microRNA was because a large amount of particular types were found in cancer cells. According to the article, each different kind of cancer contained its own microRNA profile.

The microRNA profile of the cervical cancer the researchers chose to experiment with, HeLa, contained six microRNAs that were able to be identified. They were found in large quantities as well as unique to this particular cancer.  They then created a synthetic gene that would code for a protein that would trigger apoptosis, hBax. This gene could be turned off by high levels of microRNA that are usually found low in HeLa as well as by low levels of microRNA that are usually found in large amounts in HeLa. However, this research is still fairly new and still being tested. According to these researchers, this process needs to be tested on living animals. While this system detects up to five characteristics in a cancer cell, they are still working on trying to get the system to identify more markers.

It is one step closer to finding another form of cancer treatment. Despite the fact it is still in its early stages and is not readily available to be used as a form of treatment just yet, it is still amazing that these researchers are able to design and program a gene to do this, while still keeping healthy cells unharmed. If this were to be a readily form of cancer treatment, would it be able to detect pre-cancerous cells rather than just cells that are already in their cancerous state? With further study and experimentation, I believe that they will be able to revise the design so that the circuit can detect cancerous cells earlier on and use this system for other kinds of cancer, not just this particular cervical cancer.