Scientists at the university of Sheffield and Oxford have discovered a new "toolkit" which can repair DNA that would otherwise lead to aging, cancer, and motor neuron disease. For some background, when damaged or destroyed DNA begins to accumulate inside cells and throughout the body, it can cause cellular aging, cancer, and even neurological diseases like motor neuron disease. When a protein by the name of TEX264 is mixed with a variety of other enzymes, it can recognize and break down toxic proteins that damage DNA and cause it to accumulate in the first place. Preventing these proteins from causing the build up can protect us from the problems listed before.
There really was no idea on how to prevent and protect against this kind of damaged DNA buildup before this discovery so the researchers are hoping to be able to implement this toolkit into modern medical practices. A possible use case could improve or replace chemotherapy which itself intentionally breaks down and destroys DNA to kill cancer. Chemotherapy is often a brutal, blunt force way to target cancer cells because it unintentionally attacks every cell. The new toolkit is hoped to be able to target specific DNA that would only be in cancer or other buildups. TEX264 is hoped to be a new method of treating cancer.
I am hopeful that this discovery can truly become a viable method, and an excellent one at that, to fight against cancer. I have experiences loss in my family because of cancer and a lot of other families experience it too. Current methods of fighting cancer are not guaranteed to work and often can be even more harmful to the person with cancer.
Links:
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/what-is-cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-scientists-toolkit-dna-aging-cancer.html
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