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Hope for a cure for cancer :

Discovery of a new gene by Lankan Professor

by Shanika Sriyananda

Hope for a cure for breast, ovarian and prostate cancers is on the horizon, with a breakthrough in the new discovery of a new gene which causes the three cancers, by a Sri Lankan professor.

He is Professor Arun Dharmarajan, who is now doing research with international pharmaceutical companies in USA, to find an anti-body to fight the three cancers and also skin cancer.

The amazing behaviour of the corpus luteum, which produces the projestron hormone and makes women pregnant, compelled him to carry out more research on this particular organ. The 10-year long 'rigorous' laboratory investigations has turned his research career to a new direction, where he found the role of 'apoptosis in corpus luteum.

In an interview with the Sunday Observer Prof. Dharmarajan said that when he was doing his doctoral thesis on reproductive endocrinology, he saw an amazing behaviour of the corpus luteum and that which arose regarding its life span to make a woman pregnant. "This organ produces progestron and as the name goes 'pro-gest-tron', it maintains pregnancy. This is very important to make a woman pregnant, and in the absence of this hormone women undergo spontaneous abortions", he said.

His extensive research gave an answer to the question : Why this organ dies? It was apoptosis and he started looking at the mechanism involved in this process.

"I have been working on this for almost ten years now, and the mechanism in the apoptosis process is very complex; it has only one path to this organ, to die or to live", he added.

He and his team at the School of Anatomy and Human Biology, Western University, Australia, used the American biology technique. In addition to this, they also included prostate, which is also another organ to look at for apoptosis.

Prof. Dharmarajan's discovery - which plays a crucial role in ovarian, prostate and breast cancer could lead to breakthrough discoveries in cancer research. According to Prof. Dharmarajan, preliminary data already indicates that this gene could be used as a marker for early diagnosis of cancer, in particular prostate, breast, ovarian and colorectal.

"If threatened or damaged, cells in our body commit suicide, termed 'apoptosis', this natural process is part of our body's defence against cancer. If there are low levels of cell suicide and dangerously high levels of cancerous cell growth, the cell suicide rate is not fast enough to kill the rapidly multiplying cancer cells", he pointed out.

Using techniques such as cloning, Professor Dharmarajan has shown that this gene, labelled sFRP-4, increases cell suicide and reduces abnormal cell production.

"We couldn't believe our luck when we realised it induced apoptosis and reduced cell proliferation," said Prof. Dharmarajan.

Born in southern India, he is a product of St. Thomas' College.

His doctoral thesis resulted in seven publications in major peer-reviewed journals.

A reviewer for 25 top-ranking journals, he has also served on the programme. Membership and Strategic Planning committees of the US Society for the Study of Reproduction and the Programme Committee of the Endocrine Society of Australia and the Australian Society for Reproductive Biology.

His research has also shown that the gene is found abundantly in healthy ovaries but is missing in ovarian tumour cells. This indicates that it could defend cells against cancer, but if the gene is mutated or destroyed by a virus or other factor, the protective barrier crumbles and can give way to cancer.

Prof. Dharmarajan is currently working with scientists globally in an effort to expose the secrets of this gene and its precise role in cancer.

They hope they will be able to find treatment for these cancers.


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