CHD5 protein, a newly identified gene out of Cold Spring Harbor Labratory, and verified by collaborating Stanford University, is the cancer master switch. It's located on chromosone 1 (band 1p36); the gene, unlike others recently identified, has the ability to see over the activity of other genes, and is considered a tumor suppressor.In some of us, this gene is mutated or even missing, and this is bad news for everyone.
A lack of CHD5 is found in such cancers as brain tumors, breast, ovarian, prostate and colorectal. Studies in lab mice found that additions to 1p36 add to CHD5, causing existing cancer cells to stop growing, or even die.So why haven't we heard more about this seemingly amazing discovery? There isn't much to say beyond what we already know. The discovery, reported in February 2007 in the journal Nature, will certainly contribute to continuing cancer research. However, such research is funding-dependent--and if the States go to socialized medicine in 2009--funding will be scarce, and so will hope for a cure to a disease that affects 1/3 of the population in the U.S. EACH year. Scary, isn't it?What's perhaps even scarier is that the opposite of CHD5, a cancer-causing gene called the "Pokemon" gene, discovered in 2005 at Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan, also called an oncogene, does exist.
Research needs to continue on both genes to help stop the disease that will replace heart disease in the next two years as the number cause of death in America.We are in a War on Terror--it's just not in the Middle East--it's inside our bodies. Everyone is susceptible, but why? Look to the skies, look to the water, look to the soil--radioactive and toxic pollutants, combined with increased social stress (releasing cortisol, a hormone that helps cancer cells both grow and spread), must be the answer.
So what say you, fellow Alchemists? More to come--happy October!
Sources: Nature, February 2007 and Newsday.com 9 February 2007
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