Leading Killers Share Genes

Harvard cancer researcher, Kevin Struhl, and his colleagues have discovered that several of the most fatal diseases known to man share particular genes. Struhl compared genetic data from two different types of cells, mammary and connective tissue cells, first comparing healthy cells to cancerous cells in order to determine which genes were mutated and cancerous.

At that point they compared the diseased genes in the mammary and connective tissue cells to discover that they had 343 in common. Investigation into the functions of the common diseased genes determined that the diseased cells shared altered inflammation and metabolism instruction families.

Metabolism is the basic process of physical and chemical function, and energy availability. Inflammation and altered metabolic processes are implicated in all of the ten leading causes of death in the US. While the link between inflammation and cancer is well known and significantly documented medical knowledge, connections between metabolic diseases and cancer are “stunning,” according to Struhl.

After scanning existing medical literature, the researchers discovered that many of the 343 genes they implicated in cancer had already been associated with heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and others of the most frequently fatal killers, especially those that deposit fat plaques on the walls of arteries.

In order to validate their surprising findings, the researchers broke down the metabolic genes before they were diseased, and discovered that the majority were fundamental to cancer development in both the mammary and connective tissue cells. In additional work, they demonstrated other important genetic similarities between cancer and metabolic disease.

One researcher who studies genes just before and after they develop cancerous and diabetic changes appreciated how the new findings illustrate the involvement of some of the proteins in several different diseases. "The idea is that there's essentially a diseased cell state, but the specific [type] and disease you get depends on what cell type it is," said Struhl.

The importance of these discoveries lies partly in the possibility that some cancer treatments might also be effective treatments for metabolic diseases, and vice versa. Already cross tests of drugs for arthritis, diabetes, and plaque building diseases with cancer cells has yielded successful results. Eleven out of thirteen drugs inhibited cancer development in the cell lines.

The other, seemingly more important implication is that taking steps to prevent one disease inarguably inhibits a host of others.