Oncogenes And Tumour Suppressor Genes Flashcards
What are the main functional changes in cancer?
Increased growth (loss of growth regulation and stimulate environment to promote growth - angiogenesis))
Failure to undergo apoptosis
Loss of differentiation
Failure to repair DNA damage
What do proto-oncogenes do normally? and what do they do once they are oncogenic?
Normal genes that are involved in growth factor signalling pathways - control growth
Mutated oncogene produce larger amounts of product or have increased activity
What do tumour suppressor genes do?
Stop uncontrolled growth and inhibit cell cycle or trigger apoptosis
What happens to the oncogene when they pick up a mutation causing cancer?
Gain function - become permanently active
What happens to the tumour suppressor gene when they pick up a mutation causing cancer?
Loss of function , mutation switches gene off
How many mutations occur in oncogenes causing cancer?
Single mutation in one allele is enough for gain of function in oncogene and uncontrolled proliferation and cancer
How many mutations occur in tumour suppressor genes causing cancer?
one mutation in each allele (2 hits) needed to lose function of tumour suppressor gene leading to abnormal proliferation
Name a few tumour suppressor genes commonly involved in cancer?
p53 and retinoblastoma
name a few oncogenes commonly involved in cancer
MYC oncogene
RAS oncogene
How were oncogenes discovered?
Induced sarcoma i chickens lead to understanding sarcoma (some cancers) is transmissable
Why is sarcoma transmissable?
Only transmissable cancers transfer through viruses (since small enough to go through filter in experiment so figured it cant be bacteria which is too large so must be a virus)
specifically Rous sarcoma virus causes sarcoma to be transmissable
What type of virus is rous sarcoma virus?
retrovirus
Why are retroviruses important experimentally?
technological advances
funding
improved tissue culture techniques
discovery of reverse transcriptase
What is v-src?
proto-oncogene altered from transduced by retroviruses
Where is v-sarc found?
an extra gene found in rous sarcoma virus compared to other retroviruses
What is the oncogene hypothesis?
idea that v-src (oncogene) was kidnapped and was originally as cellilar gene not viral gene and become oncogenic
How was c-sarc captured by retrovirus? - steps
Central dogma as viral genome becomes dsDNA provirus (after inverse transcription)
C-src in host cell chromosomal DNA
Provirus intergrated in host cell chromosomal DNA accidentally next to c-src.
After transcription of this entire region, results in v-src (which is packaged into virus now carrying c-src as v-src after kidnappin)
Why do viruses cause cancer?
due to the v-src oncogene which is expressed at high levels in host cells leading to uncontrolled host cell grwoth and cancer
What is c-src involved in?
Found in normal host chromosomal DNA and is involved in positive regulation of cell growth and division
What agents cause a proto-oncogene to become an oncogene?
Chemicals
Physical
Viruses
Why does c-src not cause cancer but v-src does?
V-src mutates and leads to abnormal proliferation - activated oncogene instead of staying as proto-oncogene (c-src involved is. normal proto-oncogene in humans involved in cell division but is oncogene in chickens)
Which viruses transmit viral oncogenes?
- oncogenes also found in viruses and transmitted through either DNA or RNA viruses