GENE THERAPY: A PROBABLE CURE FOR BREAST CANCER

p Gene Therapy : A Probable Cure for Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the result of genetic alterations in carcinoma of the breast which may either be associated with alteration of the chromosome or deficiency of tumor suppressor function and proliferation of oncogenes . Gene therapy as a treatment for breast cancer is relatively a new approach , which is developed in lieu with the discovery that breast cancer can arise as a result of a genetic dis . Gene therapy involves the manipulation of genetic material to achieve therapeutic ends

The use of gene

therapy for the treatment of breast cancer has recently captured the attention of many researchers . In line with this , this study aims to analyze gene therapy as a novel approach to treatment of breasts cancer

Inactivation of the tumor suppressor gene (TSG ) may trigger the onset of malignancy . It has been observed in breast cancer that it may arise as a result of loss of heterozygosity (LOH ) among somatic cells (Osborne et al , 2004 . LOH may not only cause the inactivation of TSG but may alter expression and transcription of TSG . Among the most studied TSGs related with the formation of breast cancer are Rb and mutated p53 (p53 . The presence of Rb was found out to cause the amplification of the breast carcinogenesis . The function of p53 on the other hand is important in maintaining regulation of cell cycle , DNA repair , apoptosis of abnormal cells and angiogenesis inhibition (Takahashi et al , 1989 hence mutation of these genes could lead to loss of these functions Among the other known occurrence of mutation in TSGs which are linked to breast carcinoma are p16 , p27 , p21 , p53 , mda7 , BRCA-1 , BRCA-2 , Maspin and Testin (Stoff-Khalili et al , 2006

One of the methods employed in gene therapy is through the aid of tumor suppressor genes (TSG . Studies have been performed to replace p53 with viral wild-type p53 in cancer cells of humans and results have shown to combat proliferation of cancer cells as well as to cause their apoptosis . It must be noted that the p53 functions to inhibit proliferation of cells hence it may act as an inhibitory to the growth of normal and malignant cells hence it functions as well to inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells in the breast . Moreover , p53 is also known to act in conjunction with bystander effect hence causing the death not only of the p53-transfecrted cells but also of the neighboring cells This in turn is important in gene therapy for it significantly lowers the transduction level which is necessary for the success of gene therapy (Stoff- Khalili et al , 2006 . In a study conducted to determine the antiproliferative effect of wild-type (wt ) p53 mediated through nanoparticles on breast cancer cells , it was shown that the transfection of breast cancer cells led to the sustained counteracting of the proliferation of the cancer cells (Prabha and Lahasetwar , 2004 Significant inhibition of growth of tumor was similarly noted by Nielsen et al (1997 ) in models of mouse xenograft...