Scientists at Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute
(LRI; now part of the Francis Crick Institute) have
found a gene in mice that could protect against ovarian cancer and,
if faulty, may increase the chance of developing the disease.
This gene, known as Helq, helps repair any damage to DNA that
happens when it is copied as cells multiply. So if the gene is
missing or faulty, DNA errors could mount up, increasing the chance
of cancer developing.
The team found that mice without either of the two copies of the
Helq gene were twice as likely to develop ovarian tumours, as well
as becoming less fertile. And even losing just a single copy of the
Helq gene was enough to cause a mouse to develop more tumours.
Dr Simon Boulton of LRI said: "Our findings show that if there
are problems with the Helq gene in mice it increases the chance of
them developing ovarian and other tumours. This is an exciting
finding because this might also be true for women with errors in
Helq, and the next step will be to see if this is the case.
"If it plays a similar role in humans, this may open up the
possibility that, in the future, women could be screened for errors
in the Helq gene that might increase their risk of ovarian
cancer."
Dr Julie Sharp, Cancer Research UK's senior science information
manager, said: "This study pulls together clues from a series of
experiments building a picture of cell faults that could lead to
ovarian cancer in women.
"Ovarian cancer can be hard to diagnose early and treat
successfully so the more we know about the causes of the disease,
the better equipped we will be to detect and treat it."
The paper, HELQ promotes RAD51 paralogue-dependent repair to avert germ cell
loss and tumorigenesis, is published in Nature.