There is also "water and oil separation" in tumor formation?

Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, June 24 (intern reporter Zhang Jiaxin) A paper published online on the 23rd in the journal Nature showed that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina Ryanberg Comprehensive Cancer Center Researchers in, have discovered a new mechanism that activates specific genes and causes cancer

New research shows that fusion of mutations in two unrelated genes can promote a process called "liquid-liquid separation", similar to the process in which oil and water are mixed together, but the two cannot be completely fused

To understand this process, the researchers conducted experiments on cancer cells carrying a common gene fusion called NUP98-HOXA9

The protein produced by NUP98-HOXA9 has or does not have a structural extension, which is called the intrinsic disorder region (IDR)

At the same time, the researchers also found that after liquid-liquid separation, the NUP98-HOXA9 fusion protein can influence the three-dimensional structure of the genome by creating chromatin loops

Douglas Pensteer, one of the lead authors of this article and an assistant professor of cell biology and physiology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, said that because similar gene fusions have been observed in other malignant tumors, the new mechanism discovered this time It can also be used to explain the development of other types of cancer

Another lead author, Greg Wang, associate professor of biochemistry, biophysics and pharmacology at the university, said: “Phase separation and its role in cancer have always been a missing piece of the puzzle in cancer research