Link found between inflammation and cancer.

摘要

a group of researchers at the ohio state University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC) has discovered that a certain type of RNA, microRNA-155, may provide the link between inflammation and cancer. The article describing the study was published online ahead of print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in March (doi: 10.1073/pnas.l 101795108). Many studies have linked chronic inflammation with cancer (ie, inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer), and some estimate that as many as 25% of cancer cases are caused by chronic infection. This study, led by Carlo Croce, showed that inflammation stimulates a rise in levels of microRNA-155 (miR-155), and that this, in turn, causes a drop in levels of the proteins involved in DNA repair and results in a higher rate of the spontaneous gene mutations that can lead to cancer.