Heward1 Will Heward Biology 2010 Dr.

Mika 2 April 2014

Can Cancer Evade the Immune System? The popular press article was published on ScienceDaily.com by John Hopkins Medicine. I have had a few people in my family that have been directly affected by cancer so when I saw this article I was instantly hooked. I dont really see myself going into the science field when I get older but if I ever did I would definitely be working on something that was caner related. The original research for this work was published on impactjournals.com/oncotarget by several different departments and universities. In the Science Daily article, John Hopkins Medicine claims to have found certain genes in the body that predict which tumors can hide from the bodys immune system. This would be a huge step in the right direction for curing cancer. A team says it has identified genes that have been repressed through so-called epigenetic changes modifications that alter the way genes function without changing their DNA sequence which help the cells to evade the immune system. The researchers were able to reverse these epigenetic changes with the use of an FDA-approved drug. (Hopkins, 2014) This process would make the cancerous cells in the body come out from hiding. This could possibly help us diagnose earlier stages of cancer. This potentially makes the new found cells better targets for similar therapy that has failed in the past.

Heward2 Epigenetic therapy is emerging as a potential therapy for solid tumors. To investigate its mechanism of action, we performed integrative expression and methylation analysis of 63 cancer cell lines (breast, colorectal, and ovarian) after treatment with the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-azacitidine (AZA). Gene Set Enrichment Analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for immunomodulatory pathways in all three cancers (14.4-31.3%) including interferon signaling, antigen processing and presentation, and cytokines/chemokines. (Li, et al, 2014) The researchers in this use the term, project Epigenetic Therapy, or in simpler terms, a potential therapy for solid tumors. Both of these articles have similar research and hypotheses. The biggest difference between the popular press article and the original is the popular press makes it easier to understand, which I can bet was what they were trying to do. Most of us look at the original research and have absolutely no idea what its saying. I am glad I read both of them so I could get the real research and put it into simpler terms. One of the biggest differences between the popular press article and the original research article that was done is the explanation of it all. The original article is interesting but it doesnt have much of a conclusion or idea of what we do from here and how we can use this going forward. In the popular press article they tell us that we have had success on human cancer cells and this could eventually help our immune system fight against cancer cells without the need of chemotherapy or radiation. After looking in cell lines, the Johns Hopkins team extended their work to human tumor samples. Again they found evidence that these immune system pathways are turned down in some patients and, that these immune genes can be turned back up in a small number of patients with breast and colorectal cancer who had been treated with epigenetic therapies. (Hopkins, 2014)

Heward3 I think this is such an awesome discovery. If we continuing perfecting and advancing in this research it could help save millions of lives all across the world.

Heward4 Works Cited: Hopkins, John. 2014. Common cancers evade detection by silencing parts of immune system cells. ScienceDaily. P. 1

Li, H., Chiappinelli, K., Guzzetta, A., Easwaran, H., Yen, R., Vatapalli, R., Topper, M., Luo, J., Connolly, R., Azad, N., Stearns, V., Pardoll, D., Davidson, N., Jones, P., Slamon, D., Baylin, S., Zahnow, C., & Ahuja, N. (2014). Immune regulation by low doses of the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-azacitidine in common human epithelial cancers. Oncotarget, 5(3), 587-598.

Links to Articles: Popular Press Article- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140304154523.htm Originalhttp://www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget/index.php?journal=oncotarget&page=article&op=vie w&path%5B%5D=1782

Heward5 Reflection-What I have learned.

I learned that there are genes that can evade detection by the bodys immune system. The reason we arent able to cure certain types of cancer is because these genes hide and are completely invisible to the bodys immune system. This has not been possible before now because scientists couldnt figure out how to modify the way certain genes function without changing their DNA sequence, which in turn would cause all sorts of problems. This drug researchers are using is FDA-approved; this drug enables us to reverse the epigenetic changes. This epigenetic therapy is a way to attack solid tumors. Tests have been done on a few different human body parts such as the breast, colorectal and ovarian. I am always interested in cancer research, its so fascinating how tiny mutations in a humans DNA can cause so many problems. The main therapy for cancer right now is Chemotherapy. The problem with chemo is that it attacks all of the bodys cells which can be very damaging to the human body. This is why people lose their hair because the radiation kills the proteins that make the hair cells.