US researchers identify new way to slow down cancer cell growth

Researchers in the United States have reportedly identified a new way to slow down the growth of cancer cells, according to reports released on 28 May 2017.

The research, conducted by researchers belonging to the University of Rochester in the US, has been published in the latest issue of the journal, Science. The new method involves a protein called Tudor-SN and the gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9.

Researchers after a detailed study discovered how Tudor-SN is significant in the preparatory phase of the cell cycle, the period when the cell gets ready to divide.

Elaborating on the discovery, Reyad A Elbarbary, lead author of the study, said that Tudor-SN is more abundant in cancer cells than in the healthy ones and so, targeting the protein could help slow down the fast-growing cancer cells.

Elbarbary is also a Research Assistant Professor in the Centre for RNA Biology and the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

The findings were made in kidney and cervical cancer cells in the laboratory and though they are still a long way from being applied on people, researchers believe that they could be the basis of a treatment option in the future.