Wouldn’t it be great if getting rid of cancer was as simple as
flicking a switch? Well, it might be. A professor from Tel Aviv
University thinks he may have uncovered a way to do just that
when he identified a “switch” in plants that halts tumor growth.
The results are published online in the journal Current Biology.
The switch is actually a fat molecule that controls a group of
proteins in the plant called ROPs. Humans have a very similar
group of proteins. The proteins tell cancer when to metastasize,
but they’re also responsible for wound healing and neural brain
development. “When these proteins are turned ‘on,’ they can
initiate processes like cell division and growth,” Shaul
Yalovsky, the lead researcher, said in a university press
release. “Through our genetic engineering, these proteins could
be manipulated in humans to speed up tissue healing, or turned
off to slow or stop the growth of tumors.” Yalovsky’s process
works by using “mutant molecules” that block the ROP proteins
from doing their job, int