CANBERRA, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Australian researchers have identified an immune protein that could be the key to developing new treatments for bowel cancer.
In a new study, a team of researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) discovered that the immune protein NLRC4 can prevent healthy cells from turning into cancer cells.
According to the research, NLRC4 finds cancer-causing damaged DNA and repairs it.
By doing so, NLRC4 stops damaged cells from growing and dividing during the repair process, helping to prevent healthy cells from turning into cancer cells and cells that are becoming cancerous from turning into tumors.
Si Ming Man, the lead author of the research from ANU, said that the findings indicate new drugs could be developed to make NLRC4 help fight bowel cancer, which develops when cells become abnormal due to changes in the DNA inside the cell.
Researchers previously believed that NLRC4 only played the destructive role of killing infected cells but the new study found that it is also constructive.
The ANU research found that people with bowel cancer carry less NLRC4 in their body, making it a promising biomarker to predict who will fare better or worse after being diagnosed with bowel cancer.
"Checking the amount of NLRC4 in pre-cancerous polyps could help guide the frequency of bowel cancer screening," Man said in a media release.
Bowel cancer is the second deadliest cancer in Australia, accounting for over 100 deaths every week. However, almost 99 percent of cases can be successfully treated when detected early. ■
