There is an interesting target that is being investigated in order to improve cancer treatments, and it is the p53 protein, which has the ability to protect our cells from cancer. It sounds great, but there is a problem, and that is that when it enters the cells, p53 tends to break down quickly, so it does not have an effect. Now, a study has found that spider silk could help prevent this by improving its stability.
The p53 protein has also been called by many as the guardian of the genome, as it makes cells with DNA damage that can become cancerous. Half of cancerous tumors have mutations in the p53 gene, indicating that it may be the most common genetic change in cancer.
For its part, spider silk is made up of long chains of highly stable proteins, which makes it one of the strongest polymers in nature. That is why the researchers from the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) chose this material to try to give stability to the p53 protein –which is generated little in the cell, due to its large size and great disorder– and lasts even less.
A stable p53 variant could hold promise against cancer
In the research published in the journal Structure, a small section of a synthetic spider silk protein was added to the human p53 protein, and the mixture was then introduced into a cell. The results showed that the cells began to produce it in large quantities and the proteins had greater stability, so it was capable of killing cancer cells.
The cells that received p53 protein with spider silk multiplied their production and were much more stable, which allowed them to fight against the cancer cell
“Creating a more stable variant of p53 in cells is a promising approach for cancer therapy, and now we have a tool for this that is worth exploring. We hope to eventually develop an mRNA-based cancer vaccine, but before we do that we need to know how the protein is handled in cells and whether large amounts can be toxic,” said co-author and Senior Professor Sir David Lane.
Using electron microscopy, computer simulations and mass spectrometry, the researchers showed that the likely reason for this was the way in which the spider silk managed to give more structure to the disordered sections of the p53 protein. The next step will be to investigate how the different parts of p53 interact to prevent cancer and how cells are affected by the new spider-silk-modified protein.
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