MIT findings may lead to customised cancer treatment

MNNG may not be a common terminology. MNNG or Methylnitronitrosoguanidine is a DNA-damaging compound similar to toxic chemicals found in tobacco smoke which usually kills cells by rendering the DNA damaged irreparably. Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Center for Environmental Health Sciences (CEHS) and the Departments of Biological Engineering and Biology, identified a group of 48 genes that account for the vulnerability of an individual to the toxic compound, known as MNNG.

However, the researchers discovered varying degrees of susceptibility among cells taken from healthy people. It was hitherto unknown that cell lines from different people could vary in responses. Rebecca Fry, former MIT research scientist and lead author of the paper summed up by saying, “A cell line from one person would be killed dramatically, while that from another person was resistant to exposure.”

It was further added by Leona Samson, senior author of the paper, director of CEHS, and an American Cancer Society Research Professor, “Even if everyone is exposed to exactly the same things, they would respond differently, because we’re all genetically different.” The findings of the research was supposed to be published in the Sept. 19 online edition of Genes and Development. The fact that different people react differently to MNNG could prove to be an indicator of a particular patient’s response to chemotherapy thereby leading to the development of individial cancer treatment instead of a generic one.

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