A protein called Menin causes abnormal inactivation of specific genes in cancer cells

Scientists at the Australian National University (ANU) and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre have discovered that a protein called Menin causes abnormal inactivation
of specific genes in cancer cells.

One of the characteristics of cancer is that the normal regulation of genes is disrupted, which causes cancer cells to look and behave differently
than normal cells.
Cancer cells can shut down certain genes, leaving them dormant
.
By inactivating specific immune genes, some cancers are able to evade detection by the immune system and become essentially invisible
.
This allows the cancer to grow and become more aggressive
.

The researchers believe that by targeting the Menin protein with drugs, they can reactivate these genes, making cancer cells visible again and allowing the immune system to find and destroy them
.

The findings, published in Nature Cell Biology, may lead to new, more effective treatments
for lymphoma and lung cancer.
The discovery helped scientists learn more about the function of
cells.

Professor Dawson said: "Our findings have significant implications for many different areas of research because we need to understand how cells make decisions and change the way they behave in order to find new ways
to treat cancer.
"

Marian Burr, an associate professor at the Australian National University and co-corresponding author, said the researchers used gene-editing techniques to remove the Menin protein
from cancer cells.
Menin has previously been shown to activate genes
.
However, our study unexpectedly found that Menin's function keeps these genes in an inactive dormant state.
"

"This means that by deleting Menin, we can turn on immune genes, which are critical
to helping the immune system detect and kill cancer cells.
"

"Importantly, specific drugs that inhibit Menin have been developed and are currently undergoing clinical trials
targeting specific forms of leukemia.

"Our findings expand the potential clinical use of
these drugs.
We have shown that Menin inhibitors can be used in combination with other existing treatments to enhance the killing of lymphoma and lung cancer cells in the laboratory
.

"We believe these drugs are also effective
against other types of cancer.
"