日本大學發現治療胃癌新方法

Recently the Asahi News reported the following:

胃がんの増殖を助ける遺伝子を、東京大や横浜市立大などのグループが見つけた。この遺伝子を働かなくしたマウスは胃がんができにくくなった。胃がんの新しい治療薬の開発に役立つと期待される。
　横浜市立大の前田愼教授らが６６人の胃がん患者のがん組織を調べたところ、ＡＳＫ１という遺伝子が活発に働いていた。この遺伝子はもともと、侵入してきた細菌やウイルスに対抗するために炎症を起こしたり、傷ついた細胞をがん化する前に殺したりする働きがある。しかし、胃がんでは細胞分裂を促して増殖を助けていることがわかった。
　ＡＳＫ１を働かなくしたマウスに胃がんになる薬を飲ませたところ、正常なマウスに比べて、できた胃がんの数が３分の１ほどに減り、胃がんの大きさも半分以下に抑えられたという。前田教授は「ＡＳＫ１の働きを抑える薬ができれば、胃がんの新しい治療薬になりそうだ」と話す。成果は米科学アカデミー紀要に掲載された。
Some groups in the Tokyo University and Yokohama City University had found the gene that helped the proliferation of the stomach cancer. Without the gene at work, it would became difficult for the mouse to develop stomach cancer. It was expected that it would be useful for the development of some new treatment for stomach cancer.
When professors Maeta and others of the Yokohama City University examined the cancer tissue of 66 stomach cancer patients, the gene named ASK1 was found to be working actively. Originally, these gene worked to oppose the bacillus and the virus that has invaded, and killed the damaged cell before it became cancerous. However, it had been understood that stomach caner assisted proliferation by helping cell division.
When stomach cancer causing medicine was fed to the mouse whose ASK1 was not working, the number of stomach cancers that had developed decreased to about 1/3 when compared with normal mouses, and the stomach cancer size was said to have been suppressed to below half. Prof. Maeta said "If the medicine that suppresses the working of ASK1 can be made available, it seems that a new treatment for stomach caner would become available". The result was published in the U.S. Science Academy Bulletin.

This medical discovery is a good news for many stomach cancer patients.