Scientist Identify High Resolution Of BRAC1 Protein.(breast cancer )(Brief Article)

2001 OCT 11 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

Scientists at the University of Washington have gained a clearer picture of what the tumor suppressing protein BRAC1 looks like, information that should help them devise new ways to use this enzyme in fighting breast cancer.

Breast cancer is one of the most common and deadly forms of cancer in women. In the U.S. alone, 18,000 women are diagnosed annually. One of the risk factors for this disease is mutation in the tumor suppressor protein BRCA1.

Mutations in BRCA1 are linked to the familial and early onset forms of breast cancer and affect (approx)5% of the patients suffering from this disease. These mutations often occur in the N- and C-terminal regions of BRCA1, which are essential for its function.

BRCA1 is involved in a variety of cellular processes, such as DNA repair, and appears to be important in maintaining genome integrity. While scientists are beginning to understand the cellular functions of BRCA1, the molecular basis for the mutations that predispose women for breast cancer is not clear. To address this deficiency, two groups of researchers report in the October 2001 issue of Nature Structural Biology the high-resolution structures of the N- and C-terminal regions of BRCA1.

In one paper, Rachel Klevit and coworkers at the University of Washington at Seattle, Washington, describe the solution structure of the N-terminal region of BRCA1, called the RING ...