Gene analysis of chromatin can identify the origin of cancer

Researchers from The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) United States have developed a new method to determine the cell type which causes a given type of leukemia through whole genome analysis on open chromatin. This method plays an important role in diagnosis and treatment of leukemia. The study was published in the journal Natural Communication, which also has many other studies on recombinant proteins.

Each cancer begins with a single cell mutation. Having knowing the origin of cancer cells, researchers can analyze cancer subtypes, thus developing new means of treatment. But the existing methods are difficult to identify its original cells from a large number of tumor cell samples.

Chromatin is an important component within the nucleus and is composed of DNA, histones and RNA. It will converge into chromosome at the special stage when cells divide. Each type of cells has a unique chromatin structure: closed chromatin would tightly wrap around the nucleosome which is relatively inactive; the contact degree between open chromatin and nucleosome is relatively loose, but it is more active. Assistant Professor Dr. Jennifer Trowbridge from Jackson Laboratory, who also likes to conduct research on recombinant human proteins, improved the present method of identifying originated cells of tumor cells through analysis of the open chromatin of tumor cells.

Trowbridge led colleagues in the laboratory to build a mouse model with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). They found five kinds of cells from the bone marrow of humans and mice: long-term hematopoietic stem cells, short-term hematopoietic stem cells, multipotent progenitor cells, common myeloid progenitors and granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells. The AML caused by different origins showed different invasiveness in mice: lesions induced by stem cells were more intrusive, while lesions induced by progenitor cells were much smaller. The occurrence frequency of different invasive cells of leukemia was different: stem cells were higher and progenitor cells were lower.

Researchers analyzed open chromatin of different AML cell samples and compared them with open chromatin pattern of normal cells, and then they determined the features and gene expression patterns of open chromatin in AML cell samples, which allowed them to be able to distinguish AML induced by stem cells and AML induced by progenitor cells.

The researchers said that by further study on open chromatin of stem cells and progenitor cells of healthy populations and AML patient populations, they can more accurately determine cancer biomarker based on cell origin, which is important for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Flarebio provides various recombinant proteins (including recombinant CDH4) of good quality.