Shedding a copy of chromosome 10 helps lethal brain tumours called glioblastomas to thrive by reducing expression of the tumour-suppressor gene ANXA7.
Glioblastomas often have only a single copy of chromosome 10, and extra copies of a region of chromosome 7 that contains the cancer-promoting EGFR gene. Markus Bredel of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, and his colleagues found that expression of ANXA7, which is located on chromosome 10, is also reduced in these cells.
In cell cultures, when ANXA7 protein levels dropped, EGFR levels rose and the tumour-generating potential of these cells increased.
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Cancer biology: Doing more with less. Nature 460, 438 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/460438e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/460438e
