Word: cancerously
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...other epigenetic drugs that are thought to work at least in part by stimulating tumor-suppressor genes that disease has silenced. The great hope for ongoing epigenetic research is that with the flick of a biochemical switch, we could tell genes that play a role in many diseases - including cancer, schizophrenia, autism, Alzheimer's, diabetes and many others - to lie dormant. We could, at long last, have a trump card to play against Darwin...
...research on the origins of the fatal cancer suggest that methods for rapid diagnosis and even a vaccine against the disease may be possible. Reporting in a paper published in the Jan. 1 issue of Science, an international team of researchers based in Australia and New York State performed a genetic analysis of DFTD and found that it likely began in the devil's Schwann cells, a type of tissue that protects nerve fibers. Researchers have also identified genetic markers for the disease, which should allow doctors to distinguish facial tumor disease easily from other cancers that afflict the Tasmanian...
DFTD is a virtually unique cancer in that it is spread from animal to animal via biting or other physical contact - one of only three cancers that are thought to spread this way. While some human cancers can be linked to transmissible pathogens - such as cervical cancer, which is caused by the human papillomavirus - in DFTD, infected devils actually transmit the tumor itself to other devils when they bite. (See TIME's video "Saving the Tasmanian Devil...
...uncovered the tumors' transcriptome, which means the set of genes that are activated in tumors. Those activated genes best matched those of Schwann cells, which gave the team a clue as to where the disease originated - that's important because devils are unusually susceptible to a number of different cancers, and a quick diagnosis before the facial tumors get out of control would be helpful. "The real importance of this is that we can differentiate between the facial tumor disease and any other cancer," says Papenfuss. "That allows for much more specific diagnoses...
Better diagnoses may lead to more targeted prevention efforts. Right now the only way to slow the spread of the disease is simply to separate healthy devils from infected ones. Naturalists are creating "devil's islands," cancer-free areas in Tasmania where healthy devils can live and breed. But that alone may not be enough to save the animal - the Tasmanian Conservation Trust recently warned that there were not enough healthy devils in captivity to ensure a viable population. "It's critical that we find something to help save them," Elizabeth Murchison, the lead author on the paper, told Science...