New mechanism could help cancer treatment

SCIENTISTS have discovered a new mechanism for repairing damaged DNA that could have major implications for cancer treatment, it emerged yesterday.

Researchers have found that a molecule called AlkB, which is key to repairing genetic damage, works in a unique way.

The study, in the journal Nature, found that AlkB uses a chemical process called oxidative demethylation to repair DNA, relying on the presence of iron and several other chemicals.

During cancer treatments conventional drugs attack tumours by damaging their DNA and AlkB plays an important role in resistance to these treatments.

Interfering with its activity could therefore bring advances in chemotherapy.

Lead researcher Dr Barbara Sedgwick of Cancer Research UK’s London Institute, said: “The process for repairing DNA has been studied intensively for many years now, so to discover a new mechanism of action was surprising and exciting.

“We think the AlkB could be one of the major reasons for resistance to chemotherapy and now we know how it works, it should be possible to find ways to overcome this problem.”