‘Academy 32’ Launched in Saudi Arabia to Qualify National Cadres in Research and Development

‘Academy 32’ Launched in Saudi Arabia to Qualify National Cadres in Research and Development

Scientists at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) have uncovered one way tobacco smoking causes cancer and makes it harder to treat by undermining the body's anti-cancer safeguards.

The new study, published in the journal Science Advances, links tobacco smoking to harmful changes in DNA called "stop-gain mutations" that tell the body to stop making certain proteins before they are fully formed.

Mohammed Shaaban, PhD researcher at the Imperial College London and Francis Crick Institute, described the mutations as “defective incomplete proteins”, adding that “the findings are highly important because they provide a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms through which smoking contributes to the development of cancer and its resistance to treatment.”

The study found that these stop-gain mutations were especially prevalent in genes known as 'tumor-suppressors', which make proteins that would normally prevent abnormal cells from growing.

"Our study showed that smoking is associated with changes to DNA that disrupt the formation of tumor suppressors," says Nina Adler, a University of Toronto PhD student who led the study during her postgraduate research in Dr. Jüri Reimand's lab at OICR.

"Without them, abnormal cells are allowed to keep growing unchecked by the cell's defenses and cancer can develop more easily," she added.

Adler, Reimand