Cancer determining information transmission and circulation.
Cancer determining information transmission, typically oncogene transfer, is known in many cases of virus initiated tumors. Transmission of carcinogenic information, that stored in plasmids named T-DNAs, is also known to take place in one type of bacteria induced tumor, that caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens in dicotyledon plants roots. Other mechanisms of carcinogenic information transmission have been more recently recognized, that involve horizontal transfer of genetic material among cells. Despite this latter issue is not new, insights in its mechanisms have just beginning to appear in the literature. Horizontal transfer processes, in addition to the well known vertical transfer from parental to daughter cancer cells, have been tentatively put together with a reductionistic approach in this work, leading to a unifying framework that summarizes the state of the art in carcinogenic information transmission and circulation in the world of cells. Counteracting vectors of carcinogenic information transmission and circulation, such as oncoviruses, has already been shown to be important both in the fields of cancer prevention and therapy. Investigating today unexplored ways of transmission could lead to implement new anticancer strategies.
Conti
Matteo
M
Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Ospedale, S. Maria delle Croci, 48100, Ravenna, Italy. matteoconti@alice.it
D016960:Agrobacterium tumefaciens; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics*; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000628:therapy; D009857:Oncogenes; D010941:Plant Tumors / Q000382:microbiology; D012190:Retroviridae; D014170:Transformation, Genetic