Cell lineage and cell death: Caenorhabditis elegans and cancer research
1Departments of Pediatrics and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 75390-9148, USA.
Abstract:
Cancer is a complex disease in which cells have circumvented normal restraints on tissue growth and have acquired complex abnormalities in their genomes, posing a considerable challenge to identifying the pathways and mechanisms that drive fundamental aspects of the malignant phenotype. Genetic analyses of the normal development of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have revealed evolutionarily conserved mechanisms through which individual cells establish their fates, and how they make and execute the decision to survive or undergo programmed cell death. The pathways identified through these studies have mammalian counterparts that are co-opted by malignant cells. Effective cancer drugs now target some of these pathways, and more are likely to be discovered.
Related Concept Videos
02:12What is Cancer?
Although people have known about cancer for centuries, it was only in 1761 that Giovanni Morgagni of Padua performed a detailed autopsy of patients who died from...
02:15Replicative Cell Senescence
01:30Overview of Cell Death
Cell death was observed in the early 19th century, but there was no experimental evidence to prove it. In 1842, Carl Vogt first discovered cell death in a metamorphic toad; however, it was not termed ‘cell death.’ Scientists discovered different cell death pathways only in the 20th century...