An unexpected player in a cancer defense system
Researchers of the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet and the University of Cologne, Germany, have identified a new protein involved in a defense mechanism against cancer. The VCP/p97 complex is best known for its role in protein destruction and is involved in a type of familial dementia and ALS. In a novel study the researchers now describe how this complex also plays an important role in regulating the recruitment of the tumor suppressor protein 53BP1 to damaged DNA – suggesting an important role for VCP/p97 in our body’s defense against cancer.Damage of DNA is potentially