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Genomics

Emma Dorey For the first time, researchers have completely decoded the genome of two types of cancer – work that sheds light on how cancer develops and could lead to new diagnostics and drug targets.

‘Cancer Research UK is extremely encouraged by this fast-emerging area of research,’ says Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive. ‘Never before has the potential of genomics to bring benefits to patients been so apparent.’

The international team of researchers sequenced the genome of tumour tissue and normal tissue from a patient with melanoma and a patient with small-cell lung cancer. Comparing the genomes of the diseased and healthy tissue revealed all the mutations in the genomes of the two cancers.

The melanoma genome contained over 33,000 mutations, many of which had distinctive characteristics of DNA damaged through exposure to ultraviolet light, according to the researchers (Nature doi:10.1038/ nature08658).

The researchers believe that the

majority of the 23,000 mutations in the lung cancer genome are due to carcinogens in tobacco smoke that are known to bind and mutate DNA, suggesting that a typical smoker would acquire one mutation for every 15 cigarettes smoked (Nature doi:10.1038/nature08629).

As well as revealing the mutation history of both cancers, the studies showed where DNA had tried to repair itself.

‘This is groundbreaking research,’ says Carlos Caldas, a cancer genomics expert at Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Research Institute. ‘Like molecular archaeologists, these researchers have dug through layers of genetic information to uncover the history of these patients’ disease. What’s so new in this study is the researchers have been able to link particular mutations to their cause. By repeating and refining this technique with other forms of cancer, and comparing the results to data from the Human Genome Project, the hope and excitement for the future is that we’ll eventually have a detailed picture of how different cancers develop, and

ultimately how better to treat and prevent them.’

Andy Futreal, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK, which led the research teams, said working out which of the mutations drive cells to become cancerous ‘will be our major challenge for the next few years’.

Identifying cancer genes and building a catalogue of mutations for other cancers is expected to lead to the development of new diagnostics and more efficient, tailored drugs. The Sanger Institute says it is

already working with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, US, on a large scale project to tie genetic changes in cancers to their responses to anticancer treatments. And the International Cancer Genome Consortium has been established to coordinate cancer genome sequencing worldwide.

Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide, with lung cancer accounting for a million deaths each year and melanoma the cause of 75% of skin cancer deaths.

Lawsuit over pesticides and polar bears Bioaccumulation

that Arctic peoples are also at the top of the food pyramid and would benefit from protection from these pesticides.

The 14 pesticides targeted by the lawsuit include atrazine,

alachlor, chlorothalonil, chlorpyrifos, DCPA, diazinon, dicofol, disulfoton, endosulfan, fenitrothion, metolachlor, methyl-parathion, terbufos and trifluralin.

Syngenta, the maker of atrazine, said that the herbicide is due to be reassessed by the EPA in 2013. However, spokesperson Sherry Duvall Ford added that: ‘A thorough endangered species risk assessment for atrazine, based on findings from a comprehensive database and more than 45 years of use, shows atrazine will have no adverse effects on threatened or endangered species or their critical habitat. Further, contrary to media reports, atrazine does not bio-concentrate in the food chain or accumulate in fatty tissue, and would have no health impact on the polar bear.’

Cath O’Driscoll Environmentalists have filed a lawsuit against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its alleged failures to protect polar bears and their Arctic habitat from pesticides approved by the Agency and used in the US. The lawsuit, issued by the Center for Biological Diversity, is the first legal challenge to pesticide regulations due to their impacts on the Arctic and follows previous lawsuits in 48 states, leading to, for example, the EPA’s proposed restrictions on 74 pesticides in California, according to the environmental group.

The environmental group warns that pesticides transported long distances from their point of use have been accumulating in the Arctic and are magnified in polar bears at the top of food chain, where they are blamed for an increased mortality in

polar bear cubs. ‘The pesticide crisis is a silent killer that threatens not only the polar bear but the entire Arctic ecosystem and its communities,’ says Rebecca Noblin, an attorney with the Center in Anchorage, Alaska, adding

News

Chemistry & Industry 11 Januray 20106

Skin and lung cancer decoded Photolibrary

Over-indulging on bourbon leads to a worse hangover than drinking a lot of vodka, a new study has found. Bourbon has 37 times the amount of complex organic molecules called congeners – including acetone, acetaldehyde, fusel oil, tannins and furfural – that vodka has. Congeners are found at higher concentrations in darker, distilled beverages and wines than lighter ones and have a variety of toxic effects associated with hangovers. However, the study found that impairment in next-day performance is about the same for both vodka and bourbon.

Legal wrangling: environmentalists take on the EPA over pesticides

Bourbon blues are worse than from vodka

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