Are there ways to influence the activity of tumor suppressor genes in cancer cells?
A. There are a number of ways to turn them on. Chemotherapeutic agents damage cancer cells, leading to an increase in the expression of p53 that inhibits tumor cell growth. Q. Are there nutritional strategies to help prevent cancer by influencing the activity of tumor suppressor genes? A. Yes, histone deacetylase inhibitors induce a cyclindependent kinase inhibitor called p21. This stops cells from growing. Rod Dashwood’s and Emily Ho’s groups in LPI are working on organoselenium and sulforaphane compounds found in garlic and broccoli that act as histone deacetylase inhibitors. Also, there is great interest in using vitamin D and vitamin A compounds to induce the tumor cells to change their properties and stop growing. Vitamin D induces the expression of p21. Q. What are kinase inhibitors and what do they do? A. We were interested in cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors because it became clear that they would very likely be tumor suppressors. Kinases are enzymes that modify protein activ
