COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers are investigating a possible link between breast cancer and a protein suspected to play a role in Down syndrome.
The study by Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, published in the journals Molecular and Cellular Biology and Carcinogenesis, said a gene on chromosome 21 called SIM2 may be related to tumor development.
Researchers said SIM2 is lost or suppressed in a majority of human breast tumors. The deletion of the SIM2 gene triggers rapid tumor growth in mice.
"This gene, called Single-minded 2 or SIM2 is thought to play an important role in Down Syndrome by regulating neuron growth in the developing brain," veterinary bioscientist Weston Porter said Monday in a release. "Based on its developmental role, we hypothesized that SIM2 may also be involved in breast cancer, which is essentially a disease of uncontrolled growth."
People with Down syndrome carry three copies of chromosome 21 instead of the normal chromosome pair and women with Down Syndrome are 10 to 25 times less likely to develop breast cancer, the report said.
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