Pancreatic+Cancer+Gene

Genes of Interest

The Slit-Robo cell signaling pathway has come into focus in the research of pancreatic cancer. The Slit gene is responsible for producing a ligand that acts as a signaling protein. The Robo gene is responsible for producing the receptor protein that enables the ligand to do its job. Together they make up the Slit-Robo cell signaling pathway (Piper et al. 2000). Slit-Robo is responsible for axon guidance, organogenesis and angiogenesis. Axon guidance is the formation of an axon out of a neuron so signals can be sent to the right location. Slit-Robo proteins are highly active in the central nervous system (Piper et al. 2000).

Organogenesis is the development of organs. The Slit-Robo complex deals with cell migration which is important for the building of tissues and organs (Piper et al. 2000). Slit/Robo is linked to other forms of cancer as well as pancreatic cancer. The significance of this suggests that Slit/Robo's role in organogenesis could lead to future treatment options.

Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels out of existing blood vessels. This becomes important with tumors. Tumors are built up of mutated cells and cell debris. The more blood vessels that grow into tumors, the more pathological debris can be spread to other parts of the body (NCI,2013 ). The more tumors that are able to spread throughout the body, the harder it becomes to effectively kill them off with treatment. Cancerous cells will grow forever, meaning that they will either need to get removed or killed.

There are multiple isoforms of both genes found within people and many vertebrates. The genes are fairly homologous among vertebrates meaning they are highly conserved genes. High conservation of genes indicate that they play a significant role in evolution. The significance of Slit/Robo in cancer, is still being discovered as it is a newer area of research. Abnormal signaling of Slit/Robo has been linked to other cancers as well as pancreatic cancer. Research is discovering that expression levels change dramatically in cancer. Lower expression of Robo2 and over expression of Robo3 have been linked with pancreatic cancer and with poor survival rate for patients (Biankin et al. 2012). Studies of the DNA of cancer patients have associated copy number losses of the Robo1 gene and the Slit2 gene with the disease. Other mutations have been found in the Robo2 gene and the Slit2 gene but their significance is still being determined.

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