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Studies of Epigenetic Regulators in Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma Cell lines - In search for mutations and expression patterns of EP300 and CREBBP

Fagerberg, Josefine (2016) MOBK01 20161
Degree Projects in Molecular Biology
Popular Abstract
OMG! Cancer Riddle Almost Solved, or what?!

Cancer, which has been described as the disease of the 21st century and compared to the plaque, has for long been of greatest interest and confusion to researchers. Today, cancer is among the most common diseases worldwide. In 2012, 14 million new cases and 8.2 million deaths were reported. The various cancer types are in general classified from what tissue and cell type they first arise in. When the cancer originates in the lymphatic system, it is called lymphoma which is defined as malignant transformation of lymphocytes. The most common type of lymphoma affecting adults is called diffuse large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL). There are many underlying causes for cancer formation. One such cause is... (More)
OMG! Cancer Riddle Almost Solved, or what?!

Cancer, which has been described as the disease of the 21st century and compared to the plaque, has for long been of greatest interest and confusion to researchers. Today, cancer is among the most common diseases worldwide. In 2012, 14 million new cases and 8.2 million deaths were reported. The various cancer types are in general classified from what tissue and cell type they first arise in. When the cancer originates in the lymphatic system, it is called lymphoma which is defined as malignant transformation of lymphocytes. The most common type of lymphoma affecting adults is called diffuse large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL). There are many underlying causes for cancer formation. One such cause is called epigenetic changes – changes in how DNA is packed in the cells, rather than a change in the DNA sequence itself. How DNA is packed, is controlled by several proteins. Recently, it has been proposed that inactivation of these DNA packing proteins play a crucial role in decreased responses to lymphoma treatment. To investigate this possibility, the packing proteins will be inactivated by deletion in two different cell types, let us call them X and Y as this mimic the situation in lymphoma patients. These two cell types, will then undergo the common treatment for lymphoma.

However, the first step is to ensure that the X- and Y-cells have functional packing proteins as those will serve as positive controls – as a comparison to the cells with deleted packing proteins. If the positive controls would not have fully functional packing proteins, it could affect further experiments, ultimately leading to false conclusions. Therefore, in order to ensure that the X- and Y-cells have functional packing proteins, their features are compared to the features that we know they should have. This is very much like correcting a test: you compare the written exam with the correct answers. If the written exam corresponds to the right answers, the student has answered correctly. Here, that corresponds to comparing features of the packing proteins in X- and Y-cells with features that we know that packing proteins in general should have. If the features are alike, it means that the cells indeed have functional packing proteins. Moreover, we will also ensure that the X- and Y-cells actually contain packing proteins, inactivated or not.

Firstly, due to insufficient results, we could not ensure that the cells had functional packing proteins. However, we could see that both X- and Y-cells indeed contain packing proteins. In addition to this, we could see that there might exist two variants of one particular packing protein. This very interesting and unexpected result obtained has risen many questions yet unanswered. Nonetheless in a very near future, we hope that results obtained by studying the epigenetic changes in DLBCL, will lead to improved treatment responses and benefit patients.


Supervisor: Associate professor Kristina Drott
Bachelor´s Degree Project 15 hp in Molecular Biology 2016
Department of Biology, Lund University (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Fagerberg, Josefine
supervisor
organization
course
MOBK01 20161
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
language
English
id
8894256
date added to LUP
2016-11-04 08:22:45
date last changed
2016-11-04 08:22:45
@misc{8894256,
  author       = {{Fagerberg, Josefine}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Studies of Epigenetic Regulators in Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma Cell lines - In search for mutations and expression patterns of EP300 and CREBBP}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}