Whitehead Institute researchers have discovered through studies/experiments on mouse models that the over expression of microRNA 125b can create multiple types of leukemia and even accelerates the disease. In 2010, the National Cancer Institute estimates that 43,000 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with a form of leukemia and approximately 22,000 will die from the disease. In one type of leukemia, a blood cell divides in an uncontrolled way in the bone marrow, crowding the other blood cells. This caused anemia and organ damage. Leukemia is genetic mutations, as are other cancers.
MicroRNAs are very small pieces of RNA that normal fine tune the target genes. Some of the target genes have already been described, like the P53 pathway. These targets are programmed for cell death, also known as apoptosis.
Mice that were tested with this type of cancer, died due to one of the three types of cancer, myeloproliferative neoplasm, B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
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