ANTISENSE TECHNIQUE TO TREAT BREAST CANCER – A REVIEW

Abstract

There are many genes which are responsible for developing breast cancer especially, BRCA2 (Breast Cancer 2) and HER2 are extensively involved in developing breast cancer and hence it is the centre of attractions for all the researchers. Nano-particles conjugated with the anti-HER2 monoclonal antibodies are called as “Trastazumab” which directly target the HER2 gene. The major advantage of this technology is that the cells can be prevented before they evolve in to mature stages i.e. metastases production. The BRCA2 gene belongs to the family of tumor suppressor genes and its protein product is responsible for the error free repair mechanisms of DNA. This BRCA2 gene interacts with RAD51 gene to fix the DNA breaks. Mutation in BRCA2 gene such as insertion and deletion leads to breast cancer. More than 800 mutations are found in this gene that lead to increased risk of the breast cancer. Furthermore, BRCA2 gene is also associated with various cancers like prostate, ovarian, fallopian, male breast cancer. Researchers believe that altered products produced due to defects in this gene are unable to interact with the gene RAD51 and cannot repair the DNA. Antisense RNA is the tool which can used to block any RNA or DNA to synthesize its product. In this review we focus in using Antisense RNA against the sense RNA of an altered BRCA2 gene to block the altered affectivity of that gene on the DNA repair mechanism. However, Antisense RNA technique may not help in treating breast cancer, it can better manage the breast cancer to occur.