Systems biology and the development of prostate cancer

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Sitemaster

We still have little to no idea why one man gets aggressive prostate cancer, another gets indolent prostate cancer, and a third is at no risk for prostate cancer at all.

What we do know is that prostate cancer — even by the standards of cancer in general — is a complex disease. The Prostate Cancer Foundation now believe that there may be as many as (or perhaps more than) 24 different types of prostate cancer that are defined by things like gene mutations and modifications to immunological and biological systems in individual patients.

Bonnet et al. have outlined a possible new “model” for the development of prostate cancers  that is based on the principles of  a developing area of the biological sciences known as “systems biology.”

The basis of this new model is a “regulatory framework” in which aspects of gene expression, the expression of small controller molecules called microRNAs (micro-ribonucleic acids), and clinical parameters — all derived from patients with aggressive or non-aggressive forms of prostate cancer — are brought together to try and project the evolution of differing types of prostate cancer in specific individuals.

Their analysis has lead to some interesting findings:

• They were able to identify new genetic models and mechanisms that might be linked to prostate cancer.
• They found that nearly a third of the regulatory molecules predicted to control the expression levels of specific genes and gene complexes are microRNAs.
• They predict the existence of novel microRNAs that have yet to be associated with prostate cancer.
• They were able to link the expression of certain genes and gene complexes to the value of clinical parameters characterizing the aggressiveness of prostate cancer.

Now we should be clear that this is only one possible and theoretical model of the way that prostate cancer may develop over time, but it may be a helpful model if it can be expanded to explain, with accuracy, how aggressive and non-aggressive forms of prostate cancer can evolve from specific gene mutations combined with other factors in specific individuals.

Systems biology is going to be at the heart of the future understanding of personalized medicine.