'Bond villain': Experts claim a tiny DNA responsible for resistance to anti-cancer drugs

A new research report by scientists has revealed that there are a few pieces of DNA that act like Bond villains in the way of curing cancer patients. According to the report published by The Guardian, scientists have found that these microscopic agents are responsible for helping tumours gain resistance to anti-cancer medicines. Notably, the discovery of these bits of genetic material, known as extrachromosomal DNA or ecDNA could be a major breakthrough as it can help doctors cure the most aggressive tumours that affect people, the experts who carried out the research said.

"The discovery of how these bits of DNA behave inside our bodies is a game changer," said Professor Paul Mischel of California’s Stanford University, one of the leaders of the program. "We believe they are responsible for a large number of the more advanced and serious cancers affecting people today. "If we can block their activities, we can block the spread of these cancers."

Which DNA is responsible for spreading cancer? Here's what researchers have found

As per the research report, these are made up of tiny loops of DNA, and they survive outside the chromosomes, which are our cells' main repositories of genetic material and which direct the growth of our bodies and determine our individual characteristics. The existence of these smaller units was revealed long ago, but their role in spreading cancer inside the body has only been discovered now.

"We have found that ecDNA acts as cancer-causing genes that have somehow separated themselves from a person’s chromosomes and have started to behave in ways that circumvent the normal rules of genetics," said Stanford University geneticist Howard Chang. "They behave like villains in a Bond film." At first, in a film, you see different explosions, killings, and disasters occurring, and you don’t know why they are happening or who is responsible. Then, at some point, you finally meet the villain, who is revealed to be the agent of all this mayhem.

The discovery is part of research known as "Cancer Grand Challenges," which is backed by Cancer Research UK and the US National Cancer Institute. It has been established to fund multidisciplinary research programmes that could develop ways for tackling cancer. £20 million has been provided to researchers to carry out this research and find out ecDNA’s involvement in cancers.

"However, resistance to those drugs or therapies often appears after a while, and this allows cancer to return." We have now discovered that, in some of the most aggressive forms of cancer, the oncogenes aren’t where we thought they were. "They are actually on extrachromosomal DNA," said Mischel. "The vulnerable gene had quickly disappeared when threatened by cancer drugs and was hidden in ecDNA." "Then it reappeared once it was safe for it to start causing damage again," he added.

"EcDNA is not just a villain; it is a criminal mastermind." "It can almost completely disappear from a tumour and then come back after you stop drug treatments," said Professor Charlie Swanton of the Francis Crick Institute in London. "That provides almost infinite adaptability," he added.

(Image: Unsplash/Representative)