• Question: Can enzymes become cancerous?

    Asked by dizzyg12 to Lou on 20 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Louise Brown

      Louise Brown answered on 20 Nov 2013:


      I’ve never heard of a particular enzyme getting cancer, that is turning into a tumour, but enzymes can contribute or cause cancer if they go wrong!
      Many enzymes in our cell work on our DNA, on replication so our cells can divide and on transcription, so our genes can be turned into proteins. These enzymes are controlled so nothing goes wrong but in cancer, this control is sometimes lost. This can be via gene damage to the enzyme gene or via signalling pathways. So the enzyme might then go on to cause futher DNA damage, and contribute to the cancer.

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