Hi Fifi
I hadn’t actually heard of a G-quadruplex cell but I just had a look and there are some really cool (and complex) studies on G-quadruplexes. A G-quadruplex is a type of DNA structure. There are 4 building blocks in DNA; G, C, T and A. A G-quadruplex is the name for a shape the DNA can form when it has a lot of G and folds due to bonding between the Gs. There was a good paper recently suggesting that G-quadruplex interacting drugs might be a way to treat breast cancer because the G-quadruplex makes the DNA weak and can cause the usual controls on cell growth to go wrong.
Its a really good question, how did you hear about G-quadruplexes?
Jenny
Sorry to butt in, but I saw G-quadruplex in the sidebar! A G-quadruplex is as Jenny said a type of DNA structure and not a cell. I work on trying to target these G-quadruplex DNA structures with small molecules to kill cancer cells. There are over 700,000 G-quadruplex structures inside our cells, and many of them do different things! We don’t really know a whole lot about them at the moment, their existence inside cells was only proven in 2013! They can stop genes from working that are used in cancer cells, and can also stop an enzyme called telomerase from working, which is used by 90% of cancers to immortalize themselves.
Sorry to interject! Hopefully I added someting useful!
Steve
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Steven commented on :
Hi Fifi!
Sorry to butt in, but I saw G-quadruplex in the sidebar! A G-quadruplex is as Jenny said a type of DNA structure and not a cell. I work on trying to target these G-quadruplex DNA structures with small molecules to kill cancer cells. There are over 700,000 G-quadruplex structures inside our cells, and many of them do different things! We don’t really know a whole lot about them at the moment, their existence inside cells was only proven in 2013! They can stop genes from working that are used in cancer cells, and can also stop an enzyme called telomerase from working, which is used by 90% of cancers to immortalize themselves.
Sorry to interject! Hopefully I added someting useful!
Steve