By: Hannan Mohammed
According to the National Institute of Health, the human body has over 30 trillion cells, each in their own cycle of growing, dividing by mitosis or meiosis, dying, and being replaced. There are around 200 different kinds of cells in our bodies, but during the cell cycle, any one of these cells could begin to replicate uncontrollably, leading to cancer.
However, there is a small gene in the nucleus of each of these cells that can protect our cells from dividing uncontrollably and becoming cancerous tumors. This is called the p53 gene.
What is the p53 gene?
The p53 gene, or the tp53 gene, is located on chromosome 17, in the nucleus of many of our cells. The gene specifically controls instructions that are required to make a protein named tumor protein p53, which binds directly to the DNA in the nucleus of the cell. But, what does the protein itself do?
What it does and why we need it
As implied in the name (tumor protein p53), this protein helps to prevent the creation and growth of tumors by controlling cell division to ensure that damaged cells don’t divide uncontrollably.
Because the p53 protein is bound directly to the DNA in each cell, it can detect whether a cell’s DNA is damaged. A cell’s DNA can be damaged by many things, including radiation or exposure to toxic chemicals, which can cause the processes of cell growth and cell division to go wrong; this is where the p53 protein becomes extremely important.
The protein plays an important role in determining how the regulation of damaged cells will occur. For example, if the DNA in the cell can be fixed, the p53 protein will activate other genes to repair the damaged DNA. However, if the damage to the DNA can’t be repaired and the cell still poses a risk of uncontrollable growth and division, the p53 protein will send signals to tell the cell to begin the process of apoptosis, or self-destruction.
The p53 gene and protein’s importance lies in its function of regulating cell division, which is crucial in preventing many types of cancer throughout our bodies. However, some people have mutations of the p53 gene.
What this means is that the p53 protein no longer functions as it should, which can lead to fast and unregulated cell growth and division without the protein to prevent this. These non-inherited (or somatic) mutations are linked to half of all cancers. An inherited mutation can lead to a cancer syndrome called Li-Fraumeni syndrome, which increases a person’s risk of developing multiple kinds of cancer, such as breast cancer and bone cancer.
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