"Mutation means that one letter in the DNA within the cell has changed," Zolkiewska said. "This is very striking because there are only a handful of human genes that are changed that way in tumors. ADAM12 is one of those genes and the only one among that family."

Zolkiewska said this raises the questions of whether the gene's mutation in cancer tissue is purely a coincidence or is part of a larger role. Prior research by the team indicates ADAM12 is a "good guy" since mutation to the gene effectively kills ADAM12 protein.

"A tumor wants to grow, and from the point of view of the tumor, you want to invade and kill the patient. So you will first take care of those good guys, or those policemen inside the body who protect the patient," Zolkiewska said. "If ADAM12 is one of those good guys, the growing tumor wants to take it out of the picture."

This discovery of mutation rendering ADAM12 dead was a scientific first by the K-State team.

SOURCE Kansas State University