Skin Cancer Couriers

Skin cancer occurs when skin cells divide and grow uncontrollably to form tumours. Rho proteins – which help to control the life and death of cells – are thought to play a key role in this process, but it‘s not been clear what kick-starts them. To get some answers scientists worked with mice genetically engineered to lack two proteins called vav2 and vav3. When normal mice were repeatedly slathered in cancer-causing chemicals, their skin cells (shown in green) grew and divided like crazy. But in vav-deficient mice, cell proliferation was dramatically reduced, suggesting that vav proteins switch on Rho activity and play a key role in tumour promotion. Although there are likely to be more proteins involved, the results suggest that vav could be a target for new skin cancer treatments.

Written by Daniel Cossins

Daniel Cossins

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As a freelance science writer, Dan's work has been published in award-winning magazines including BBC Focus, Wired UK, Cosmos, BBC Knowledge, BBC History and Men's Health.

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• Xosé R. Bustelo
• Centro de Investigación del Cáncer, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)–University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Attribution license
• PLoS Biol 11(7): e1001615