Stray Thought: Cancer Fighting Genes As The Targets of Virulence Factors
Some bacteria produce toxins, others hijack cells from the host and drive them around the body to more hospitable climes, yet others make chemical signals that disrupt host immune defenses. But why would bacteria impair tumor suppressor genes? To prevent apoptosis in damaged or infected cells? Maybe, but how about in order to propel the infection behind a vanguard of invasive cancer cells? Don't know but the evidence for p53 modification by h. pylori can be found (free) in "Helicobacter Pylori Cytotoxin-Associated Gene A (CagA) Subverts the Apoptosis-Stimulating Protein of p53 (ASPP2) Tumor Suppressor Pathway of the Host".
