It's not herpes related, but it seemed like news too good to ignore!

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/health/ny-hscanc204120229jan20,0,6428191.story

A CLUE CALLED 'POKEMON'

Scientists identify a single 'master' gene that seems to turn on
cancer-causing action of other errant genes

BY DELTHIA RICKS
STAFF WRITER

January 20, 2005

An international team of scientists believes it has found cancer's
master switch with the discovery of a gene they dubbed "Pokemon."

Like the electronic game figures - tiny monsters with bad tempers -
the cancer-triggering gene apparently instigates the misbehavior of
other cancer-causing genes, leading to tumor formation.

In today's issue of the journal Nature, researchers at Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, in collaboration with
teams in Japan and Britain, announce that the gene plays a key role
in starting a malignancy. As a result, scientists now believe they
have stumbled upon an important new target for an anti-cancer drug.

Dr. Carlos Cardon-Cardo, a molecular pathologist at the cancer
center and a senior author of the research, defined Pokemon as an
oncogene, which means it is capable of causing cancer. Dozens of
oncogenes have been discovered over the past 25 years. But unlike
the others, Cardon-Cardo said Pokemon has a governing role - it is
needed for other genes to function. Eliminate Pokemon, he said, and
you stop the activity of other cancer-causing genes.

"This is the master switch that interacts with other genes,"
Cardon-Cardo said. "It acts differently than other oncogenes. Others
regulate cell growth, but Pokemon impacts on critical properties of
cancer cells."

Among those key properties, Pokemon enhances a cancer cell's ability
to resist aging and death. This immortalizing factor essentially
endows cancer cells with a Peter Pan-like quality that renders them
robust indefinitely, the very trait that makes tumors difficult to
treat.

Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi, the study's lead investigator, said even
though Pokemon shares a name with imaginary figures, whimsy was
never intended. "This is very serious and the name was
serendipitous, pure serendipity," Pandolfi said. Pokemon stands for
POK erythroid myeloid ontogenic factor.

In the study, scientists discerned Pokemon's role in human lymphoma,
which originates in the lymph nodes. But Cardon-Cardo added that
Pokemon is far more pervasive.

"We know already that as an oncogene, Pokemon is involved in other
... tumors," and is likely active in a wide range of cancers:
breast, prostate, bladder and lung malignancies, he said.

Pandolfi said the aim would be development of a drug that acts on
the gene because it affects multiple forms of cancer, just as the
drug Gleevec is used to treat a variety of distinct cancers that
share one molecular flaw.

"This is going back to a unifying theme to understand how cancer
works," Pandolfi said. "What is emerging is this idea that genes
work in networks. Targeting specific sites will be important in drug
development.

"Pharmaceutical companies do not like to invest in something like
this when the gene is rare. This one is not."

Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc.