Our understanding of the human genome may still be missing tens of thousands of “dark genes” associated with various diseases.
According to Science Alert, a multinational research team has identified numerous “dark genes” hidden within DNA regions previously regarded as “junk DNA” due to the belief that they do not code for proteins.
In fact, this elusive genetic material may code for small proteins and is linked to a variety of pathological processes, from cancer to immune responses.
Human DNA still has many hidden “dark genes” – (Illustration AI: ANH THƯ).
The research team, led by Dr. Eric Deutsch from the Institute for Systems Biology (USA), found a large repository of small proteins affected by “dark genes” through over 95,000 experiments.
These include studies utilizing mass spectrometry to investigate small proteins, as well as catalogs of protein fragments detected by our immune system.
Instead of the long and familiar codes that initiate the DNA reading process to produce proteins, these “dark genes” are represented by shorter versions, which have led scientists to overlook them.
Despite containing such non-canonical open reading frames (ncORFs), they are still used as templates to generate RNA, and some of this RNA is subsequently used to create small proteins composed of just a few amino acids.
Previous studies have shown that cancer cells contain hundreds of similar small proteins.
These new discoveries promise breakthroughs in biomedical science, potentially paving the way for cancer immunotherapies, including cell therapies and therapeutic vaccines.
Additionally, these “dark genes” may also influence various other diseases, serving as a foundation for scientists to seek future treatment methods.
Among the thousands of “dark genes” identified through research, at least one-quarter have the potential to produce proteins through the aforementioned mechanism. The authors suspect that there are tens of thousands more genes, all of which have been missed by previous techniques.
“You don’t get to open a new research avenue every day. We might have a completely new class of drugs for patients,” said neuroscientist John Prensner from the University of Michigan (USA) to Science.
