Scientist Discovered New Gene Affecting Immune Response

A new study led by the team of researchers from Australia’s national science agency CSIRO have found a new gene which controls the immune response of the body against infection and diseases.

During their study, researchers found that there is a gene called C6 which regulates the production of proteins which leads to infectious disease, cancer, and diabetes.

This gene was present for 500 million years and transferred from simple organism to human but this is the first time that the potential of this gene is recognized. This research could lead to the development of new treatments for influenza, arthritis and even cancer.

“Our immune system produces proteins called cytokines that help fortify the immune system and work to prevent viruses and other pathogens from replicating and causing disease,” CSIRO researcher Dr. Cameron Stewart said.

Cytokines are the small proteins having a crucial role in cell signaling and is very important part of immune system.

Actually, this C6 gene turns off the production of some of the important cytokines due to which the immune response gets blocked hence, immune cells cannot communicate. This switching off of Immune response leads to infection and disease-causing cells to proliferate without any control.

“The cytokines regulated by C6 are implicated in a variety of diseases including cancer, diabetes and inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis.”

This insight of new gene can help to improve the understanding of an immune system and to find new treatment and therapies targeting the C6 gene.

“Even though the human genome was first fully sequenced in 2003, there are still thousands of genes that we know very little about,” Dr. Rebecca Ambrose, a former CSIRO researcher, now based at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research said.

The current name of C6 is C6orf106 which shows its location hence it would be renamed again.