New targets in breast cancer: the prolyl 3-hydroxylases P3H2 and P3H3

Worldwide, cancers are threatening people’s health and breast caner is one of the most dangerous killers especially for women. According to some study, breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer and the fifth most common cause of cancer death in the world. Therefore, Effective treatments are needed to save lives from this fatal disease. Now, there is good news that comes from R Shah, P Smith and their colleague: the prolyl 3-hydroxylases (enzymes involved in the production of collagen) P3H2 and P3H3 may have the ability to suppress breast cancer. They found that P3H2 and P3H3 are epigenetic silenced specifically in breast cancer because of methylation of CpG islands in their promoters. These phenomena can be associated with positive oestrogen-receptor and higher aggressive level of the disease respectively. Moreover, P3H2 and P3H3 can be expressed ectopically in cells without expression of endogenous gene and suppress the growth of colony. Above evidences indicate that P3H2 and P3H3 are potential specific tumor suppressor of breast cancer.