microRNA's - Revolutionizing Ovarian Cancer Treatment

"...That began to change earlier this decade as scientists discovered that microRNAs might actually be the hidden regulators that control the 30,000 genes in the human body by silencing gene expression.....One in particular, miR-31, discovered by Baylor collaborators and Gunaratne, shows promise as a potent tumor suppressor in ovarian cancer, glioblastoma, osteosarcoma and prostate cancer.......They discovered that miR-31 can specifically target and kill cancer cells that are deficient in p53, a crucial gene that guards the integrity of the genome and prevents cancer. More than half of all cancers and 90 percent of papillary serous tumors - the most common type of malignant ovarian cancer - are p53-deficient."