The database will be especially useful for doctors dealing with complex diseases, such as Cancer, Alzheimer's disease and sciatica
When DNA segments belonging to two different genes merge for some reason, as happens in translocation or splicing, the hybrid product resulting from this fusion is called a genetic fusion. In recent years it has become clear that these fusion events play a crucial role in the development of cancer and other complex diseases. However, there are very few resources that bring all this information together and make it available in one place for different complex diseases. By analyzing thousands of millions of nucleic acid sequences from publicly available data, the team led by Dr. Milena Frankel-Morgenstern from the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University was able to identify 111,582 gene fusions that share evolutionarily conserved in eight different species (human, mouse, rat, fruit fly (Drosophila), wild boar, zebrafish, yeast and cattle).
The latest version of this database, known as ChiTaRS, it was not already published in a scientific journal dealing with nucleic acids (Nucleic Acids Research). This database is currently managed by the Laboratory for Cancer Genomics and Computational Biology of Complex Diseases, at the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University in Safed. The database will be very useful for doctors specializing in complex diseases, especially cancer, Alzheimer's disease, sciatica, lupus and many other diseases.
This version of ChiTaRS collects gene fusion cases amenable to drug treatment. In recent years, many of these genes have been used as particularly specific targets for chemotherapy drugs. Some well-known examples include the fusion BCR-ABL1 in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and the EML4-ALK chimera in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The ChiTaRS 5.0 database includes a list of over 800 fusions that are accessible to drug treatment by about 120 drugs or different drug combinations that are effective as personalized treatment for complex diseases.
This resource will be considered a treasure trove for researchers working on identifying the functional significance of chimeras/chromosome fusion as a cause of cancer. In addition, it will help a lot in the field of XNUMXD mapping of chromatin and developmental biology. This database is an updated and essential new resource for Dr. Frankel-Morgenstern's research group, which already maintains other online databases, such as a fusion product retrieval server (ProtFus) and interactions between protein and protein resulting from their transcription (ChIPPI).
