How Transcription Can Affect the Future of Medicine

Stem cell therapy is a new field of medicine that has high hopes of treating several genetic diseases. Cells that are still considered pluripotent can be differentiated into any body cell type. Three major transcription factors have been discovered, which promote propogation of undifferentiated ESCs (15). Kornberg's work with transcription gave the world the mechanism for transcription, and his work helped determine how these factors affected expression of stem cells. Proper transcription of the stem cells is required to correctly differentiate the stem cells to obtain the desired cells necessary to treat the disorder.  Wang et al (12) used the hTERT promoter with luciferase, and showed that the promoter was completely silenced in the absence of undifferentiated stem cells. It also showed that using histone deacetylase could restart some transcription of the gene.  This shows how an organism may react to an addition of undifferentiated stem cells.

Another area that transcription has a noticeable effect is in heart disease and myocardial infarctions.  Morimoto et al showed that overexpression of the monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 during a myocardial infarction led to a chain of events that prevented ventricular dysfunction and remodeling after an MI (13).  The protein induced secretion of interleukin-6, which also interacted with the MCP-1 to activate the STAT3 gene. This discovery could lead to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of an MI, and may lead to new medications that could treat an MI with greater ease and with fewer complications, increasing the survival rate and the viability of those affected by MIs.