The discovery of a gene in human DNA may lead to the development of new cancer treatment.

Researchers have found a gene that suppresses brain tumors and found cancer to be present when the gene is missing, said Alea Mills, associate professor and lead researcher at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a private research institute in Long Island, N.Y.

Working with a group of researchers studying human brain tumors, Mills' team found the gene -- called CHD5 -- was missing in the presence of the tumors. The finding has established the CHD5 as a tumor suppressor, Mills said, and may mean the gene is a suppressor of several other types of cancer

"We're really excited about [the identification of] CHD5 because what we've found suggests that it could explain different kinds of cancer," Mills said. "It might be a consistent underlying gene."

Mills' team was first able to identify the function of a particular region of human DNA that was thought to control the presence of cancer by studying mouse DNA. In this region, researchers were able to determine exactly which gene is responsible for the development or suppression of cancer in humans, she said.

Though the general region of DNA responsible for cancer development had been known for 30 years prior to the discovery of CHD5, the exact gene in that region had remained "miraculously illusive," said Anindya Bagchi, postdoctoral fellow at the laboratory and lead author of the published study. "It took us [some time] to get there, but after we got there it was like solving a mystery; all of the pieces of the puzzle fell into place," Bagchi said.

Dr. Gary Clawson, professor of pathology and director of the Jake Gittlen Cancer Research Foundation at Penn State, said CHD5 is likely a DNA helicase -- a protein that unwinds strands of DNA to copy -- and is important in cell proliferation.

"The gene itself is the helicase, and for some unknown reason, somehow it functions as a tumor suppressor," Clawson said. "It's not clear how its control for DNA replication relates to cancer reproduction, but it does somehow."

While initial mechanisms of the CHD5's function have been identified, more detailed study is needed to better understand the gene and determine how it can be used in developing a drug for cancer treatment, Bagchi said. "The exciting thing is the nature of the gene, we've found out, is it's a part of a family of proteins that are second-generation therapeutics," he said. "This kind of protein is a promising molecule in the development of therapies against cancer."