Suicide gene

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A suicide gene, in genetics, will cause a cell to kill itself through apoptosis. Activation of these genes can be due to many processes, but the main cellular "switch" to induce apoptosis is the p53 protein.

Stimulation or introduction (through gene therapy) of suicide genes is a potential way of treating cancer or other proliferative diseases..

By introducing the gene into a malignant tumor, the tumor would reduce in size and possibly disappear completely, provided all the individual cells have received a copy of the gene. This depends on the effectivity of the vector (usually a virus) in reaching all the cells, and distinguishing adequately between malignant cells and those of normal tissue.