Final answer:
Synthetic lethality is a strategy used to selectively kill cancer cells with specific genetic mutations. By targeting these mutations, synthetic lethality aims to spare normal cells. This approach offers a targeted approach to killing cancer cells without enhancing proliferation, promoting resistance to chemotherapy, or accelerating metastasis.
Step-by-step explanation:
Synthetic lethality is a strategy used to target cancer cells by selectively killing them based on specific genetic mutations. This approach takes advantage of the fact that cancer cells often have acquired mutations in specific genes that are essential for their survival. By targeting these specific mutations, synthetic lethality seeks to selectively kill cancer cells while sparing normal cells.
For example, if a cancer cell has a mutation in gene A, and another gene B is synthetic lethal with gene A, targeting gene B would be lethal for the cancer cell but not for normal cells without the mutation in gene A. This provides a potential way to kill cancer cells while minimizing damage to normal cells.
In contrast to enhancing cancer cell proliferation, promoting resistance to chemotherapy, or accelerating metastasis, synthetic lethality offers a targeted approach to specifically kill cancer cells with specific mutations.