Scientists from Stanford University have successfully performed an experiment on mice and have identified a key protein critical for the growth of pancreatic cancer. By killing (stopping, inhibiting) the protein, the tumor growth slowed or completely stopped.
“This research clearly shows that inhibiting the protein inhibits the tumor’s ability to grow,” said Amato Giaccia, PhD, one of the researchers. “Ultimately, we’d like to be able to specifically knock out the expression of this protein in pancreatic tumors in humans.”
Pancreatic cancer takes more than 31,000 lives anually in the US alone. It is a deadly disease, and the current therapy solutions aren’t really effective. “Right now, we have very little to offer these patients,” said Giaccia.
The protein in question is called connective tissue growth factor, or CTGF (known also as CCN2). The protein is involved in the abnormal growth of connective tissue in response to injury or disease. It was also thought to be involved in pancreatic tumor progression, although the exact role it played was unknown.
The researchers from Stanford proved that CCN2 grew robustly when injected under the skin of mice. In fact, in the developing tumor these cells soon out-competed others that expressed lower levels of the protein. Conversely, pancreatic cancer cells in which CCN2 expression was suppressed were either less likely or unable to form tumors when injected into mice. Scientists also saw similar effects when the cancer cells were injected directly into the animals’ pancreases. Cancer cells expressing high levels of CCN2 formed tumors that grew more rapidly and metastasized more aggressively than did those expressing lower levels, and the mice died sooner than others injected with cancer cells expressing less CCN2.
“We saw a pronounced effect of CCN2 inhibition in these experiments in mice,” said Giaccia. “Our hope is that one day a combination of standard therapy and antibody treatment will have an effect on tumor progression in human patients.”
The details are published in the journal Cancer Research.
Source: med.stanford.edu
