New hope for lung cancer patients
Researchers from the University of Cincinnati have reported that they have found a new tumor suppressor that will make it possible for experts to develop better drug therapies to treat lung cancer.
A type of genes called proto-oncogenes are normal genes which play a vital role in cell growth. However, when they are genetically modified, that can lead to out-of-control cell division — and that can lead to cancer. Research in the past have shown that a proto-oncogene Ras is abnormal in about 30 percent of human lung cancers, but researchers didn’t quite understand the specific cellular events by which abnormal Ras expression leads to transformation.
Scientists from UC tried to define the interim steps that occur in Ras-induced tumor development. “These interim steps are critical because they help us determine how best to intervene and stop cancer growth along the way,” said Jorge Moscat, PhD, one of the authors. “Right now, cancer therapy is delivered with a sledgehammer and it needs to be more like a scalpel so we avoid unnecessary harm to the body.”
The experiment was done on mice and the results showed that animals who didn’t express a certain gene (protein kinase C (PKC)-zeta) developed more Ras-induced lung cancer, suggesting a new role for the gene as a tumor suppressor.
“PKC-zeta would normally slow down Ras transformation and put the brakes on tumor development, but when PKC-zeta is missing or inactive as a result of genetic alterations, tumor growth actually accelerates,” said Moscat. “Until now, we did not know the specific chain of events that led to Ras-induced lung cancer. Our study fills in important missing information that will enhance our overall understanding of how lung cancer tumors grow and spread.”
The research was funded by National Institutes of Health. The details are published in Molecular and Cellular Biology.
Source: uc.edu
