Researchers have a basic understanding of how primary cells grow but they less know about metastasis, advanced stage of cell growth. Researchers have found a gene mEAK-7, that may play an important role in cancer metastasis at least in lung cancers.
They started by comparing mEAK-7 expression level in normal cells to the cancer cell using samples from cancer patients and cancer genetics data from several databases.
Dr. Joe Nguyen, first author at National Cancer Institute (NCI) said, “By focusing on non-small cell lung cancer, we found that mEAK-7, which is important for cell proliferation and migration, was highly expressed in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. We also discovered that mEAK-7 was expressed in primary cancer cells but not expressed in non-cancerous cells, which shows that the protein could be a key culprit in cancer metastasis.”
Researcher dound that when mEAK-7 combined with DNA-PKcs that help to regulateDNA repair and control cancer cell growth, cause alternative mTOR signal used by cancer cell for their growth. In normal cells two pathways are controlled by mTOR gene that regulate growth, survival and proliferation in normal cells.
Krebsbach said, “This third complex or pathway is very important for cancer stem cells, which begin the process of colony formation and cell proliferation, and lead to metastasis that is the leading cause of death in most cancers”
He added, “We determined that there are high mEAK-7 protein levels in the tumors and lymph nodes of metastatic cancer patients. Development of mEAK-7 inhibitors may benefit patients with metastatic cancers that demonstrate aberrant mTOR signaling associated with high levels of mEAK-7.”
Researcher also looked these signaling molecule in cancers cell and found that the third motor compexwas made of DNA-PKcs, mTOR, and mEAK-7.
Researcher also believe that understanding metastatic cancer’s interaction with molecule can play an important role in developing the treatment for cancer.
Source
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/alternate-cell-growth-pathway-better-treatments-metastatic-cancers
Journal reference doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2019.06.029.