Mayo Clinic Researchers Find That Protein Believed to Protect Against Cancer Has a Mr. Hyde Side

	Tweet

In a biological rendition of fiction’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, researchers from the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida and Harvard Medical School have found that a protein thought to protect against cancer development can actually spur the spread of tumors.

The scientists, reporting in the Sept. 3 issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology, found that FOXO3a, a transcription factor that regulates gene expression, becomes active when growing cancer cells begin to starve. Their research suggests that this protein then turns on molecular switches that allow the cancer cells to invade surrounding tissues.

“This is a complete reversal of what everyone thought about FOXO3a — that we should find a way to activate this transcription factor so as to fight cancer growth,” says cancer biologist Peter Storz, Ph.D., the study’s lead investigator from Mayo Clinic in Florida. Findings from the study, which was funded in part by the Florida Department of Health, illustrate the growing recognition in the research community that proteins can play multiple roles with respect to tumor progression, he says. 

"More and more we see that, when it comes to cancer, proteins can have split personalities,” Dr. Storz says. “Proteins once firmly believed to be tumor suppressors that protect against cancer development have recently been found to act as oncogenes, or cancer promoters, in certain cancers and in some biological circumstances. We now understand that proteins behave in different ways, depending on the cellular context.”

Dr. Storz and his laboratory colleagues focus on understanding how cancer cells spread. This study builds upon a recent finding by collaborating author Alex Toker, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Toker had found that Akt, a protein that protects tumor cells from programmed cell death and induces proliferation of cancer, in some circumstances also inhibits tumor cell invasion. “This is an important protein that dogma said acts as an oncogene but which Dr. Toker demonstrated could also inhibit cancer spread, and thus may act as a suppressor for metastasis,” Dr. Storz says.

Because Akt is an important negative-regulator of FOXO3a, the team looked at whether FOXO3a was actually the player with the Jekyll and Hyde split personality. They found that the transcription factor does indeed revert to its dangerous persona when a cancer cell becomes starved. “Our hypothesis is that if a cancer cell doesn’t get the nutrients it needs, it turns on FOXO3a, which leads to the migration and invasion of tumor cells into areas with better growth conditions,” Dr. Storz says. “This data fits neatly with Dr. Toker’s findings about Akt, because Akt targets FOXO3a.”

The study was funded by a Bankhead-Coley Grant from the Florida Department of Health, and by support from the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health.

###
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of “the needs of the patient come first.” More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each year. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to http://www.mayoclinic.org/news. For information about research and education visit http://www.mayo.edu. MayoClinic.com is available as a resource for your health stories.

Kevin Punsky
904-953-2299 (days)
904-953-2000(evenings)

RELATED STORIES:
Access to cancer care unequal across Europe   Frequent Alcohol Consumption Increases Cancer Risk in Older Women   Errors in cancer diagnosis common, often harmful   Acupuncture, massage helpful after cancer surgery   Fighting cancer: Diet, scant exercise problems   Cancer society challenges Americans to get active   Music Therapy Helps Relieve Anxiety of Cancer   Brain metastases hijack neuron-supporting cells to resist chemotherapy   Researchers present new findings on cancer and gene therapy   Vitamin D deficiency common in cancer patients   Computer-aided mammography improves tumor detection   Europe aims to reduce cancer deaths by 15 pct by 2020   Internet Research Builds Cancer Patients’ Confidence   No alarm on fluoride: cancer risk unproven   Study shows radiation causes cancer but rarely   Protein may be key to new treatment in a childhood cancer   Doctors Hesitate to Discuss Fertility Preservation With Cancer Patients   Tackling a Hard-to-treat Childhood Cancer by Targeting Epigenetic Changes   Exercise eases fatigue in cancer patients on chemo   US cancer death rates decline, report finds   Cancer rates on the rise in young people   Study may provide new hope for cancer patients

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]