March 18, 2020 11:01 a.m.
Zurich – Cancer researchers from Zurich, Heidelberg and Glasgow have found important information for the treatment of colorectal cancer. Accordingly, a missing protein promotes tumor formation. This must be taken into account when testing new cancer therapies that inhibit the production of this protein.
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The work of an international team of researchers sheds new light on the beginning of the most common cancer of the intestine. In his research project, he found that the protein MCL1 guarantees an intact intestinal mucosa and thereby also protects against colon cancer. However, both MCL1 deficiency and overproduction are responsible for the formation of colorectal cancer. A media release from the University of Zurich (UZH) provides information on the publication of a corresponding study.
The project was led by Achim Weber, professor at the Institute for Molecular Cancer Research at UZH and at the Institute for Pathology and Molecular Pathology at University Hospital Zurich (USZ), together with two colleagues from the German Cancer Research Center Heidelberg (DKFZ) and the British Beatson Institute in Glasgow.
“The regulation of this protein is a tightrope walk,” continued the first author of the study, Marc Healy from Achim Weber’s team. Therefore, special care should be taken when using MCL1 inhibitors, as is currently being tested in cancer therapy.
It has long been known that microbial-induced chronic inflammation plays a role in the development of colon cancer. What is new and “remarkable is that a lack of MCL1 leads to colorectal cancer even without bacterial inflammation,” explains Weber. “This finding is surprising and significantly increases our understanding of the critical early steps in the development of colorectal cancer.”
The research project was largely funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the Zurich Cancer League and the Zurich Vontobel Foundation. mm
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