The investigation of a simple protein has uncovered its uniquely complicated role in the spread of the childhood cancer, osteosarcoma. It turns out the protein, called ezrin, acts like an air traffic controller, coordinating multiple functions within a cancer cell and allowing it to endure stress conditions encountered during metastasis.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been known that ezrin is a key regulator of osteosarcoma\u2019s spread to the lungs, but its mechanism was not known. Osteosarcoma is a tumour of bone that afflicts children, adolescents and young adults. In most cases, the tumour is localized in the extremities and can be completely removed by surgery or amputation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main cause of death in osteosarcoma patients is not the tumour on their limbs, but the failure of their lungs when the cancer spreads there,\u201d explains Aykut \u00dcren, MD, professor of oncology at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.<\/p>\n
\u00dcren and his colleagues have developed molecules that block ezrin\u2019s function and prevent osteosarcoma spread in mouse models. In an attempt to explain the molecular mechanisms underlying ezrin-mediated cancer metastasis, the researchers discovered this previously unrecognized role for ezrin. <\/p>\n
\u201cConventionally ezrin was believed to be functioning only on the inner surface of cancer cells,\u201d \u00dcren says, \u201cbut our new discovery indicates that ezrin may operate deeper in the core of the cell and regulate expression of critical genes that are important for cancer\u2019s spread.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scientists say that ezrin functions in a new capacity that is unusual for its family of proteins. They found that ezrin\u2019s unusual interaction with another protein called DDX3 results in modulation of genes that give cancer cells an edge in surviving harsh conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing exactly how ezrin works will help our team develop the ezrin-targeting small molecules as potential new drugs to prevent the spread of cancer cells to lungs in osteosarcoma patients,\u201d Uren says.<\/p>\n
\u201cImplications of our findings go beyond cancer research,\u201d says the study\u2019s first author Haydar \u00c7elik, PhD. \u201cBecause this work suggests a new molecular mechanism on how ezrin is involved in the regulation of mRNA translation, these observations may provide important clues for scientists investigating how viruses enter and replicate in human cells too.\u201d\nGeorgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center<\/link>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The investigation of a simple protein has uncovered its uniquely complicated role in the spread of the childhood cancer, osteosarcoma. It turns out the protein, called ezrin, acts like an air traffic controller, coordinating multiple functions within a cancer cell and allowing it to endure stress conditions encountered during metastasis. It\u2019s been known that ezrin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}