The research group led by Prof. Ayoub investigates the physiological mechanisms that protect the cell against DNA damage caused by radiation, smoking and other reasons
Researchers at the Faculty of Biology at the Technion present a new strategy that may be used in the treatment of lung cancer. The study, which was conducted with the support of the Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF), was led by Prof. Navia Ayoub and doctoral student Firas Mash'or with the participation of Dr. Ines Rinawi and doctoral student Alma Bar Yitzhak. The article was published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. and was chosen as the "article of the month" in the Faculty of Biology.
The research group led by Prof. Ayoub investigates the physiological mechanisms that protect the cell against DNA damage caused by radiation, smoking and other reasons. Failure of these defense mechanisms leads to the accumulation of DNA damage and as a result to the development of a variety of diseases such as cancer. Therefore, understanding these mechanisms is important not only from a scientific point of view, but also for the development of targeted anti-cancer therapies.
The current study, carried out in collaboration with Prof. Itamar Simon and PhD student Joyce Kemer from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, focused on lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Most LUAD patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, when the cancer is aggressive and treatment options are limited. In addition, the current treatments for the disease are not effective enough, among other things due to the genetic variation of the cancer between different patients and due to the resistance that the cancer cells develop to drug treatments. The current study focuses on the RBM10 protein, which is missing in about 25% of LUAD patients.
In a normal state of health, the RBM10 protein functions as a tumor suppressor; Its absence, due to mutations, leads to an acceleration in cell division and in some cases to the development of cancer. Indeed, in preclinical experiments it was discovered that mutations in RBM10 accelerated the cancerous transformation in lung cells and conferred resistance to the currently available treatments. In light of this, the aim of the current study was to develop new, personalized treatment strategies for LUAD lacking the RBM10 protein.
In order to characterize targeted treatments against RBM10-deficient cancerous tumors, the researchers conducted an extensive genomic scan and through it identified about 60 genes whose silencing may lead to the death of RBM10-mutated cells. Of the 60 genes identified, the researchers focused on the WEE1 gene and showed that the use of the drug against it is very effective in the treatment of lung cancer tumors in mice. Drugs against WEE1 are in advanced stages of clinical trials, therefore they have the potential to be used as a targeted therapy for lung cancer patients with immediate clinical application.
For article B Nature Communications. click here
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