Cancer Treatment: Kill the Courier
A specially created molecule stops the growth and division of cancer cells
Roman Ivanov, Computer
What is good news in one case may mean utter disaster in another. If we are talking about oncological diseases, for example, when a cell receives a command for unlimited growth and division, this pleasant news for the cell itself is a real tragedy for a person whose life is now at risk.
Researchers from the Weizmann Institute (Israel) were able to unravel the mechanism and find a way to block one of the types of molecular messages that cause untamed cell growth.
First, the molecular message enters the cell membrane, but its final destination is the cell nucleus containing DNA. The distance that the molecular "message" has to travel is very large: expressing it in human equivalent, it is 50 km. To reach the core at maximum speed, the message is transmitted through a chain of chemical "couriers", from one molecule to another.
More than twenty years ago, Professor Roni Seger from the Weizmann Institute participated in the discovery of one of these chains, which is involved in the induction of many types of cancer. Among other molecules, it includes the enzymes MEK1, MEK2, ERK1 and ERK2. Mr. Seger studied the transmission of molecular messages by enzymes inside the cellular cytoplasm. And only four years ago, he and his group were able to reveal the details of the last and most important step in the information chain — the penetration of a message into the cell nucleus.
Various cellular signaling pathways (illustration by Rony Seger / Weizmann Institute).
Scientists have discovered a region in the composition of enzymes, called NTS, which undergoes conformational modification through a phosphorylation reaction, leading to a conformation that can penetrate into the cell nucleus.
To test this discovery, the researchers synthesized a small peptide mimicking the NTS segment of the enzyme that blocked the message, preventing it from reaching the cell nucleus. The result of such an intervention was that the cell stopped growing. Inspired by the first results achieved in working with a colony of cancer cells, scientists turned to animals. Once again, the synthetic peptide effectively blocked the development of several types of cancer, especially melanoma. In the latter case, there was not just a stop in the growth of tumors, but their complete disappearance (!).
Prepared based on the materials of the Weizmann Institute: Kill the Messenger.
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