Pros and cons
A protein has been discovered that both suppresses cancer and helps it
Tatiana Matveeva, "Scientific Russia"
Researchers from Spain found out that the CSDE1 protein, which was thought to be associated with the development of cancer, has a dual nature: it can also suppress the formation of tumors, depending on what type of cell it is in, scientists report in the journal Cell Reports (Avolio et al., Coordinated post-transcriptional control of oncogene-induced senescence by UNR/CSDE1). News it appeared on the official website of the Spanish Center for Genomic Regulation.
In their work, scientists collected keratinocytes from mice – the most common type of skin cells in the epidermis (they make up about 90% of all epidermis cells). Keratinocytes can cause various types of skin cancer, including basal cell and squamous cell cancers, which are among the most common types of cancer in humans.
The researchers then experimentally incorporated genes into these cells that control the formation of cancer, which caused the cells to age. Aging, as scientists have recently discovered, protects against cancer: cell division slows down – not only healthy, but also mutated. But cells in which CSDE1 protein levels were low could not age, and therefore became more vulnerable to cancer.
Further, when CSDE1-depleted cells were implanted under the skin of mice, malignant tumors began to form in rodents. Each mouse developed squamous cell carcinoma within 15-20 days, which highlights the importance of CSDE1 in suppressing tumor development.
The researchers found that CSDE1 prevents cancer from progressing through two different mechanisms. First, it encourages the cell to produce a cocktail of cytokines and enzymes that cause the cell to enter a state of permanent growth arrest. Secondly, CSDE1 stops the synthesis of YBX1, a protein that promotes tumor growth and aggressiveness.
According to the authors, the results of the study are surprising, since CSDE1 was previously associated with the stimulation of cancer formation, and not with its suppression. Previous studies by the same group of scientists have shown that CSDE1 contributes to the formation of metastases in melanoma, a less common but most aggressive type of skin cancer. And other studies have confirmed that CSDE1 is associated with tumor proliferation in many types of cancer.
"It [CSDE1] has an unpredictable dual nature depending on what type of cells and tissues it is found in," comments Dr. Fatima Gebauer, senior author of the study. – We don't know why this protein causes cancer in some cases and suppresses it in others. Studying the root cause of this will be important for the discovery of new, more personalized cancer treatments."
CSDE1 is an RNA–binding protein, a type of protein that controls RNAs, often - as soon as they are created, and can potentially greatly alter their functions. One possible theory explaining why CSDE1 behaves differently is that in healthy skin cells or tumors, the protein variants are slightly different and affect the more global molecular mechanism differently.
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