科学家揭示开发癌症新型疗法的新靶点—“大力水手蛋白”

  近日，来自阿伯丁大学（University of Aberdeen）大学的研究人员通过研究鉴别出了治疗特殊类型癌症新型疗法的潜在靶点，相关研究或为开发新型靶向药物来治疗个体癌症提供了新的思路。
  研究者首次调查了名为“大力水手结构域蛋白”1、2和3（'Popeye domain containing proteins，Popdc1，2，3）在癌症扩散中所扮演的角色，Steve Tucker博士表示，我们发现这些特殊蛋白可以直接增加或降低癌症的发生和扩散，本文研究中我们重点研究了癌症发生过程中细胞的迁移活动。
  细胞迁移对于癌症扩散非常重要，其可以帮助肿瘤扩散至机体的其它部位，从而使得癌症难以治疗，而癌症向其它器官或淋巴结的扩散对于癌症发育而言也非常关键，而且该过程往往也使得疗法难以进行癌细胞的清除，进而癌症就变得难以预测，最终引发患者死亡。
  本文研究旨在鉴别出特殊癌症中增加癌症扩散的特殊改变，从而为开发可能性的靶向疗法提供思路，文章中研究者发现，特殊Popdc蛋白行为的改变可以影响癌症组织如何轻易地扩散；Amunjela说道，我们仅仅是世界上研究Popdc1，2，3蛋白在肿瘤扩散中所扮演角色的的一小部分人；到目前为止我们发现这些蛋白对于决定细胞分裂和迁移非常重要，这就意味着其或许会影响癌症扩散至机体其它器官的可能性。
  似乎这些蛋白分子扮演着一种开关的角色，其可以影响细胞分裂和迁移的命运，因此其或许可以作为开发新型癌症治疗药物的潜在靶点，而研究者也希望Popdc定向的药物可以高特异性地靶向作用癌细胞，同时降低对正常组织的损伤。目前研究者开始观察Popdc蛋白在不同组织中的检测结果，来调查是否其在不同细胞系中的行为也是不同的。
  研究者分别检测了Popdc蛋白1、2和3在乳腺癌、胃癌及星形细胞癌中的影响，结果发现，根据组织类型的不同这些蛋白的行为也表现地不同，因此研究者希望后期将通过深入研究来调查为何这些蛋白会根据肿瘤组织类型的不同而发生行为的改变。
  这些蛋白或许并不仅仅是潜在的药物靶点，研究者们如今正在研究其在不同类型癌症中的角色，相关研究或为后期开发新型个体化的癌症疗法提供希望和帮助。（转化医学网360zhyx.com）
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New research at the University of Aberdeen has identified potential new targets for the treatment of certain types of cancer.

This research could lead to the development of new drug therapies tailored to individual cancer types. 

The new research, by postgraduate student, Johanna Amunjela is among the first in the world to investigate the role that specific proteins called 'Popeye domain containing proteins 1, 2 and 3 or Popdc1, 2 and 3' play in the spread of cancer. 

Ms Amunjela, supervised by Dr Steve Tucker, Senior Teaching Fellow in Pharmacology has found that these specific proteins can directly increase or decrease the development and spread of cancer.

The innovative new research, funded by the University of Aberdeen's Elphinstone PhD Scholarship scheme focusses on cell migration in cancer. Cell migration is considered to be important in cancer as this is the means by which tumours spread to other parts of the body making the cancer more difficult to treat. Dr Tucker said: "The spread of cancer to other organs or lymph nodes is a critical stage in cancer development. 

"The spread of a tumour to other organs or lymph nodes makes treatment more difficult and makes the progression of the cancer less predictable and more lethal. 

"Our research aims to identify unique changes within certain types of cancer that increase the likelihood of spread, so these can be targeted therapeutically".

Ms Amunjela has found that changes in the behaviour of specific Popdc proteins can affect how readily cancer tissue spreads. 

Ms Amunjela explained: "We are among only a handful of people in the world who are actively investigating the role of Popdc 1, 2 and 3 proteins in the spread of tumours. 

"So far we can say that these proteins seem to be important in determining the rate that cells divide and migrate which means that they affect the likelihood of cancer spreading to other organs. 

"It seems that these molecules act as a switch where they can affect the rate of division or migration."

This study is the first to identify these proteins as possible targets in future cancer treatments. Ms Amunjela added: "These proteins represent relatively specific potential targets for new drug therapies, and it is hoped that Popdc-directed drugs will be more specifically targeted to the affected sites with less damage to healthy tissue." 

The research looked at these proteins in different types of tissue to investigate if they behaved differently in different cell lines. The study looked at the impact of Popdc 1, 2 and 3 in breast, gastric and astrocytoma cancer cells and found that the behaviour of these proteins differed according to the type of tissue they were in. Ms Amunjela said: "It is very interesting to find that the effect of these proteins varies according to the type of cancer we looked at. 

"Not only are we considering these molecules as potential drug targets, we are also learning how they act in different types of cancer. As a result, this research may pave the way in personalised medicine for tailored, cancer-specific therapies by potentially switching off the tumour's ability to spread."