New potential target for colorectal cancer therapy
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AI generated / © Felix Sommer Lab, Kiel University
Research by the Cluster of Excellence PMI and the DFG Research Unit “miTarget” shows that a protein frequently found in the inflamed intestine could play an important role in the development of cancer.
- Colon cancer can be a long-term consequence of chronic inflammatory bowel disease.
- The two diseases are linked by certain enzymes of the hexokinase family, which are dysregulated in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
- A research team from the PMI Cluster of Excellence has shown in experiments that deleting the hexokinase HKDC1 in colorectal cancer cells can prevent from tumor development.
People with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) also have an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer. However, the exact mechanisms behind this are still largely unknown. Researchers from the Cluster of Excellence “Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation” (PMI) and the DFG Research Unit “miTarget” are therefore trying to better understand this connection. A Kiel research team has now found that a protein that occurs unusually frequently in patients with IBD is also associated with colorectal cancer. If the responsible gene is removed from cancer cells, so that the protein can no longer be produced, tumor growth is inhibited. The researchers, led by PD Dr. Felix Sommer from the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB) of the Faculty of Medicine at Kiel University (CAU) and the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), Campus Kiel, recently published their results in the journal Cancer Communications.
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