Cell: mechanism of action of cancer suppressor protein "Merlin"

After 10 years of research, researchers from Hopkins University have elucidated the mechanism of Merlin, a protein long considered to be related to tumors of the nervous system, and proved the relationship between Hippo gene and Merlin through rigorous experimental process This is an important discovery in biomedicine Cell: mechanism of action of cancer suppressor protein "Merlin" 　 　 Antitumor mechanism of Merlin protein Recently, researchers from Hopkins University have elucidated the specific function of a protein that has long been thought to be associated with tumors of the nervous system In the new study, published in September in the journal Cell, the researchers described in detail the "matchmaking" activity of the Merlin protein in Drosophila melanogaster Merlin's human analogue, NF2, is a known tumor suppressor protein that causes neurofibroma type II when NF2 mutates Although researchers know that Merlin can affect the function of another protein, hippo, the details of this relationship are not clear Dr Duojia pan, Professor of molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of medicine and researcher at the Howard Hughes Institute, said: "now we know the mechanism by which Merlin and hippo interact to initiate a series of events to control the growth of many tissues It's important to get this understanding, because these events not only affect growth and development, but also lead to cancer and other tumors " Ten years ago, pandoga and his team discovered the hippo gene, which ensures that every part of the fly's body matches its overall size They named it Hippo because when the gene and the protein it encodes are missing, it causes flies to develop abnormally large organs Since then, they have been working to understand all the proteins in the hippo and hippo networks In previous studies, others have suggested that Merlin may be an integral part of the hippo network, but they don't know how merlin got into the network In this new study, pandoga and his team combined genetics, cell biology and biochemistry methods to confirm that Merlin played the role of matchmaker, and helped Hippo find it by binding and recruiting hippo's target protein watts to the right cell site Cell: mechanism of action of cancer suppressor protein "Merlin"   Antitumor mechanism of Merlin protein Without Merlin nearby, inactive waves would float around inside the cell's water sample, while Hippo would wait close to the outer membrane Merlin, who is also located near the outer membrane of cells, arranged their meeting by contacting the waves, so that the waves could finally get close to the outer membrane, where Hippo opened the waves Human cell experiments confirmed that Merlin had the same relationship with the human analogue of watts "Merlin's overall purpose is simple but very important: it ensures that watts is close to Hippo," pandoga said Without Merlin, hippo couldn't find watts, and the flies would eventually form enlarged organs " In humans, when Merlin's analogue NF2 fails to function properly, it can lead to tumor formation, especially those classified as type II neurofibroma These noncancerous tumors cause stress on nerves in the brain and spinal cord, often leading to loss of hearing, vision, or other neurological functions Because the proteins in the hippo network in Drosophila and humans function similarly, the researchers say their work may one day lead to new discoveries that have important implications for human health, not just for type II neurofibromas but also other types of tumors.