FASEB J: find a new target for the treatment of pancreatic cancer! The king of cancer shivers!

October 18, 2019 / BIOON / -- a recent study in the journal FASEB found a new mechanism of pancreatic cancer resistance to chemotherapy Its mechanism includes the loss of PML function, which is similar to tumor suppressor Surprisingly, the researchers found that PML dysfunction was not due to gene mutations or changes in gene expression, but to changes in a specific type of protein modification Photo source: to conduct this experiment, FASEB J first produced protein modification profiles of resistant and non resistant cells from pancreatic cancer cell lines By comparing these profiles, they found changes in specific protein modifications associated with drug-resistant cells PML is a drug-resistant cell, known for its involvement in an aggressive leukemia Using cultured cells, the researchers found that a modification of PML, known as ubiquitination, was also involved in the resistance of pancreatic cancer cells to chemotherapy Using patient-derived xenotransplantation models, the researchers found that patients with higher PML expression and higher PML ubiquitination levels had higher survival rates In contrast, the study showed that patients with both low PML expression and low PML like ubiquitination had a worse survival rate because their tumors showed resistance to chemotherapy "These findings can improve the prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients in a relatively short period of time," said Dr Philippe soubeyran, a researcher at the Marseille Cancer Research Center (CRCM) of the French National Institutes of health and medicine "In the long run, we may be able to improve the treatment of pancreatic cancer by restoring the efficacy of drugs against drug-resistant tumors Dr thoru Pederson, editor in chief of FASEB magazine, said: "it is an interesting discovery that the post-translational modification of this protein is so decisive This not only resets the treatment dimension, but also may indicate similar oncoprotein events in other malignant tumors "Reference: Philippe soubeyran et al PML hydropolumolation is responsible for the resistance of pancreatic cancer The FASEB Journal Doi: https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.201901091r