New role of old protein: Carcinogenesis

Recently, in a research paper published in science, a famous international journal, researchers from memorial Sloan Caitlin cancer research center and other places said through research that a known protein that transports the molecular content of normal cells in the cell interval can stimulate the key growth control pathway to induce cells to be cancerous By looking for a regulator called PI3K / Akt signaling pathway, the researchers found the protein Rab35 in the process of carcinogenesis PI3K / Akt signaling pathway can promote cell survival, growth and proliferation, and is in a highly active state in cancer cells Douglas Wheeler, a researcher, said that most tumors will find a way to open the signal pathway, but in many tumors and cell lines, there are not always mutations that can explain the activation of PI3K / Akt; So we asked if we could find a new regulator of PI3K / Akt pathway We found that wild-type Rab35 is very important for the signal of PI3K / Akt pathway, while mutant Rab35 can activate the expression of PI3K / Akt pathway, thus transforming cells from normal state to cancerous state The researchers found Rab35 when looking for the regulatory genes regulating PI3K / Akt pathway through RNA interference Then they compared the new genes found in cancer, and finally reduced 7500 candidates to 26 genes; Further in-depth analysis of the researchers found the so-called Rab protein family, which can regulate protein transport in cells, so the researchers want to know whether abnormal protein transport can cause carcinogenesis The researchers found a protein called Rab35, whose mutation form often exists in human tumors; So the researchers conducted a series of experiments to clarify the role of Rab35 The results showed that the elimination of Rab35 can inhibit Akt phosphorylation, and Rab35 is very important to activate the PI3K / Akt signal pathway; the cells with expression mutation of Rab35 form found in human cancer can activate the PI3K / Akt signal, and promote normal cell canceration in vitro The researchers said that although Rab35 mutations reported in human cancer are very rare, we found that the mutated Rab35 can cause cancer, that is, to activate key signaling pathways by changing the transport of specific growth factor receptor In general, this study provides a new way to understand the mechanism of abnormal membrane transport in the process of carcinogenesis.