The findings of Dr Charles Emerson, a senior scientist and director of the not-for-profit Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI) and Dr Natalia Riobo, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, were published in the journal Cancer Research.
The research focuses on understanding a type of cell communication known as hedgehog signaling. Hedgehog signaling has an essential role in the control of stem cell growth and in the promotion of tumor growth.
Excessive activation of the hedgehog signaling pathway has been observed to be responsible for tumor growth in the most lethal of human cancers, including pancreatic, lung, skin, muscle and digestive tract cancer – all of which remain largely untreatable.
The researchers’ findings show that two kinases, known as PKC-delta and MEK-1, cooperate with hedgehog signaling to activate GLI transcription factors to regulate key genes that control stem cell and tumor growth.
“Understanding the key components of the hedgehog signaling pathway, and how mutations in this pathway can lead to the growth of cancer cells, highlights the power of basic science and disease model research to reveal new therapeutic approaches for human disease, which is a hallmark of BBRI research,” says BBRI’s director Dr Charles Emerson. “Our preliminary findings offer tremendous promise for development of preventative and curative treatments for these devastating cancers.”