The journal is one of the top-ranked journals for Oncology and Cancer Research field, meaning that it is more difficult to publish in the journal with rigorous scrutiny by reviewers and editors. To publish in a high impact journals, in general, we have to provide novelty that could impact the field.
So we decided to do a Press Release for the paper, working with Public Relations office in our Stephenson Cancer Center. It would be good to publicize what we do in the lab and how it is connected to public health and to the society.
Following is the content of the Press Release article.
http://stephensoncancercenter.org/News/DetailsPage/tabid/2331/ArticleID/231/Turning-Down-the-Volume-on-Cancer.aspx
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TURNING DOWN THE VOLUME ON CANCER
OU researchers identify new targets for
colon cancer prevention and treatment
Oklahoma
City (February 1, 2016) When
the audio on your television set or smart phone is too loud, you simply turn the
volume down. What if we could do the
same for the signaling in our bodies that essentially causes normal cells to
turn cancerous?
New discoveries by researchers at the Stephenson Cancer
Center at the University of Oklahoma may point to new ways to do just that.
Hiroshi Y. Yamada, Ph.D.,, and his team zeroed in on Chromosome Instability as a
potential precursor to colon cancer.
“Chromosome Instability is a major cause of genomic
instability and occurs in many cancers. It is seen in 80 to 90 percent of human
colon cancers. In fact, our data suggest
that it may be a key player in the process by which healthy cells in the colon
become cancerous,” Yamada said.
The team first developed a laboratory model with a mutation
that essentially makes cell division sloppy, resulting in chromosome
instability.
“The simple premise is that if we test a drug or diet on
this laboratory model which we know is at greater risk for colon cancer and we
see fewer cancers, then that drug or diet may be promising in terms of
preventing or curing cancer. It’s a type of research called translational
oncology and it’s an essential pre-clinical step for developing new drugs for
cancer prevention and therapy,” he explained.
As predicted, the laboratory model proved cancer-prone,
quickly developing small tumors and lesions. After a while, tumor suppressors
appeared to do their job and most of the small tumors regressed. The tumors
that grew, though, were found to be carrying more than ten times the number of
mutations of tumors in the controls. These tumors also were likely malignant and more difficult
to cure.
“There seemed to
be a tug-of-war at the molecular level influencing whether the mutated cells
would become cancerous. That’s when we decided to introduce a systems biology
approach in our analysis and that brought many surprising and promising
findings,” Yamada said.
In fact, by
tapping into the cutting-edge technologies within the bioinformatics core at
the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, the team discovered
different gene expression signatures – signatures similar to those in cancer –
in the laboratory model with chromosome instability. In addition, many of the pathways that lead
to cancer were upregulated, like turning up the volume on the TV.
Another surprise
was that the genes involved in immune function, which is the biologic system
that helps the body police for cancer, were downregulated.
“This was
something new,” Yamada said. “We had assumed that the effects of chromosome
instability would be based more on individual cells. Instead, our research showed chromosome
instability may be able to influence the genesis of cancer in many different
ways. It’s actually good news because with the bioinformatics information, we
can formulate novel intervention strategies aimed at these previously unknown
targets.”
The findings
bring a lot of excitement for Yamada, his team and for the field of cancer prevention
and treatments. There may be other applications for their work too.
“Genomic
instability also is a hallmark of aging. So we intend to look into the effect
of this in the aging process and in age-associated cancers,” Yamada added.
The research is
published in the February 1, 2016 issue of Cancer Research, a publication of
the American Association for Cancer Research. The Association is the world’s
oldest and largest professional association related to cancer research.
The OU research
team also included: Stephenson Cancer Center members Chinthalapally V. Rao,
Ph.D., Altaf Mohammed, Ph.D., and Naveena Janakiram, Ph.D., as well as Yuting
Zhang, MD., Laura Biddick, Arun Reddy,
and Stan Lightfoot, MD., of the
Center for Cancer Prevention and Drug Development, Department of Medicine,
Hematology/Oncology Section, OU Health Sciences Center.
The research was
supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NCI R01CA094962,
RO1CA090658 and NCI RO3CA162538) as well as
a Chris4Life colon cancer foundation pilot study grant. Additional support came from the National
Center for Research Resources and the National Institute of General Medical
Sciences of the National Institutes of Health through Grant Number 8P20GM103447
[Oklahoma's IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (OK-INBRE)] to the
OUHSC Microgen core facility.
[By Theresa Green]
[By Theresa Green]
ABOUT THE
STEPHENSON CANCER CENTER
Oklahoma’s only
comprehensive academic cancer center, the Stephenson Cancer Center at the
University of Oklahoma is a nationally noted leader in research and patient
care. The Stephenson Cancer Center annually ranks among the top three cancer
centers in the nation for patients participating in National Cancer
Institute-sponsored treatment trials, and it is one of 30 designated lead
centers nationally in the Institute’s National Clinical Trials Network. In
collaboration with the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, the
Stephenson Cancer Center is decreasing the burden of cancer in Oklahoma by
supporting innovative laboratory, clinical and populations-based research. The Stephenson
Cancer Center has 200 research members who are conducting more than 135 cancer
research projects at institutions across Oklahoma. This research is supported
by $38.5 million in annual funding from the National Cancer Institute, the
American Cancer Society and other sponsors.
