TCD scientists make major cancer cell discovery

SCIENTISTS at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) have made a major discovery about how cancer cells self-destruct in a development which could lead to a breakthrough in the treatment of patients with the disease.

A research group headed by TCD’s Smurfit Professor of Medical Genetics, Seamus Martin, claims new information on the behaviour of fledgling cancer cells has the potential of impacting on future cancer therapies.

The findings of the group have just been published in the internationally renowned medical journal, Molecular Cell.

The TCD scientists discovered how a process called “autophagy” — a description of how cells eat themselves — plays a key role in safeguarding against the development of cancer.

Prof Martin explained how the group established that a protein called Noxa plays an unexpected role in triggering the self-eating process.

“It leads cells in the early stages of cancer to literally eat themselves to death,” said Prof Martin.

Tests in laboratories at TCD discovered that mutations in a gene called Ras — which is involved in approximately 30% of all human cancers — triggered excessive authophagy by increasing the production of Noxa which resulted in the death of early tumour cells.

“The study suggests that autophagy represents an important natural safeguard against cancer development,” observed Prof Martin.

In another significant development the Trinity team discovered that members of the Bcl-2 gene family could override the process to enable cancerous cells to survive.

Such knowledge could lead to drugs targeting Bcl-2 that could help to shrink tumours.

Prof Martin said the research also helped to explain why the emergence of fully cancerous cells was relatively rare given the average human produces hundreds of billions of cells over a lifetime.

“This discovery is an important step forward in our understanding of how cells in the early stages of cancer hit the auto-destruct button.

“It suggests new ways in which we may be able to re-activate this process in cancers that do manage to establish,” he said.

He acknowledged the breakthrough had led directly from investment in research provided by the state through initiatives like the Science Foundation Ireland.

On average, some 7,800 Irish people die from a cancer-related illness every year, while more than 16,000 new cases are diagnosed yearly.