Youhai Chen, PhD., MD., Svetlana Fayngerts, PhD., both from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and their colleagues report that TIPE3, a newly described protein cancer-causing properties, promotes the disease by targeting upregulated chemical signals related to lipid metabolism.

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Over half of human cancers have abnormal lipid metabolism, but as of the moment, it is not understood why. Lipid second messengers play a crucial role in transmitting and boosting signals from the environment onto the outer membrane of the cell and into its interior. One of the best known lipid second messengers, PIP3, which relays chemical signals from hundreds of membrane receptors, including oncogenic receptors on the surface of the cell to PIP3-binding proteins inside the cell which dictates the growth, differentiation, migration, transformation, and apoptosis of cells.

Drugs that target the PIP3 when it malfunctions, could be potentially effective in treating a number of illnesses, including inflammatory disorders and cancer. The TIPE3 is part of the recently described protein family and is a risk factor for human inflammation and cancer, though the protein's mechanisms of action are currently unknown.

Chen and his colleagues discovered that the TIPE3 is the transfer protein in the second messenger of PIP3, and it is taken by cancer cells to produce unstoppable cell division.

The TIPE3's high-resolution crystalline shape illustrates a big cavity that collects and redirects PIP3 and PIP2, its chemical precursor, to increase their levels on the inner surface of the cell. The more prominent presence of the proteins encourages the activation of more PIP3 effectors that result in cancer.

Significant upregulated TIPE3 expression is found in colon, esophageal, lung and ovarian cancers in humans. Decreasing the level of TIPE3 in cell cultures reduces the growth of malignant tumors and completely removing the protein in mice prevents the formation of said tumors.

The team is currently figuring out strategies to regulate the unusual TIPE3 levels to prevent or treat cancer.

TagsCancer treatment, Cancer, medicine, drug, Drugs, cancer prevention