The research group of Professor Nobunori Fukui and Associate Professor Taketo Uruno of the Institute of Biodefense Medicine, Kyushu University, along with Professor Satoshi Kanai of the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the University of Tokyo, and Senior Researcher Shigeyuki Yokoyama of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, cancer cells. We discovered a new key protein that is important for malignant transformation, and developed the world's first compound that targets that protein.
Cancer is the leading cause of death in Japan, and it is said that one in three people will die of cancer.In particular, although abnormalities (mutations) in the oncogene Ras account for one-third of all cancers, including colorectal cancer and pancreatic cancer, effective therapeutic agents have been developed so far. I didn't.
This time, the group of Kyushu University and others discovered for the first time in the world that a protein called DOCK1 plays an important role in the survival and infiltration of cancer caused by mutant Ras.Not only that, the group has also succeeded in developing a selective inhibitor of DOCK1 "TBOPP".
More than 30 years have passed since the discovery of Ras, but the development of therapeutic agents for cancers with mutant Ras has not been successful so far. Since the development of TBOPP suppressed the growth and metastasis of cancer cells in mice, it is expected to lead to the creation of therapeutic agents for intractable human cancers with mutant Ras.
Paper Information: [Cell Reports] Targeting Ras-Driven Cancer Cell Survival and Invasion through Selective Inhibition of DOCK1
