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By Alicia Ault
NEW ORLEANS, Mar 26 (Reuters Health) - Using mouse models, Georgetown University researchers have isolated and tracked a protein that may be responsible for colon cancer's spread to the liver, they said here Monday.
Colon tumor cells make the protein, called Pa28 alpha, said lead investigator Justinian Ngaiza, a clinical fellow in hematology/oncology at Georgetown's Lombardi Cancer Center. When injected into mice, Ngaiza reported, Pa28 alpha homed in on the liver.
Pa28 alpha may also help other cancers spread, Ngaiza said. He presented his research here at the 92nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
To isolate the protein, Ngaiza and colleagues took genes expressed by colon tumor cells grown in the laboratory and converted them into proteins. Thousands of different proteins were injected into the mice, and two, Pa28 being one of them, targeted the liver.
But the researchers are not sure yet whether the protein is released by colon tumors and then spreads via the bloodstream to the liver, or if it is expressed by the tumor cells once they get to the liver.
If the protein does circulate in the bloodstream, scientists could develop a simple blood test to gauge Pa28 levels in patients who have colon cancer. The test could then tell them whether a colon tumor has spread.
Ngaiza said if Pa28 turns out to be a key to the spread of colon cancer, a drug therapy to block its action could be developed.
The Georgetown researchers are now looking into whether the proteins are expressed in human tumor biopsies, which Ngaiza said is a better gauge than a cell line.
The investigators also hope to inject mice with tumor cells from which Pa28 has been removed to see if the cancer still spreads to the liver.
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