The paper is about new mechanisms in the development of rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), the most common soft tissue tumour in children.
In August 2016, an article by a research team from the Jagiellonian University Department of Medical Biotechnology was published in Cancer Research, one of the leading oncology journals. The paper, entitled "Heme oxygenase-1 controls an HDAC4-miR-206 pathway of oxidative stress in rhabdomyosarcoma" is about new mechanisms in the development of rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), the most common soft tissue tumour in children. It describes the crucial role of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in the cells of this type of cancer. The sarcoma is supposedly caused by disturbed differentiation of muscle stem cells.
The research, led by Prof. Alicja Józkowicz and Prof. Józef Dulak, indicated that HO-1 can play a special role in RMS. Besides the influence on blood vessels and protective activity on tumour cells, known from other cancers, the heme oxygenase-1 facilitates the sarcoma cells' proliferation and inhibits their differentiation, which could slow down the development of the tumour. The cell differentiation processes are influenced by the interaction between HO-1 and microRNA - short RNA molecules that play an important role in regulating gene expression. It also turned out that there is more oxygenase in more aggressive sarcomas and the mutations characteristic of their most malignant types increase this enzyme's level at the same time. The research described in the paper also shows that the inhibition of HO-1 in this kind of cancer could be beneficial for the patients.
It is worth stressing that the lead author of the study Dr Maciej Cieśla received two grants for the research from the Foundation for Polish Science. The disturbed differentiation of muscle stem cells may also play a role in Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which is the subject of the MAESTRO grant from the National Science Centre obtained by Prof. Józef Dulak.
The Department of Medical Biotechnology is part of the JU Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology.
The full article is available here.
Photo: Rhabdomyosarcoma cells growing in fibrin matrix along with stromal cells
