The new strategy for improving of cancer prognosis - The investigation of the mechanism of food components inducing anoikis in floating cells-

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K05536
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 38050:Food sciences-related
• Research Institution: The University of Shiga Prefecture
• Principal Investigator: Endo Hiroshi 滋賀県立大学, 人間文化学部, 准教授 (30567912)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: がん転移 / がん再発 / 食品成分 / ストレスタンパク質

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Although anticancer drugs or irradiation which are used in standard of care for cancer have a significant inhibitory effect on epithelial-type cancer cells, they are less effective against cancer stem cells (CSCs) and mesenchymal-transformed cancer cells (EMT cancer cells), which are major factors in metastasis and recurrence. Metastasis, recurrence, and invasion are prognostic factors in cancer, and the ability to effectively induce cell death in CSC and EMT cancer cells is an important issue. In this study, we found that curcumin and hesperetin suppressed not only cancer cell proliferation but also the expression of factors involved in metastasis and invasion in epithelial cancer cells. These findings have potential for the development of anticancer drugs with novel mechanisms to inhibit metastasis and recurrence.

Free Research Field

病態栄養学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

現在日本人の死因の一位は悪性新生物であり，がんによる死亡者は増加の一途をたどっている．その主な理由として，外科的切除やがん化学療法，放射線治療などの標準治療によって局所的，一時的には縮小させることができるが，再発や転移を完全に抑制できないことが挙げられる．本研究では癌細胞の生存に関わる因子としてストレスタンパク質に着目し，これらの発現量を抑制することができる食品成分（クルクミン，ヘスペレチン等）を見出した．これらの成分は癌細胞の細胞死を誘導できるだけでなく，転移や再発も抑制できることも明らかとした．このことは癌の転移や再発の抑制をターゲットした抗癌剤の開発の基礎データになると期待できる．