The relationship between cancer stem cell characteristics and autophagy activity using organoid culture system

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K16775
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 50010:Tumor biology-related
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: KASAGI Yuta 九州大学, 医学研究院, 共同研究員 (70838937)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 癌幹細胞 / オルガノイド

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We considered that inflammatory cytokines affect the subclass expression of esophageal basal cells, and stimulated with IL4, IL13, TNFα, and TGFβ to create organoids, and we found that those cytokines induced different subclasses. Furthermore, we discovered that TNFα and TGFβ stimulation induces stem cell types more strongly, and found that they have stem cell properties. Applicants performed each cell fractionation RNA sequence and identified characteristic factors. We had already conducted various additional studies and summarized the results in manuscript, and that are currently being peer-reviewed.

Free Research Field

消化器癌

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

食道癌幹細胞が異なる性質を持つ細胞集団であることを、オルガノイドを用いて証明したものは例がなく、世界に先駆けた先進的かつ多くの研究者が関心を示す研究である。さらに、申請者が注視しているCD73は新規免疫チェックポイント阻害剤の対象分子であり、その発現が癌幹細胞と相関があることを示せれば、CD73阻害剤の抗腫瘍作用の解明に大いに貢献出来る。オートファジー阻害剤についても世界中で研究が行われているが未だ実用段階には至っておらず、本研究の成果はその開発の手助けとなる可能性がある。