Functional elucidation of the pro-oncogenic p53-IER5 pathway in cancers with wild-type p53

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K07605
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 50010:Tumor biology-related
• Research Institution: National Cancer Center Japan
• Principal Investigator: Aoki Kiyono 国立研究開発法人国立がん研究センター, 研究所, 特任研究員 (10383291)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 大木 理恵子 国立研究開発法人国立がん研究センター, 研究所, 独立ユニット長 (70356252)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: がん / p53 / がん抑制遺伝子

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The oncogenic function of p53, which promotes cancer development, is one of the most recent and highly anticipated topics among p53 researchers worldwide. Moshe Oren and Karen Vousden, among other research groups, have shown particular interest in this theme, and hypotheses regarding p53's oncogenic promotion have been presented in reviews such as JMCB, 11, pp.539-543, 2019. The p53 target gene IER5, which is the subject of analysis in this study, is directly involved in promoting cancer development and is one of the identified p53 target genes. Through this study, we have achieved the groundbreaking discovery of p53's oncogenic promotion ability, which has never been elucidated before on a global scale.

Free Research Field

分子腫瘍学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究課題においては、がんの発生と悪性化・転移・抗がん剤耐性獲得におけるp53と IER5が果たす役割を解析し、「特定のがん種ではp53が野生型のままである理由」の解明を進めた。本研究は、がん抑制遺伝子であるp53の知られざるがん化促進能を明らかにすることで、p53研究の体系や方向、p53を野生型で持つがんの治療・新薬開発を変革させる潜在性を有するものである。