Understanding the specific mitotic machinery of blood cells

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K15987
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 47030:Pharmaceutical hygiene and biochemistry-related
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Chinen Takumi 東京大学, 大学院薬学系研究科(薬学部), 助教 (40775607)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 血球細胞 / 細胞分裂 / 急性リンパ性白血病 / 急性骨髄性白血病 / DepMap / 分裂期の脆弱性 / 染色体異数性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we tried to understand the specific mitotic machinery of blood cells. The pericentriolar materials of blood cancer cells did not accumulate into the centrosome in mitosis. The result suggests the vulnerability in mitotic spindle formation of blood cancer cells. Next, we focused on blood cancer cells with aneuploidy. Aneuploidy can occur due to some defects in mitotic machinery. Analysis using DepMap suggests that the cell proliferation of blood cancer cells with aneuploidy is strongly dependent on kinetochore-microtubule attachment and sister chromatid cohesion. Overall, we succeeded in extracting the vulnerability in mitotic spindle formation of blood cells.

Free Research Field

細胞生物学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、血液がん細胞の特殊な分裂機構の解析を行った。血液がん細胞の分裂システムの理解は、血液がん発症機構の理解や血液がん治療薬の開発に繋がるため、医学・薬学における重要な課題である。本研究で得られた知見をベースにさらなる理解が進むことで、新たな創薬標的分子の同定が可能になる。