Novel anticancer therapy targeting specific genes for squamous cell carcinoma

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26462788
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Morphological basic dentistry
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Wada Hiroko 九州大学, 歯学研究院, 助教 (70380706)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 扁平上皮癌 / アポトーシス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Deleted in colorectal cancer (DCC) is a netrin-1 receptor that is involved in axon guidance and cell survival. DCC induces apoptosis when its ligand, Netrin-1, is absent.
In this study, we investigated to analyze the inducible apoptosis mechanism by the overexpression of ΔDCC lacking Netrin-1 binding site in the carcinoma cells, and in the carcinoma tissue implanted into nude mice. The proliferation rates of ΔDCC-overexpressing cells were significantly lower than those of controls in vitro. The size of the carcinoma tissue was decreased and the number of TUNEL-positive cells was increased in ΔDCC vector injection group in vivo. These results suggested that ΔDCC overexpression may induce apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. We supposed the possibility to develop a novel method of therapy against oral squamous cell carcinoma by using a new ΔDCC vector containing the up-regulatory elements for the transcription of genes that specifically express in squamous cell carcinoma.

Free Research Field

口腔病理学分野