Central Catholic Medical Center discovers new marker for distant cancer metastasis: Health and Welfare News

【Health and Welfare News】 A new marker of distant cancer metastasis has been discovered, which is expected to provide an important basis for developing new strategies for cancer diagnosis and treatment while providing a clearer understanding of mechanisms occurrence and progression of cancer.

Professor Jeong Yeon-jun (corresponding author, head of the Department of Ultra-Precision Medicine Project) and the Basic Medicine Project Promotion Team of the Catholic Medical Center (first author Park Ji-yeon, research professor at Catholic Precision Medicine Research Center) has discovered that the splicing of other genes is the main mechanism for distant cancer metastasis.

Splicing is one of the processes that occurs when DNA is converted to RNA to make genes into proteins. Even if the same gene is spliced ​​in different ways, slightly different proteins can be produced. Because of these differences, the same gene can affect different diseases.

This process has recently received a lot of attention in the field of genomic research because it provides very important information about the detection of genetic markers associated with genetic diseases.

Professor Jeong’s team found that an alternative splicing change on the RPS24 gene, which plays an important role in cellular protein synthesis, plays an important role in cancer metastasis. We discovered that four types of alternative splicing changes occur in the RPS24 gene, and confirmed that these changes show different expression patterns in normal and cancer tissue.

Professor Jeong’s team analyzed the expression pattern of other splicing variants in 23 major cancers and found that the level of expression was significantly different for each type of cancer. This suggests that alternative splicing variants of the RPS24 gene may be a useful marker for cancer diagnosis and prognosis.

In addition, other splicing changes play a role in promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT epithelial cells transform into mesenchymal cells capable of invasion and motility, a phenomenon that occurs when metastatic cancer or fibrosis occurs ) during cancer metastasis

▲ An example of detecting changes in each subtype during cancer progression using alternative splicing and fragment analysis of four types of RPS24 genes.

Previous research was aware of the possibility that other splicing changes may be associated with cancer, but accurate analysis was difficult due to very subtle changes (3 base differences).

However, in this study, Professor Jeong’s team successfully discovered other splicing variants of the RPS24 gene using a new technique called fragment analysis. This is an important achievement that opens up new possibilities in the field of alternative splicing research.

Professor Jiyeon Park said, “This research is a discovery that will open up new opportunities in cancer research and treatment,” and added, “It is expected that the development of new cancer diagnostic tools and established therapies will on other splicing changes on the RPS24 gene. actively encouraged. ” he said.

Professor Jeong Yeon-jun said, “The results of this study will provide an important basis for developing new strategies for cancer diagnosis and treatment,” and “Through research to elucidate the biological function of alternative splicing changes identify, we will clarify the methods. “I hope you understand,” he said.

At the same time, the research of Professor Jeong’s team was carried out with the infrastructure support of the Basic Medicine Promotion Team of the Catholic Medical Center and was published in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’.