A common cancer gene works in part by helping tumours to evade immune cells.
Dean Felsher of Stanford University in California and his colleagues studied the effects of MYC — a gene that is often overexpressed in cancer — in a mouse model of a type of leukaemia. They found that higher MYC expression levels increased the production of two proteins, PD-L1 and CD47, that help cancer cells to hide from the immune system. When MYC was inactivated, CD47 and PD-L1 levels dropped and tumour size decreased. Tumour data from humans showed a strong link between levels of MYC expression and levels of these immune-evasion signals.
People with cancers that overexpress MYC could benefit from treatments that boost the immune attack against tumours, the authors suggest.
Science http://doi.org/bc7p (2016)
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Gene blocks anti-tumour response. Nature 531, 278–279 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/531278d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/531278d