A look at recent research conducted on campus
U of G Professor Jim Uniacke and his lab have been making waves recently in the world of cancer research. The groundbreaking study, which has now been published in the scientific journal Oncogene, focused on studying hypoxia — low oxygen levels — in cancerous tumors. The research done by Dr. Uniacke and his team resulted in the discovery of a novel protein, now known as cadherin-22, which has shown potential to have enormous implications in the treatment of many cancers, mainly due to the pivotal role this protein appears to play in tumor metastasis.
In an interview with The Ontarion, Professor Uniacke outlined the role of cadherin-22 and the potential this discovery may have in future therapeutic treatments. “It has been known for decades now that solid cancer tumours have regions of low oxygen because these are not normal organs in your body, they arise later in life, and they don’t get a proper blood supply,” Uniacke explained. On the importance of this research, Uniacke said, “We care about these hypoxic areas because they’re actually the most aggressive cancer cells […]. They’re the ones that resist treatment, they resist chemotherapy, they resist radiation therapy, and hypoxia actually promotes metastasis cells to move and leave the primary tumours and make other tumours in your body.”
This protein, cadherin-22, plays a critical role in maintaining the structure of cancer cells. Uniacke stated that, “You put a cancer cell in very low oxygen, it starts to make cadherin-22, which allows it to stick to other hypoxic cells; and we found that this is how these hypoxic cores of tumours hold […] producing a basic scaffolding for the tumor to keep growing on itself.” Not only this, says Uniacke, but this protein also appears to be very important to the rapid spread of cancerous cells, commonly referred to as metastasis: “We found that cadherin-22 is not only required for holding hypoxic cancer cells together in the tumor, but helping them move as a group as well.”
During this study, Uniacke and his molecular biology lab were able to genetically engineer cancerous cells that didn’t produce cadherin-22, and the results were incredible.
[media-credit name=”Professor Jim Uniacke” align=”alignnone” width=”1020″]
“What we found was that it can’t make any tumors anymore, because it can’t stick to other cancer cells,” he said, proving this research could very well act as a groundbreaking first step in developing more effective cancer treatments.
This protein manifests itself on the outer surface of cancer cells, thus allowing it to bind to other cadherin-22 containing cells, and making it susceptible to potential drug treatments. “The promising thing,” stated Uniacke, “is these cadherins are a superfamily and people know how to block them. There actually are therapeutics out there that block other cadherins for a variety of processes, so it wouldn’t be unexpected to be able to easily find a small molecule inhibitor of cadherin-22.” Uniacke also stated that if all goes well, to progress from initial discovery to a functional chemotherapy treatment, the process would take between five and seven years. Dr. Uniacke has been studying hypoxia and the role it plays in cancer cells for nearly ten years now. With the help of graduate students, especially Nicole Kelly and Joseph Varga, Uniacke has been able to make these significant discoveries regarding cadherin-22, in just three years.
With a previous background in molecular and cellular biology, he found himself venturing into the area of cancer research in order to use his knowledge and research skills for the greater good. “My passion really came through using my interest in fundamental molecular biology, but then applying it to helping people.”
Photo by Peaches Chamberlain/The Ontarion