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A newly discovered molecule controls the production of genetic building blocks and is therefore essential for the proliferation of cancer cells, as researchers at the University Hospital show in Nature Communications

In order for cancer cells to multiply quickly, they must also produce many genetic building blocks quickly. Researchers at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg have now discovered a central control unit for this production. They show that a previously unknown RNA unit in the cell nucleus is essential for the growth and proliferation of cancer cells. If this "long non-coding RNA" is missing, fewer genetic building blocks are produced. As a result, the cell can no longer duplicate its DNA and therefore can no longer divide. The Freiburg researchers discovered the molecule in liver cancer cells, but also found it in lung and breast cancer. They published their study on June 25, 2020 in the journal Nature Communications.

"The molecule we discovered controls central processes in the production of genetic material and is significantly more abundant in cancer cells than in healthy cells. It should therefore be a very interesting target for new cancer therapies," says Prof. Dr. Sven Diederichs, who heads the Department of Oncology Research in the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg and the Department of RNA Biology and Cancer at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and is a scientist in the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK). "There are already two cancer drugs that attack the very process that the molecule we characterized controls. With this new knowledge, however, we can now eliminate another player and develop it as a target structure for new therapies instead of avoiding the consequences," says Diederichs.

Cells divide less and age faster

When the Freiburg researchers experimentally switched off the molecule known as lincNMR in the laboratory, the cells were no longer able to divide, aged rapidly and did not form cell clusters typical of tumors. Tumors cultivated in the laboratory remained significantly smaller than those in which the "long non-coding RNA", lncRNA for short, was present.

The importance of such lncRNA has become increasingly clear in recent years. While it was previously assumed that all parts of the genome that do not serve as blueprints for proteins are unnecessary, it is now known that many sections have regulatory functions. More than 10,000 "long non-coding RNA" molecules have now been described, although their function is still unknown in most cases. However, some lncRNAs are essential for the organization and metabolism in the cell - especially in cancer cells.

Original title of the study: The lncRNA lincNMR regulates nucleotide metabolism via a YBX1 - RRM2 axis in cancer

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17007-9

Link to the study:

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Sven Diederichs
Head of the Department of Oncology Research
Department of Thoracic Surgery
Medical Center - University of Freiburg
and
Head of the Department of RNA Biology and Cancer
German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg

Phone: 0761 270-77571