Findings may lead to development of drugs to fight cancer
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers have discovered a new role for the bioactive lipid messenger, sphingosine-1-phosphate, or S1P, that is abundant in our blood - a finding that could lead to a new generation of drugs to fight cancer and inflammatory disease.
In the Sept. 4 issue of the journal Science, a team led by Sarah Spiegel, Ph.D., professor and chair in the VCU Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and co-leader of the VCU Massey Cancer Center's cancer cell biology program, reported that the cell nucleus, which contains the DNA that codes for all of our genes, also contains and produces S1P that is important for the regulation of certain genes. Researchers have known that the nucleus contains several kinds of lipids, but their functions have remained unknown until now. The team identified the mechanisms by which cancer cells produce S1P in the nucleus and uncovered its new function there to regulate gene expression.
Spiegel, who is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on new lipid mediators that regulate cell growth and cell death, and her colleagues first discovered the role of S1P in cell growth regulation nearly a decade ago.