Sci Rep: Scientists have identified a new potential target protein, RPS-12, that could help develop new cancer therapies

February 4, 2021 // -- In a recent study published in the international journal Scientific Reports, scientists from the Russian Federal University of the Far East and other institutions used the developing eyes of fruit flies as a testing platform to study a species called RP Excessive production of S-12 proteins appears to induce triple-negative breast cancer and certain malignancies, and when embryos develop, the protein indirectly opens an important in-cell signaling path, but this is shut down in healthy adult cells.
Based on the results of this paper, scientists have taken another step forward in the development of tumor-targeted therapies that identify targeted proteins that play a guiding role in the onset or progression of tumors in order to inhibit tumor growth while reducing damage to healthy cells;
In an effort to find potential targets, researchers inserted genes from human tumors into the genomes of fruit flies, which drive the misalignment of those genes in the eyes of insects, and found potential defects in the development of sensitive organs.
photo source: FEFU When the human protein RPS-12 was transplanted, the fruit fly's eyes began to shrink and gain a mirror-like appearance.
researcher Vladimir Katanaev explains that this phenomenon reminds me of the classic smooth phenotype discovered in the 1920s by Thomas Morgan, the father of fruit fly genetics, and it wasn't until the late 1990s that people began to learn about the mutation or its effects on wingless genes, which correspond to the WNT gene, which induces signaling of the same name in human bodies.
activity of the WNT signaling path is essential for the development of the human body during the embryonic stage, but is turned off at a later stage.
mutations, or oscic genetic changes, can restart signaling path paths in adults, after which the first healthy cells begin to proliferate on a large scale, which is one reason why triple-negative breast and other forms of cancer (colon, liver, ovarian, etc.) continue to develop.
Researchers point out that smooth eye esoterics occur because the human RPS12 gene in the eyes of fruit flies over-activates the WNT/wingless signaling path, and too much RPS12 protein stimulates the presence of wingless protein active forms and spreads over long distances in tissues and reaches farther into cells.
, in turn, reduced levels of RPS12 can also reduce the production of proteins such as finless proteins.
researcher Vladimir Katanaev points out that wingless-WNT family proteins are very viscous, their natural distribution in the body's tissues is very limited, and the level of long-distance migration is tightly controlled, and WNT is an example of morphogens, a substance produced at a specific location during embryonic development that can also diffuse through tissue to form concentration gradients.
example, the palms, elbows, and shoulders are formed by cells reacting to different concentrations of WNT morphological factors.
special mechanism responsible for the production of the WNT form can also spread over long distances in tissues, one of the mechanisms studied earlier by researchers is based on the protein reggie-1/fotillin-2.
later this year will further study whether the protein is better suited for therapeutic targeting.
About 70 to 80 percent of the genes responsible for human diseases have ogeneity genes in the fruit fly body, and from an evolutionary point of view, these genes are actually the same, but there are separate sequences in humans and fruit flies.
The development of the fruit fly's eye is very complex and contains multiple stages, in which multiple signaling path paths and cellular mechanisms are activated, and scientists speculate that any human cancer cell that is transplanted into the fruit fly's eye will interfere with the development of the organ;
'We've been working on this program for more than 10 years now, and our goal is to look for new human cancer genes through the fruit fly eye screening platform,' the researchers said. 'The first phase of the final trial was conducted in 2020, and an extensive genetic library could help scientists find the components and key mechanisms involved in cancer.'
original source: Katanaev, V.L., Kryuchkov, M., Averkov, V. et al. HumanaFly: high-throughput transgenesis and expression of breast cancer transcripts in Drosophila eye discovers the RPS12-Wingless signaling axis. Sci Rep 10, 21013 (2020). doi：10.1038/s41598-020-77942-x