Mij
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
UCLA researchers discover a hidden link between cancer metabolism and RNA regulation, offering potential new targets for therapy
Cancer cells are relentless in their quest to grow and divide, often rewiring their metabolism and modifying RNA to stay one step ahead. Now, researchers at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a single protein, IGF2BP3, that links these two processes together in leukemia cells. The protein shifts how cells break down sugar, favoring a fast but inefficient energy pathway, while also altering RNA modifications that help produce the proteins leukemia cells need to survive and multiply.
The discovery, published in Cell Reports, positions IGF2BP3 as a “master switch” in leukemia, linking metabolism and RNA regulation, processes long thought to operate independently. Understanding this connection could pave the way for new therapies aimed at cutting off the energy and survival pathways that cancer cells depend on.
Rao and his lab have been studying IGF2BP3 for nearly a decade and found that it is essential for the survival of leukemia cells. The protein belongs to a family of RNA-binding proteins that are normally active only at the earliest stages of human development. After birth, their activity largely shuts down, but in some cancers — including leukemia, brain tumors, sarcomas, and breast cancers — IGF2BP3 switches back on.
Cancer cells are relentless in their quest to grow and divide, often rewiring their metabolism and modifying RNA to stay one step ahead. Now, researchers at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a single protein, IGF2BP3, that links these two processes together in leukemia cells. The protein shifts how cells break down sugar, favoring a fast but inefficient energy pathway, while also altering RNA modifications that help produce the proteins leukemia cells need to survive and multiply.
The discovery, published in Cell Reports, positions IGF2BP3 as a “master switch” in leukemia, linking metabolism and RNA regulation, processes long thought to operate independently. Understanding this connection could pave the way for new therapies aimed at cutting off the energy and survival pathways that cancer cells depend on.
Rao and his lab have been studying IGF2BP3 for nearly a decade and found that it is essential for the survival of leukemia cells. The protein belongs to a family of RNA-binding proteins that are normally active only at the earliest stages of human development. After birth, their activity largely shuts down, but in some cancers — including leukemia, brain tumors, sarcomas, and breast cancers — IGF2BP3 switches back on.
