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Professor may have discovered cancer killer in molecule
Nur77, a large nuclear receptor, has been known to migrate to the mitochondria and kill cells
Shanna Woodruff
Issue date: 1/16/09 Section: News
Siva Kolluri, a professor at OSU in environmental and molecular toxicology, has helped discover a molecule that may help kill cancer cells.
This discovery has been published in "Cancer Cell," "Science-Business eXchange," "Nature Drug Discovery" and "Nature Chemical Biology," all of which are highly recognized in the world of science.
Kolluri, along with his colleagues Arnold Satterthwait and Xiao-kun Zhang at Burnham Institute for Medical Research, first discovered the cancer cell killer in 2003. They identified a nuclear receptor called Nur77 that wasn't doing what it was supposed to do.
Instead of staying in the nucleus of cells, in some cases it was migrating to the mitochondria, the cell power house, and killing cells.
"The reason why it's a big discovery is because Nur77 is a nuclear protein, but was leaving the nucleus," said Xiao-kun Zhang, professor of Cancer Biology at Burnham Institute in La Jolla, Calif.
Along with this rare migration, Nur77 was somehow converting BCL-2, which protects cancer cells from apoptosis (cell death), so that it would actually start killing cancer cells and become pro-apoptotic.
It has been known for some time that BCL-2 hinders the effects of cancer treatment.
"BCL-2 is found in about 70 percent of all cancer cells," Kolluri said.
Satterthwait said SciBX magazine explained "cancer cells are loaded with BCL-2."
"There are more than 20 types of cancers highly expressing the protein. It was first discovered in leukemia cells and is also found in breast, lung and prostate cancers, to name a few."
Many scientists have been working on ways of eliminating BCL-2 for treating cancer, but with Nur77, there may be another option. Since Nur77 is a large protein, it is not as easy to control.
"All I wanted to find out was, what is the minimum domain? How small can I go to find if it will still bind to BCL-2?" Kolluri said.
Their research was successful as they identified a very small peptide derived from Nur77, which they call NuBCP-9 that mimics the activity of the full Nur77 protein by binding and converting BCL-2 to a cancer cell killer.
This discovery has been published in "Cancer Cell," "Science-Business eXchange," "Nature Drug Discovery" and "Nature Chemical Biology," all of which are highly recognized in the world of science.
Kolluri, along with his colleagues Arnold Satterthwait and Xiao-kun Zhang at Burnham Institute for Medical Research, first discovered the cancer cell killer in 2003. They identified a nuclear receptor called Nur77 that wasn't doing what it was supposed to do.
Instead of staying in the nucleus of cells, in some cases it was migrating to the mitochondria, the cell power house, and killing cells.
"The reason why it's a big discovery is because Nur77 is a nuclear protein, but was leaving the nucleus," said Xiao-kun Zhang, professor of Cancer Biology at Burnham Institute in La Jolla, Calif.
Along with this rare migration, Nur77 was somehow converting BCL-2, which protects cancer cells from apoptosis (cell death), so that it would actually start killing cancer cells and become pro-apoptotic.
It has been known for some time that BCL-2 hinders the effects of cancer treatment.
"BCL-2 is found in about 70 percent of all cancer cells," Kolluri said.
Satterthwait said SciBX magazine explained "cancer cells are loaded with BCL-2."
"There are more than 20 types of cancers highly expressing the protein. It was first discovered in leukemia cells and is also found in breast, lung and prostate cancers, to name a few."
Many scientists have been working on ways of eliminating BCL-2 for treating cancer, but with Nur77, there may be another option. Since Nur77 is a large protein, it is not as easy to control.
"All I wanted to find out was, what is the minimum domain? How small can I go to find if it will still bind to BCL-2?" Kolluri said.
Their research was successful as they identified a very small peptide derived from Nur77, which they call NuBCP-9 that mimics the activity of the full Nur77 protein by binding and converting BCL-2 to a cancer cell killer.
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