Tiny RNA Has Big Impact On Lung Cancer Tumors
For Immediate Release
Date: 12/07/09
Contact: Bill Hathaway, (203) 432-1322, or william.hathaway@yale.edu
New Haven, Conn. —New Haven, Conn. - Yale University researchers reversed growth of lung cancer tumors in mice, illustrating that a tiny bit of RNA may one day play a big role in cancer treatment.
“This is the first time anybody has shown a positive effect of micro-RNAs in shrinking lung cancer,” said Frank Slack, co-senior author of the paper and professor of molecular, cellular & developmental biology.
The tumors in mice with non-small-cell lung cancer shrank after the Yale Cancer Center team delivered an intranasal dose containing a type of micro-RNA called let-7, the authors reported in the Dec. 7 issue of the journal Oncogene. Micro-RNAs are small bits of genetic material most often associated with transmission of information encoded in DNA. However, in the past decade micro-RNAs have been shown to play crucial roles in gene regulation or silencing genes.
The Yale team also found that mice without let-7 developed cancer, supporting their hypothesis that the micro-RNA acts as a tumor suppressor. The tumors in mice that received let-7 were not eliminated, but were reduced by 66 percent, the study showed. The team is currently studying whether let-7 therapy in combination with chemotherapy and radiation can induce full remission.
Slack noted let-7 is absent in many cancers and acts upon a gene known to play a role in about a quarter of all human cancers.
“We hope it will be valuable in the treatment of many other forms of cancer,” he said.
The research was collaboration between Yale, Mirna Therapeutics Inc, a subsidiary of biotechnology company Asuragen Inc. of Austin Texas. Joanne B. Weidhaas of Yale and Andrea G. Bader of Mirna were co-senior authors of the paper. Other Yale authors on the paper are first author Phong Trang, Pedro P. Medina and Robert Homer.
Funding for the work came from the National Institutes of Health, Connecticut Department of Health, The Hope Funds for Cancer Research and Asuragen Inc.