Key proteins enhance the effectiveness of chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a treatment that uses chemical drugs to prevent the proliferation, infiltration, and metastasis of cancer cells, and eventually kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy not only attacks cancer cells, but also all cells in our body, so patients often experience side effects such as weakness, hair loss, and nausea. Since cancer cells divide and spread faster than most normal cells, they are more sensitive to chemotherapy, which kills cells by inhibiting their ability to spread.
But cancer cells may find ways to evade chemotherapy. When attacked by chemotherapy, cells including cancer cells will try to repair or bypass the damage. Researchers at the School of Health and Medicine at the University of Copenhagen are trying to figure out how cells repair or bypass chemotherapy-induced lesions, hoping to provide new ways to inhibit these repair processes and make chemotherapy more effective.
In a new collaborative study conducted by the Protein Research Center, Associate Professor Julien Duxin and his research team discovered a protein that seems to play a crucial role in recruiting key DNA repair and signaling factors. If correct, this finding may be important for future chemotherapy.
"The evidence we found shows that the RFWD3 protein is responsible for coordinating the repair of different DNA damages induced by chemotherapy. If we can inhibit this protein, we may prevent cells from tolerating DNA damage, which may lead to more effective chemotherapy in the future."
The findings were published in Molecular Cell. The team is dedicated to understanding the basic principles of DNA replication and DNA repair, which enable cells to repair genomic damage, such as chemotherapy-induced damage. The team observed that the lack of protein leads to serious defects in the recruitment of components needed to repair and tolerate damage.
Repairing DNA damage is a complex collection of multiple events. Julien Duxin said: "Our goal is to identify relevant key proteins in each event, which are essential for this type of repair."
But cancer cells may find ways to evade chemotherapy. When attacked by chemotherapy, cells including cancer cells will try to repair or bypass the damage. Researchers at the School of Health and Medicine at the University of Copenhagen are trying to figure out how cells repair or bypass chemotherapy-induced lesions, hoping to provide new ways to inhibit these repair processes and make chemotherapy more effective.
In a new collaborative study conducted by the Protein Research Center, Associate Professor Julien Duxin and his research team discovered a protein that seems to play a crucial role in recruiting key DNA repair and signaling factors. If correct, this finding may be important for future chemotherapy.
"The evidence we found shows that the RFWD3 protein is responsible for coordinating the repair of different DNA damages induced by chemotherapy. If we can inhibit this protein, we may prevent cells from tolerating DNA damage, which may lead to more effective chemotherapy in the future."
The findings were published in Molecular Cell. The team is dedicated to understanding the basic principles of DNA replication and DNA repair, which enable cells to repair genomic damage, such as chemotherapy-induced damage. The team observed that the lack of protein leads to serious defects in the recruitment of components needed to repair and tolerate damage.
Repairing DNA damage is a complex collection of multiple events. Julien Duxin said: "Our goal is to identify relevant key proteins in each event, which are essential for this type of repair."
