Researchers in Korea have identified a protein that causes an eating disorder that reduces the survival rate of cancer patients.
The Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology announced on the 18th that the research team of Dr. Yoo Kwon and Lee Gyu-sun confirmed the principle that the specific protein’Dilp8/INSL3′ secreted from cancer cells regulates appetite control hormones.
Cancer cachexia syndrome, a typical cancer complication, refers to symptoms such as severe eating disorders and weight loss accompanying malignant tumors.
It is known to be a factor that reduces the effect of chemotherapy and lowers the patient survival rate, but the cause of the eating disorder is unknown.
The research team confirmed that the expression and secretion of a specific protein’Dilp8′ derived from cancer cells was remarkably increased by analyzing the Drosophila cancer model and ribonucleic acid (RNA) transcriptome.
This protein has been shown to induce eating disorders in Drosophila cancer models by altering the expression of appetite-regulating hormones through brain neuronal receptors.
In the mouse model for cancer-causing experiments, it was confirmed that the protein and homologous factor’INSL3′ was significantly increased.In particular, when INSL3 was injected directly into the brain of the mouse, the amount of food intake and weight were decreased.
Subsequently, a clinical study of pancreatic cancer patients with high incidence of cachexia also found that patients with symptoms of eating disorders had high INSL3 protein concentrations.
Dr. Yoo Kwon said, “Through the diagnosis and control of newly identified proteins, we will be able to increase the anticancer treatment effect and contribute to the development of metabolic disease treatments.”
The research results, which were conducted in collaboration with Professor Jae-myeong Seo’s team at KAIST and Professor Song-cheol Kim’s team at Asan Medical Center, were published in the online edition of the international journal Nature Cell Biology on the 9th.
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