Lung cancer cells' survival gene seen as drug target

When a key gene called 14-3-3zeta is silenced, lung cancer cells can't survive on their own, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Lung cancer, one of the deadliest forms of cancer, "appears to carry this specific weakness," said researchers from Emory University in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The gene is a potential target for selective anti-cancer drugs.

Lung cancer kills more Americans annually than any other type of malignancy, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Yet treatment options are very limited.

Emory researchers chose to focus on the gene 14-3-3zeta because it is activated in many lung tumors. In addition, recent research elsewhere shows that survival of lung cancer patients is worse if the gene is on overdrive in their tumors.

In their new study, researchers used a technique called RNA interference to selectively silence the 14-3-3zeta gene. They found that when 14-3-3zeta is turned off, lung cancer cells become less able to form new tumor colonies in a laboratory test.

Further experiments showed that 14-3-3zeta regulates a set of proteins called the Bcl2 family that control programmed cell death, and its absence upsets the balance within the family.

The finding has implications beyond lung cancer, because 14-3-3zeta is also activated in other forms of cancer such as breast and oral, the authors notes.