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NIH issues grant to assess non-coding genes’ effect in colorectal cancer progression
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The NIH has awarded a $1.85 million grant to researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine to better learn how non-coding genes work in the progression of colorectal cancer, according to a press release.
The award was given based on the research of Ahmad Khalil, PhD, assistant professor of genetics and genome sciences at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, and colleagues’ which identified that non-coding genes contribute to the development and spreading of colorectal cancer.
“The cancer field has focused on the role of coding-RNAs and their protein products in the development of disease,” Khalil said in the release. “This was, and remains, a vital area of investigation. But in our recent research, my colleagues and I have shown that some lincRNAs seem to also help colon cancer cells avoid cell death and grow at a much faster rate than their normal counterparts. This finding opens up a parallel cancer-fighting track that can significantly increase the chances of overcoming this invidious disease.”
Khalil previously identified more than 200 different long noncoding RNAs in tumor cells as compared with their levels in normal colon cells. The results demonstrated that one long noncoding RNA was disproportionately present in 91% of colon tumor samples which, according to the release, strongly suggested the possibility that the form of RNA could be involved in forming and spreading colorectal cancer.
The grant will be used to help the investigators understand how non-coding genes work during the cancer progression.
“Now that we have found that lincRNAs appear to play a key role in colon cancer, our goal under our new grant is to understand how they cause the disease, so we can then devise treatments,” Khalil added. “We want to understand both the structure and function of this form of RNA. We will also study potential interactions with other molecules in the cell which contribute to the rise of cancer.”