Joe W . Ramos
WHY CANCER CELLS MOVE
Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
GENG-XIAN SHI | WON SEOK YANG | LING JIN | MICHELLE L . MATTER | JOE W . RAMOS
Joe W . Ramos , PhD , deputy director of the UH Cancer Center , and collaborators identifed how some cancer cells are made to move during metastasis . The research provides a better understanding of how cancer spreads and may create new opportunities for cancer drug development .
• Researchers focused on investigating how oncogenes and related signals lead to dysregulation of normal processes within the cell and activate highly mobile and invasive cancer cell behavior .
• Ramos ’ team defned a mechanism in which the oncogenes turn on a protein called RSK2 that is required for cancer cells to move .
• The RSK2 protein forms a signaling hub that includes proteins called LARG and RhoA . Turning on the signaling hub activates the movement of the cancer cells .
THE RESULTS SIGNIFICANTLY ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING OF HOW CANCER CELLS ARE MADE TO MOVE DURING METASTASIS AND MAY PROVIDE MORE PRECISE TARGETS FOR DRUGS TO STOP CANCER METASTASIS IN PATIENTS WHERE THERE ARE ONCOGENIC MUTATIONS .
RSK2 signaling hub in cancer cells
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