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JST Press Release

5th February 2013
Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)
5-3, Yonbancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8666
URL http://www.jst.go.jp/EN/index.html

Discovery of essential growth drivers, RAC mutations, in human cancer

To develop effective means to treat cancer, it would be desirable to identify essential growth drivers that cancer cells are completely addicted to. Here we discovered amino acid substitutions in RAC1 and RAC2 small GTP-binding proteins in various human cancer, which confer potent transforming ability. Since suppression of such RAC1/2 mutants leads to cancer cell death, oncogenic RAC1/2 proteins are suitable targets to raise novel reagents to treat cancers positive for these mutations.

Researcher Information

JST Research Acceleration Program
Research Theme : “Identification of novel oncogenes in human cancer”

Journal Information

Published on 4 February 2013 as Online Publication in “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA”.
Masahito Kawazu, Toshihide Ueno, Kenji Kontani, Yoshitaka Ogita, Mizuo Ando, Kazutaka Fukumura,Azusa Yamato, Manabu Soda, Kengo Takeuchi, Yoshio Miki, Hiroyuki Yamaguchi, Takahiko Yasuda,Tomoki Naoe, Yoshihiro Yamashita, Toshiaki Katada, Young Lim Choi, and Hiroyuki Mano
“Transforming mutations of RAC guanosine triphosphatases in human cancers”
PNAS(2013)
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1216141110

Contact

[About Research]
Hiroyuki Mano, M.D.,Ph.D.
Professor, Jichi Medical University,
Project Professor, University of Tokyo,
E-mail:

[About Program]
Department of Innovation Research,
Japan Science and Technology Agency
Ryoji Haraguchi,
E-mail:

Japanese


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