School of Medicine Professor Ki-Young Lee Research Team

 Suggests Mechanism for Controlling Lung Cancer Procedure

 based on Lung Cancer Patient Data

Lung cancer cell autodigestion control by Stratifin (SFN)

Joint Research with CHA Vaccine Institute Dr. Eunyoung Chun (Deputy Director of Research) Research Team

Professor Ki-Young Lee (School of Medicine) research team, joint with CHA Vaccine Institute Dr. Eunyoung, Chun (Deputy Director of Research) research team, suggested a new molecular cell mechanism in which Stratifin (SFN) protein controls growth and procedure of lung cancer by activating cancer cell’s autodigestion based on lung cancer patient DNA data.

Occurrence and development of lung cancer are induced by internal factor of cancer cells and external factors which exists in cancer cell’s microenvironment. The internal factor is defined as internal random mutation of cancer cell which effects propagation and differentiation. The external factors are the various factors that exists within cancer cell microenvironment and is also the factor that influences propagation, differentiation, and development of cancer cells along with internal factors. Recently, the autodigestion activation related to Toll-like receptor (TLR) stimulus appearance is investigated to be the important factor in controlling development and propagation of lung cancer cells. Thus, cancer cell autodigestion activation control is considered to be the new lung cancer targeted therapy.

The Stratifin (SFN) protein, a member of 14-3-3 protein family, is reported to be involved in cellular multiplication and differentiation by controlling cell cycle and cell death signaling pathway but study investigating Stratifin (SFN) effect on lung cancer occurrence and development by Toll-like receptor (TLR) stimulus has not been conducted yet.

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data originated from lung cancer patients provides various information related to development and procedure of lung cancer. This research analyzed whether SFN is implicated in development and procedure of lung cancer using DNA analysis data of 31 lung cancer patients from the research team and lung cancer related TCGA data. Based on these data, the effect of SFN on lung cancer has been analyzed with CRISPR gene scissors method and molecular cell analysis.

As a result, the appearance of SFN was confirmed to have significant increase in lung cancer patient tissues and was also verified to have relationship with manifestation of DNAs important to development and procedure of lung cancer. Through molecular cell mechanism investigation, the research team proposed a new mechanism that Stratifin (SFN) promotes the composition of TRAF6-Vps34-BECN1 protein complexes, important for inducing autodigestion activation by toll-like receptor 4.

Professor Lee and Dr. Chun’s research team reported, “This research has its significance in applying clinical data of lung cancer patients to basic research as cancer translational research. We hope that this research become the model for future oriented clinic-basic-industry research cooperation in developing lung cancer targeted therapy afterwards.”, emphasizing the implications of the study and importance of industry cooperated research.

The research was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF-2021R1F1A1049324 / NRF-2021R1A2C1094478) ·Medical Research Center (MRC, NRF-2016R1A5A2945889) and was published on international translational medicine journal ‘Clinical and Translational Medicine (Impact factor: 11.492)’ in June 12^th.

※ Paper Title:

- Stratifin (SFN) regulates lung cancer progression via nucleating the Vps34-BECN1-TRAF6 complex for autophagy induction. Clin Transl Med (Impact factor: 11.492). Published online on June 12^th, 2022. First author: Ji Young, Kim, corresponding author: Ki-young Lee / Eunyoung Chun (https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.896)