Abnormal Protein a Marker of Pancreatic Cancer

Researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have identified, for the first time,the prion as a biomarker for pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers in humans with a five year survival rate of less than 10 percent.

Chaoyang Li, Ph.D., Wei Xin, M.D., and professor of pathology, Man-Sun Sy, Ph.D., discovered the mechanism by which prions cause tumours to grow at a more aggressive rate. Unlike normal cells, the prion is incompletely processed and thus binds to a molecule inside the cell known as filamin A, which is an important regulator of the cell's skeleton and its isignalling mechanisms.

The binding of incompletely processed prion to filamin A disrupts the cell's organization and signaling, and as a result the tumor cells begin to grow more aggressively. When the prion level is reduced, the tumor cell loses its ability to grow tissue culture and in animals.

Researchers found that a subpopulation of patients had incompletely processed prion protein in their pancreatic cancer, and had significantly shorter survival compared to patients whose tumors did not have prion.

There is currently no early diagnostic marker for pancreatic cancer, but the detection of incompletely processed prion may provide such a marker.