October 2, 2020
Keio University School of Medicine
A research group led by Associate Professor Koji Taniguchi and Visiting Researcher Tetsuro Kawazoe of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Keio University School of Medicine, in a joint study with Professor Masaki Mori of the Department of Gastroenterological and General Surgery, Graduate School, Kyushu University, and Professor Koji Saeki of the Department of General Surgical Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Gunma University, has revealed that leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), a member of the IL-6 family of cytokines secreted by esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells themselves, activates the Src family kinase (SFK)-Yes-associated protein (YAP) pathway in addition to the previously known JAK-STAT3 pathway downstream of the receptor gp130, thereby promoting the progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. This was demonstrated in experiments using human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma-derived cultured cells and mice. Furthermore, the study confirmed that co-administration of an SFK inhibitor and a JAK inhibitor can suppress cancer cell proliferation by almost 100%. As SFK inhibitors and JAK inhibitors are already used in humans for other diseases, the application of these findings to the treatment of human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by targeting the LIF-SFK-YAP pathway is anticipated in the future.
The results of this research were published in the online edition of the American academic journal "Molecular Cancer Research" on October 1, 2020 (US Eastern Standard Time).
Please see below for the full press release.