Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and accounted for 8.8 million death in 2015 (WHO). Cancer incidence is even higher in developed countries such that throughout life more than 50 % people may be suffered from this disease in Japan. In order to reduce cancer death, we study and elucidate cancer pathogenesis, and find out strategies to overcome this lethal disease.
2024.02
On the Feb 9th, Dr. Siwanon Jirawatnotai visited us from Mahidol University, Thailand. He gave us a wonderful lecture entitled 'Capitalizing the cancer dynamic re-wiring for cholangiocarcinoma therapy'. We thank him very much for the fruitful discussion with graduate students.
2023.11
On the Nov 17th, Dr. MeiChee Tai visited us from Cancer Research Malaysia. She gave us a wonderful lecture entitled 'Polygenic risk scores for prediction of breast cancer risk in Asian populations'. We discussed lots of things. Thank you!
2023.07
From Silapakorn University, Thailand, we have accepted an exchange student Nichapat, the third lady from the left. She will be at our lab for 12 weeks.
2023.05
'LASP1, CERS6, and Actin Form a Ternary Complex That Promotes Cancer Cell Migration', was published in Cancers. We sincerely thank collaborators and other persons who supported this project.
The ceramide synthase CERS6 (Ceramide Synthase 6) was overexpressed in
non-small cell lung cancer, while elevated expression was associated with
increased cell migration, poor prognosis, and lymph node metastasis*1).
Previous studies have shown that CERS6 promotes the formation of local
structures called lamellipodia, which are essential for cancer cell migration*2),
though the detailed mechanism has not been elucidated.
In this study, we identified LASP1 (LIM and SH3 domain protein 1) as a
novel binding partner of CERS6 by mass spectrometry analysis. LASP1 has
been known to promote the migratory ability of cancer cells through interaction
with actin. Interestingly, we found that the interaction between LASP1
and actin is CERS6-dependent. In addition, CERS6 itself also interacts
with actin in a LASP1-dependent manner. The ternary complex of CERS6-LASP1-actin
revealed a critical role for the cell migration activation mechanism, which
is an early step in cancer metastasis. This finding might influence the
development of inhibitors in lung cancer metastasis.
*1) Suzuki M et al. CERS6 required for cell migration and metastasis in
lung cancer. J Clin Mol Med, 24: 11949-11959, 2020.
*2) Shi H et al. CEBPgamma facilitates lamellipodia formation and cancer
cell migration through CERS6 upregulation. Cancer Sci 112:2770-2780, 2021.
Contact information
Phone:+81-562-93-2440
e-mail:motosuzu#fujita-hu.ac.jp(In case of e-mail, please change # to @)
Address:1-98, Dengakugakubo, Kutsukake-cho, Toyoake-city, Aichi, 470-1192, Japan