Project description
Aberrant protein synthesis and cancer progression
When T cells become activated in response to cancer, they release interferon-γ which triggers the conversion of tryptophan into kynurenine. Although kynurenine helps suppress the activity of T cells against the tumour, its production also reduces the availability of tryptophan for the tumour cells themselves. This often causes errors in protein synthesis and leads to the production of abnormal proteins, which can promote tumour growth and metastasis. The ERC-funded pepTalks project aims to investigate the implications of aberrant mRNA translation in cancer and develop innovative therapeutic strategies targeting these processes.
Objective
Shortages in amino acids are weapons in the warfare between tumor cells and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. Tumor cells enhance or inhibit the production of key amino acid metabolites to stimulate oncogenesis and suppress anti-tumor activity. A key player in this battle is tryptophan. Activated T cells secrete interferon-, which upregulates IDO1 enzyme to catabolize tryptophan to kynurenine in target tumor cells. While kynurenine suppresses T-cell function, its production limits tryptophan availability in tumor cells. Importantly, as tumor cells almost invariably deregulate mRNA translation to promote proliferation and metastasis, the consequences of tryptophan shortage are major. It provokes aberrant mRNA translation at tryptophan codons, resulting in ribosomal frameshifting and tryptophan to phenylalanine (W>F) codon reassignments (substitutants). This aberrant mRNA translation alters protein function and enriches the landscape of neoepitopes at the surface of tumor cells. Based on these observations, I hypothesize here that the detection of aberrant proteins in cancer specimens can reveal additional key processes of cancer progression beyond tryptophan that can be utilized for cancer therapy.
To explore this exciting new idea, I designed three work packages (WPs):
WP1 will expand the landscape of aberrant mRNA translation in cancer and link them to cancerous events. Preliminary results pinpoint arginine, histidine, and leucine.
WP2 will generate reporter assays, set up functional genetic screens, and identify, validate, and explore key regulators of aberrant mRNA translation.
WP3 will study the functional consequences of aberrant mRNA translation, and introduce novel therapeutic concepts.
Altogether, this proposal will employ our recent discoveries of aberrant mRNA translation during periods of amino acid shortages to explore novel interplays between cancers and their suppressive microenvironment, and utilize this new knowledge for cancer therapy.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins enzymes
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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(opens in new window) ERC-2023-ADG
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1066 CX AMSTERDAM
Netherlands
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