Scientists have found that a gene that UVA Health researchers discovered is responsible for the deadliest type of brain tumor and two forms of childhood cancer.
A UVA Health discovery of a gene responsible for a type of brain tumor could also lead to better treatments for some kinds of childhood cancer. Illustration by Emily Faith Morgan, UVA Communications
The new discovery may open the door to the first targeted treatments for two types of rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer that primarily strikes young children. The gene may also play an essential role in other cancers that form in muscle, fat, nerves and other connective tissues in both children and adults, the research suggests.
“We accumulated multiple lines of evidence supporting [the gene] AVIL is powerful driver for both major types of rhabdomyosarcoma,” said Hui Li, a researcher with the University of Virginia School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology and UVA Cancer Center.
Li and his team discovered in 2020 that AVIL is the gene responsible for glioblastoma, the most lethal form of brain cancer. Less than 7% of patients with glioblastoma survive five years after diagnosis.
Li’s 2020 discovery was named one of the year’s biggest biomedical discoveries by the editors of health news site STAT. Li’s latest work builds on that research and suggests that AVIL is even more important than previously realized.
Li and his team found Malfunctions in AVIL play an essential role in the development of the two main subtypes of rhabdomyosarcoma. In a scientific paper outlining the findings, he and his colleagues describe rhabdomyosarcoma as “addicted” to the gene’s excess activity. They ultimately label AVIL a “bona fide oncogene” for rhabdomyosarcoma. “Oncogene” means cancer-causing.
The researchers note that AVIL may be the convergence point for two different cellular processes that cause soft-tissue cells to become cancerous. Blocking the activity of AVIL, they found, prevented the formation of rhabdomyosarcoma in both cell samples in lab dishes and in mouse models of the disease.
That’s a promising sign for the discovery’s potential to lead to a new, targeted treatment for rhabdomyosarcoma, a relatively rare cancer that can be deadly. Even with multi-modal therapeutic interventions, the survival rate for high-risk children is less than 20%.
The new research also reveals that AVIL is excessively active in other soft tissue cancers, known as sarcomas. The scientists found that the degree of excess activity correlates with patient outcomes, suggesting that AVIL may also be a vulnerability for those cancers.
“These findings, plus our previous work in brain tumor, suggest that AVIL is an oncogene that, when over-activated, may trigger the development of multiple cancer types,” Li said.
Finding better ways to prevent and treat cancer are urgent missions of UVA Cancer Center, which this year was designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute. The designation recognizes elite cancer centers with the most outstanding cancer programs in the nation. UVA is one of just 52 Comprehensive Cancer Centers and the only one in Virginia.
Source: University of Virginia