Aug 15, 2020
Cancer cells disrupt the body's
circadian clock. Researcher Brian Altman works to understand why
and how this happens and what therapeutic findings may result.
He tells listeners
- How our 24-hour cycle works and how cancer cells create a type of circadian rhythm disorder,
- Why cancer cells gain an advantage over other cells under this circadian rhythm disorder, and
- Why this information could prove useful in fighting cancer with circadian rhythm cancer treatments.
Brian Altman is an assistant
professor in the Department of Biomedical Genetics at the
University of Rochester Medical Center. He's always been interested
in the metabolism of cancer and did a post-doc that involved the
circadian clock and rhythms.
He describes his lab's basic interest as centered on this
disruption of normal circadian rhythms by cancer, which gives the
tumor cells an advantage over normal cells by allowing them to
outcompete the normal cells. This, they hope, is something that can
be taken advantage of and manipulated.
He makes the connection for
listeners between our circadian clock and metabolism and explains
that cancer wants to engage in maximal metabolism all the time;
therefore, this trend may break the circadian clock. Studies on
mice allowed them to ask which genes are mutated in cancer that
might impact the clock and they've focused on a cancer gene called
MYC. This gene cranks up the biosynthesis of some cancers.
He explains that the two main focuses of the lab's work includes
identifying which tumors disrupt the circadian clock and how they
can use this to inform therapeutic choices. Finally, he adds that
they're getting close to showing that slowing the circadian clock
can slow the growth of tumor cells. They are investigating the best
way to restart the circadian clock in patients who've been
disrupted by cancer to slow this cell growth.
See his lab's website to find
out more: urmc.rochester.edu/labs/altman.aspx.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK