Using Advanced Sequencing Technology, Hoped to Provide Drug Targets

 

Joint Research with USCD Published in PLoS Computational Biology

 

A joint research team of Korea and America has developed a computer model for the identification of oncogenic metabolites that could initiate cancers.

 

 

The research was led by corresponding author Prof. Hojung Nam of GIST School of Information and Communications, in collaboration with University of California, San Diego of the United States, and was supported by the Basic Science Research Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea. The result was published in the September 2013 issue of PLoS Computational Biology, a prestigious research journal in bioinformatics. (Title: A Systems Approach to Predict Oncometabolites via Context-Specific Genome-Scale Metabolic Networks)

 

Cancer and metabolism have been considered to be associated for a long time. However, the role of metabolism in oncogenesis remained under doubt until recently because no solid links between genetic variations in metabolic genes and cancer had been observed.

 

With the development of sequencing technologies, researchers found mutations in several enzyme coding genes in medium-grade glioma and acute leukemia. As these mutated metabolic genes initiate unexpected enzymatic reactions, cancer cells show altered concentration of particular metabolites, called “oncometabolites.” Since these oncometabolites regulate the epigenetic controls of cell differentiations, altered contentation of oncometabolites could confer oncogenesis.

 

In the study, the research team predicted potential oncometabolites in nine types of cancer from massive scale cancer mutation data via a computer cell model which simulates the cellular activities of cancer cell metabolism. Using this computer cell model, 15 metabolites and 24 substructures of potential oncometabolites were identified.

 

Prof. Nam said, “The research showed how genetic information could be used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancers and their therapeutic studies.” “This study could be utilized in drug target identification that aims enzyme proteins,” she added.

 

For further information or inquiries, please contact isso@gist.ac.kr.