Chk1 gene stops cancer cell proliferation

Scientists have discovered that a mutant form of the Chk1 permanently stopped proliferation and caused cell death when expressed in cancer cells.

The study, done by researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, found that artificially activating Chk1 alone is sufficient to kill cancer cells.

“We have identified a new direction for cancer therapy and the new direction is leading us to a reduction in toxicity in cancer therapy, compared with chemotherapy or radiation therapy,” said Dr. Youwei Zhang, assistant professor, Department of Pharmacology at the School of Medicine, and member of the university’s Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. “With this discovery, scientists could stop the proliferation of cancer cells, allowing physicians time to fix cells and genetic errors.”

Dr. Zhang’s team unexpectedly discovered an active mutant form of human Chk1, which changed the protein conformation of the gene from the inactive form into an active form. The team discovered that this active mutant form of Chk1 permanently stopped cancer cell proliferation and caused cell death in petri dishes when expressed in cancer cells, even without the addition of any chemotherapeutic drugs.

These findings have a lot of potential in terms of cancer treatment. No toxic chemotherapeutic drug would be needed to achieve the same cancer killing effect used with a combination of Chk1 inhibitors and chemotherapeutic drugs.