Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

The aberrant activity of several proteins has been shown to contribute to cancer development. One of these is the protein eIF4E, an important positive regulator of cancer cell growth and proliferation. When deregulated, eIF4E has been shown to promote tumour development in animal models, and to be overexpressed in several human cancers, including lymphoma, leukemia, colorectal and breast cancers. Our work focuses on 4E-T, an important regulator of eIF4E function. Several lines of evidence indicate that 4E-T interacts with eIF4E to negatively regulate its function. For this reason, 4E-T has been suggested to act as a potential tumour suppressor in cancer. We found that oxidative stress, that is often associated with cancer development, regulates the activity of 4E-T and therefore the activity of eIF4E. These findings bring important new information regarding the mechanisms that control eIF4E and cancer cell growth, and will help in the development of improved strategies for the treatment of cancer.