New finding 'Death-associated protein' promotes cancer growth

Although traditionally understood to induce death in cancer cells, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that the DAPK1 protein is actually essential for growth in breast and other cancers with mutations in the TP53 gene. This discovery indicates DAPK1 may be a promising new therapeutic target for many of the most aggressive cancers.

As its name implies, DAPK1 (death-associated protein kinase 1) has well studied roles in activating pathways that stimulate apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in cancer cells. However, the current findings report that DAPK1 functions much differently in cancers with mutations in the TP53 gene (tumor protein p53).

"This is a little studied kinase that has not been previously focused on for the treatment of cancer," says Powel Brown, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair, Clinical Cancer Prevention, and senior author. "We discovered a yin and yang phenomenon in terms of DAPK1 function. In normal cells this protein functions as a death inducer, but in TP53 mutant cells DAPK1 acts a critical driver of cancer cell growth."
"This is probably the most exciting finding," says Brown. "While a new treatment for triple-negative breast cancers would be a major advance, DAPK1 inhibitors have the potential to be used to treat many different kinds of cancers with TP53 mutations, which include the most lethal cancers without effective treatments."