Fundamental research for treatment strategy of pancreatic cancer by regulating multiple biological pathways

TRAIL可诱导肿瘤细胞凋亡，但胰腺癌细胞有强烈避免细胞凋亡的机制。在本研究中，我们试图通过改变诱导胰腺癌细胞凋亡的机制来开发一种诱导细胞凋亡的策略，从而使TRAIL能够诱导胰腺癌细胞死亡。换句话说，避免胰腺癌细胞凋亡的机制是一个生存信号。胰腺癌组织强烈表达凋亡抑制因子Survivin。我们已经成功地开发出只在表达Survivin的细胞中发挥作用的溶瘤病毒。

TRAIL induces cancer cell apoptosis, but pancreatic cancer cells hava a mechanism to strongly avoid apoptosis. In this study, we tried to develop a strategy to induce apoptotic cell death by modifying the mechanism to avoid apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells so that TRAIL can induce pancreatic cancer cell death. The mechanism to avoid apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cell is, in other words, a survival signal. Pancreatic cancer tissue strongly expresses survivin, an inhibitor of apoptosis. We have successfully developed oncolytic virus that acts only in cells expressing survivin.