Finding NEMO: U of S Protein Discovery Key to Immune Response and Cancer

Posted January 09, 2004


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 9, 2004 2004-01-03-OTHER

Finding NEMO: U of S Protein Discovery Key to Immune Response and Cancer

University of Saskatchewan health scientist Wei Xiao and his research team
have discovered a pair of proteins significant in stress responses within
cells - a finding that could lead to new approaches to drug design for
treating cancer and such deadly viral infections as SARS and HIV.

The discovery of the protein MMS2 and the way it works with another protein,
UBC13, in the complex web of communications within cells to create an immune
response was reported in the January 8 issue of the prestigious journal
Nature.

As the article explains, the U of S research was part of a larger
investigation involving California scientists studying immune response. The
U of S research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Xiao, professor and head of the microbiology and immunology department, said
the wider investigation focused on "finding NEMO." Here, NEMO is not a tiny
fish, but a tiny protein, an essential link in the chain of events resulting
in cells' efforts to defend the vast ocean of the human body against
invaders such as viral and bacterial infections. NEMO performs like a switch
activating the immune response.

The U of S contribution was discovering that MMS2 and UBC13 operate together
to motivate NEMO. The overall research clarifying this interaction --
finding NEMO -- provides a missing link in the chain of events that starts
with an intrusion such as exposure to a virus and ends with an immune
response.

When the protein duo activates NEMO and triggers the immune response to
fight invaders, cells multiply rapidly. This is useful in combating an
infection, Xiao said. "But if the chain reaction gets activated all the
time, without the presence of an invader, the result is uncontrolled cell
division and tumours," he said.

Thus, clarifying the role of the protein duo and NEMO has implications for
drug development as well as identifying and treating viral diseases and some
forms of cancer.

Some antibodies capable of acting upon the protein duo have been developed
at the U of S and recently licensed for research, Xiao said. Down the road,
this research could revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of immune
diseases and cancer, by enabling scientists to boost the immune response to
fight infections or, conversely, to halt uncontrolled cell division that
would result in cancer.

Xiao says the protein duo of UBC13 and MMS2 was actually identified a few
years ago but the protein structure was only recently determined in a
collaboration with University of Alberta researchers that involved using a
synchrotron in Brookhaven, New York.

"We will be collaborating further with other researchers on the U of S
campus, using the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron," Xiao said. These
studies will focus on the structures of other proteins interacting with the
protein duo. The U-of-S-owned CLS (www.lightsource.ca) is to start
operations later this year.

More information is available from Nature's website under Letters to Nature
at:
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/dynapage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v427/n6970/i
ndex.html#article

The CIHR (www.cihr.ca) is Canada's premier federal funding agency for health
research.

-30-


For more information, contact:

Wei Xiao
Professor and Head
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
College of Medicine
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-4308
wei.xiao@usask.ca

Sheila Robertson
Research Communications Officer
Office of the Vice-President Research
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-1425 or (306) 966-2506
sheila.robertson@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research