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Home News UT GSM Scientists Discover New Protein That May Be Important Target for Cancer

UT GSM Scientists Discover New Protein That May Be Important Target for Cancer

Published: Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Scientists in the Human Immunology and Cancer Program at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine have identified a structurally unique protein in dental and other epithelial cancers termed odontogentic ameloblast-associated protein (ODAM), a finding of potential diagnostic and therapeutic impact. This study is featured in the May/June issue of Molecular Medicine.

This discovery emanated from the findings of Alan Solomon, M.D., Director, UT Graduate School of Medicine Human Immunology and Cancer/Alzheimer’s Disease and Amyloid-Related Disorders Research Program, and his colleagues who found that amyloid associated with a rare dental tumor was composed of ODAM fragments. This was the first evidence for expression of this unusual protein.

Subsequently, Dr. Solomon’s team made antibodies to ODAM, as well as recombinant ODAM, and serendipitously found this molecule expressed not only in dental tumors but other epithelial cancers, including breast, gastrointestinal and lung.

Notably, patients with these malignancies were also found to have significant titers of anti-ODAM antibodies in their blood.

“This suggests some type of immune reaction against the tumor and that ODAM may be an important target for cancer therapy,” said Daniel Kestler, Ph.D., a lead researcher in this study. “Our current efforts are directed toward delineating why ODAM is expressed in these cancers, as well as the function of this protein, its role in tumorogenesis and, especially, if it can serve as a novel tumor biomarker.”

Dr. Kestler and his colleagues believe that ODAM will prove important in the initiation and growth of epithelial cancers and the anti-ODAM immune response may have prognostic significance.

“This is an example of an academic medical center at its best: always working to find answers, new ways of studying a problem and new treatments, and then advancing these treatments more quickly to help people,” said James J. Neutens, Ph.D., FASHA, Dean, UT Graduate School of Medicine.

The University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine in Knoxville is part of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, the statewide academic health system. The school is home to more than 200 teaching physicians and researchers; more than 190 medical and dental resident physicians in 11 residency and 11 fellowship programs; and more than 180 volunteer faculty physicians and dentists. The school, together with clinical partner, University Health System Inc., forms the University of Tennessee Medical Center, the only academic medical center in the area. For more information about the UT Graduate School of Medicine, visit http://gsm.utmck.edu.