Discovery Likely to Lead to Cancer Cure Development

Intestinal microorganisms

A research team led by Jo Hyun-su at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology discovered that a substance from intestinal microorganisms kills colon cancer cells. According to the team, the discovery is expected to make a great contribution to microbiome-based colon cancer cure development.

“The substance is propionate and it kills colon cancer cells by accelerating the breakdown of EHMT2, which is an enzyme protein and colon cancer treatment target,” it said, adding, “We conducted a cell experiment with propionate and an EHMT2 inhibitor to confirm that colon cancer cells are killed.”

Details of the research are available in the online edition of the International Society for Microbial Ecology Journal.

These days, the causal relationships between the human microbiome and diseases are being clarified one after another across the world and related research activities are picking up speed. Especially, the intestinal microbiome has been reported as a cause of various diseases, such as colon cancer, obesity, diabetes, atopic skin diseases, depression and aging, and is expected to become a game changer in the field of new drug development.

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