A collaborative study has uncovered microproteins exclusive to liver tumors, presenting a new avenue for cancer vaccine development. These microproteins arise from genes previously considered non-coding, offering hope for effective treatments for low-mutation cancers like liver cancer. Scientists identified a set of microproteins that are exclusively produced in liver tumors.
This makes them a clear target for immune system cells and a potential target for cancer vaccine development. A study has identified a group of small molecules exclusive to liver tumors that could be key to developing cancer vaccines. These are microproteins, very small proteins expressed only by tumor cells.
This can result in the activation of immune cells against the tumor. The study, which was led by the Hospital del Mar Research Institute, with Cima University of Navarra and Pompeu Fabra University, will be published today (July 10) in the journal Science Advances . Discovery Through Advanced Techniques By integrating data from tumors and healthy tissue from over one hundred liver cancer patients, the researchers identified this set of microproteins.
These small molecules are generated from genes that were previously thought incapable of encoding proteins. “In recent years, there has been increasing attention to this group of genes, which, due to their short length or low expression, were considered non-coding. New techniques have revealed that some of these genes can indeed produce small proteins.