A study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows a mechanism that explains the common properties shared by stem cells and cancer cells. The work has been made by the Cancer Epigenetics Research Group, led by Manel Esteller, ICREA researcher at Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the University of Barcelona (UB).

“In particular we have found that a protein involved in increasing longevity, called sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is very active in stem cells, which by definition are always young”, says Esteller. When the stem cells start to differentiate to generate different tissues, the sirtuin 1 activity is lost. According to the researcher, “this process is very similar to what happens in the cancer, sirtuin 1 is highly activated in human tumours because they are immortal and undifferentiated cells”.

The results indicate that SIRT1 is regulated during differentiation of stem cells by some epigenetic way, still unknown, which controls the specific development in embryonic stem cells. One of the additional interest of the study is that there are substances, at least in the laboratory, which can affect the process: stimulating the differentiation of stem cells and antitumor effects, by causing the sudden aging of cancer cells.

The study also involved researchers at the Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, the Andalusian Center of Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine and Biomedical Network Research Centre on Liver and Digestive Diseases.