Potential New Therapeutic Target for Cancer Cachexia is KIAA0930

On July 20, 2023, a brand-new study with the working title “The uncharacterized transcript KIAA0930 confers a cachexia phenotype on cancer cells” appeared in Oncotarget’s Volume 14.

Cancer cachexia patients have a poor prognosis and impaired quality of life. Inflammatory cytokines have been implicated in the development of cancer cachexia in numerous studies using preclinical models; yet, no clinical study specifically targeting cytokines has proved effective. Molecular processes must be found in order to create anti-cachexia therapies.

Based on analyses of microarray datasets and an in vitro muscle atrophy assay, Takahiro Yamakawa, Guoxiang Zhang, Liza Bengrine Najjar, Chun Li, and Keiichi Itakura from Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope identified uncharacterized transcript KIAA0930 as a candidate cachexic factor in this new study.

We state, “We here report the initial characterization of KIAA0930.”

In vitro muscle atrophy was induced by conditioned media from pancreatic, colorectal, gastric, and tongue cancer cells but not by conditioned media from KIAA0930 knockdown cells. According to the PANC-1 orthotopic xenograft study, animals bearing KIAA0930 knockdown cells had larger tibialis anterior muscles than control mice in terms of weight and cross-sectional area. It’s interesting to note that the release of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines from different cancer cell lines was unaffected by KIAA0930 knockdown. KIAA0930 is not secreted from cells and is instead localized in the cytosol, according to an initial characterisation experiment.

“These data suggest that the action of KIAA0930 is independent of the expression of cytokines/chemokines and that KIAA0930 could be a novel therapeutic target for cachexia.”