Molecular overlap of fly circadian rhythms and human pancreatic cancer

Cancer Lett. 2006 Nov 8;243(1):55-7. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2005.11.049. Epub 2006 Jan 31.

Abstract

Circumstantial evidence demonstrating a role for circadian rhythms in cancer has been presented but there is little direct molecular evidence to support this idea in human cancer. Herein, we report a significant similarity between fly genes with strong circadian rhythms and human genes under expressed in pancreatic cancer. The list of genes includes both circadian regulator genes, such as period 1 and DEC1, and downstream effectors, such as ubiquitin specific protease 30. This observation may indicate that the pancreas peripheral clock is disrupted in pancreatic cancer and are consistent with the recent proposals that circadian genes act as tumor suppressors.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Cycle Proteins / genetics
  • Circadian Rhythm / genetics*
  • Drosophila melanogaster / genetics*
  • Gene Expression Profiling*
  • Humans
  • Pancreatic Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Period Circadian Proteins
  • RNA, Messenger / genetics
  • RNA, Messenger / metabolism
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

Substances

  • Cell Cycle Proteins
  • PER1 protein, human
  • Period Circadian Proteins
  • RNA, Messenger