Dr. Trond Aasen publishes a Nature Review on gap junctions and cancer

Dr. Trond Aasen, member of the Translational Molecular Pathology group of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR), recently published a review in Nature Reviews Cancer about gap junctions and their connection to cancer.

Dr. Aasen initiated, organized and led the work in conjunction with the editor and key opinion leaders in the field from France, Canada and USA.

2016 marks 50 years since the first discovery linking gap junctions to cancer, so it was a good moment to summarize the major findings that has shaped the field.

The review covers and tries to summarize the relation between gap junctions, which are cell-cell communications channels and cancer. Gap junctions are composed of a family of transmembrane proteins named connexins, and can form intercellular channels that allow direct diffusion of molecules between neighboring cells.

In 1966 it was published that these direct cell-cell connections were lost in liver cancer leading to the idea is that these channels are tumor suppressors.

“During the last decade, it has been shown that gap junctions are not only tumor suppressors, but depending on cancer stage and tissue context, can also be oncogenic and facilitate metastasis. The field has changed in these 50 years which we try to reflect in this review” explains Dr. Aasen.

According to the investigator, this field is becoming “very exciting with new therapeutic options opening up”. For example, he highlights that this year, an article from the team of Dr. Joan Massagué was published in Nature describing novel gap junction signaling pathway and how simple drugs disabling these channels can inhibit brain metastasis in mice.

In addition to this review, a colloquium was held in Poitiers (France) in September 2016 to celebrate 50 years of research on gap junctions and cancer, where Dr. Aasen and other invited experts from all over the world presented their latest data and discussed the future challenges in the field.