Exploiting SUMOylation to target MYC-driven cancers

MYC is a protein which is known to contribute to the development of cancer. It is found in many different types of cancer cells at much higher levels than it would be in healthy cells. As a result, MYC has been identified as a protein that could be targeted to treat cancer patients. However, developing a drug that inhibits MYC directly has proved challenging.

Therefore, scientists have instead focused on targeting MYC indirectly.

For example, several genes have been identified that when inhibited, result in the death of only cells that have too much MYC, such as cancer cells. This means that healthy cells with normal levels of MYC will not be affected. An example of one such gene is SAE2. SAE2 is an enzyme which catalyses the first step in a series of reactions called the SUMOylation pathway.

Although this is an encouraging observation, it remains unclear why inhibiting SAE2 kills cancer cells with too much MYC. Therefore, the aim of my project is to find out why and how SAE2 inhibitors kill these MYC-overexpressing cancer cells.

This will help determine whether we can use SAE2 inhibitors to treat cancer patients whose tumours possess too much MYC.