Dr. Jonathan Whitfield and Dr. Mariano Zacarías-Fluck, researchers in the Models of Cancer Therapies Group at VHIO, together with Dr. Yulia Nevzorova (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain) and Professor John Sedivy (Brown University, USA), have edited a Research Topic in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology titled “MYC as a Disease Target Beyond Cancer”.
The importance of MYC in cancer has led to immense efforts to find a MYC inhibitor. Not surprisingly, given its fundamental role in many physiological processes, MYC has also been linked to a wide variety of diseases beyond cancer. The growing efforts to develop MYC inhibitors as cancer therapies will have significant implications for treating these other diseases as well. Interestingly, the activation of MYC may also prove beneficial in the fields of regenerative medicine and the reversal of aging.
This compendium of research, now available online at Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, explores the involvement of MYC in non-oncological conditions such as aging, regeneration, obesity, endometriosis, mitochondrial diseases, and more. Notable findings include its dual role in obesity, where MYC may contribute to both the development and reduction of obesity, as well as its association with diseases such as polycystic kidney disease and neonatal lung inflammation.
The review from Zacarías, Whitfield and Laura Soucek (head of VHIO’s Models of Cancer Therapies group) provides an overview of “MYC’s potential as a target in other diseases”
The analysis highlights the challenges and opportunities of modulating MYC for therapeutic purposes, emphasizing the need for further studies on its activation in tissue regeneration and its inhibition in disease progression. This interdisciplinary approach could open new avenues for the treatment of a variety of conditions, broadening the clinical impact of MYC modulation.
“While it’s centered on MYC,” says Dr. Jonathan Whitfield, whose research group works with MYC, “we are trying to extend the potential application of MYC inhibitors (a major focus in cancer research) beyond cancer. In some ways, this has been quite different from what we normally focus on at VHIO, but it has also given us the chance to expand our horizons and think outside the box,” concludes Dr. Whitfield who has published an editorial article about MYC as a disease target beyond cancer.
About Frontiers Research Topics
With their unique mixes of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area.
