A discovery by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists offers new insights into how myeloma cells dispose of defective or excess proteins and could lead to new cancer treatments.The researchers identified key cellular components that carry out protein disposal, a finding that helps to explain how cancer drugs called proteasome inhibitors interfere with this process. The discovery is important because the newly identified components of the protein disposal mechanism could be targets for novel cancer drugs designed to kill the cell by blocking this mechanism. A report on this work appears in the Nov. 30 issue of Molecular Cell.
