This hair loss gene could help improve cancer treatment

Activating this gene may expose the cancer cells to the immune system and help the immune cells to attack the invading cancer cells.

Scientists have found that a gene associated with autoimmune hair loss disorder may also help improve cancer immunotherapy - treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer.

Scientists are exploring options to see what is the best way to use the gene to fight cancer. (Shutterstock)

The findings showed that a gene named IKZF1 recruits T cells in alopecia areata - a condition in which immune cells attack and destroy hair cells - that gets switched off during several types of cancer.

Switching off IKZF1 protects the tumour cells from the immune system. But activating this gene may expose the cancer cells to the immune system and help the immune cells to attack the invading cancer cells.

“We showed that a gene that recruits T cells in alopecia areata is turned off in various types of cancer, protecting them from the immune system. But if we turn that gene back on, we can make those cancers vulnerable to the immune response,” said Angela M. Christiano from Columbia University in New York City, US.

While prostate cancer could also be made more responsive to immunotherapy, colorectal and kidney tumours would not respond to immunotherapy if IKZF1 expression was increased, because the gene was found to be inactive in these tumours, the researchers found.

Further, analysis of data from previous study of melanoma patients with disabled IKZF1 gene showed higher recurrence rates and worse survival.

“We should be able to identify genetic signals that are hyperactive in autoimmune disease, and then harness those signals in tumours that have developed a way to avoid the immune response,” the researchers said.

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