Professor Nam Jeong-seok's Team Discovers CD45-Expressing Cancer Cells Inducing Resistance to Anticancer Therapy

GIST Develops New Treatment Strategy to Maximize Anticancer Therapy Efficacy

The research team led by Professor Nam Jung-seok of the Department of Life Sciences at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) identified the anticancer treatment resistance biomarker CD45 through genomic profiling of tumor tissues from colorectal cancer patients. Photo by GIST.

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Cho Hyung-joo] A research team led by Professor Nam Jung-seok of the Department of Life Sciences at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) announced on the 6th that they have discovered the anticancer treatment resistance biomarker CD45 through genomic profiling of tumor tissues from colorectal cancer patients.

The serendipity regarding the new function of CD45 is expected to help understand refractory cancers and serve as a starting point for developing new therapeutic strategies.

CD45 has been known as an immune cell marker, and little is known about its expression and function within cancer cells. The research team accidentally found that CD45 expression is high in colorectal cancer tissues resistant to anticancer treatment, and by using a dual-labeling technique with epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) and a new analysis method called single-cell genomic profiling, they identified the presence of cancer cells expressing CD45.

The team confirmed that CD45-expressing cancer cells present in patient tumor tissues survive anticancer drugs and radiation therapy, inducing cancer cell proliferation and recurrence.

Additionally, clinical studies demonstrated a correlation that higher CD45 expression in cancer cells is associated with poorer treatment prognosis for chemoradiotherapy.

Reducing tumor size through anticancer or radiation therapy before surgery increases the chance of a cure, but since it is not effective for all patients, the importance of developing biomarkers to distinguish responders is growing. Therefore, the discovery of the biomarker CD45, which can predict treatment response to preoperative chemoradiotherapy, is highly significant.

The research team revealed that cancer cells expressing CD45 possess self-renewal ability, exhibiting characteristics of cancer stem cells that continuously regenerate tumor tissues, and they identified a therapeutic strategy to overcome refractory cancer by targeting CD45.

By utilizing CD45 inhibitors developed as immunotherapeutic drugs, they found that CD45-targeted therapy suppresses the anticancer treatment resistance of cancer stem cells and reduces the ability of cancer recurrence after anticancer treatment. This is significant as it provides experimental evidence for treating refractory cancers.

Professor Nam Jung-seok explained, “The significance of this study lies in revealing the new role of CD45 in inducing anticancer treatment resistance and opening the possibility of new therapeutic strategies to overcome refractory cancers.”

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