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14.03.2005 13:23

German Cancer Prize 2005 goes to Prof. Claus Scheidereit (MDC) and Prof. Bernd Dörken (Charité)

Barbara Bachtler Kommunikation
Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin (MDC) Berlin-Buch

E M G A R G O E D until: Monday, March 14, 2005, 6:00 pm

Prof. Claus Scheidereit from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch and Prof. Bernd Dörken (Charité - University Hospital Berlin, Campus Berlin-Buch, Campus Virchow and the MDC) have been awarded the German Cancer Prize 2005 for deciphering the molecular mechanism of Hodgkin's lymphoma, a common cancer of the lymphatic system. The award was presented to them at the Congress of the German Cancer Society on March 14, 2005 in Würzburg. The researcher and the clinician have "contributed significantly to the understanding of the molecular causes of Hodgkin's lymphoma with their excellent research work, which was in part done in close cooperation, and have thus enabled the development of new therapeutic approaches", as was stated in the announcement of the award. The German Cancer Prize goes to researchers from the MDC and clinicians from the Charité for the second time. In 1999 Prof. Walter Birchmeier (MDC) and Prof. Peter M. Schlag (Charité - Campus Berlin-Buch and MDC) received this award. Since its founding in 1992, the MDC, an institution of the Helmholtz Association, has worked closely with clinicians of the Charité. One main scientific focus at the MDC is cancer research.

Hodgkin's lymphoma is one of the diseases of the lymphatic system and is accompanied by a swelling of the lymph nodes (part of the immune system), fever, night sweats, and weight loss. The disease is named after the British pathologist Thomas Hodgkin (1798-1866), who first described the disease in 1832. Characteristic of the disorder is the presence of mononucleated Hodgkin cells and giant, multinucleated Reed-Sternberg cells in the lymph nodes. The exact processes involved whereby healthy white blood cells become malignant are not known. Until a few years ago, it was also unclear which molecular mechanisms contribute to the development of this cancer of the lymph glands.

However, in 1996 Prof. Scheidereit and Prof. Dörken discovered the gene switch NF-kappaB in the nuclei of the Hodgkin Reed-Sternberg cells of Hodgkin patients. It became evident that this gene regulator triggers the malignant cell growth in Hodgkin's lymphoma. NF-kappaB belongs to a group of gene regulators that transmit signals, such as in virus infections or inflammatory processes. These NF-kappaB factors normally lie dormant in the interior of the cell (cytoplasm), retained by the so-called inhibitor proteins (IkappaB). Following bacterial or viral infection, messenger substances of the immune system, the so-called cytokines, activate NF-kappaB factors and temporarily send them into the cell nucleus. There, NF-kappaB factors switch on certain genes whose products, in turn, cause the immune cells to take up a defensive position. After completing their work, the NF-kappaB molecules leave the cell nucleus and wander back in the cytoplasm.

In contrast, in the malignantly altered cells of Hodgkin's lymphoma, NF-kappa-B is constantly in the cell nucleus. The reason, as the researchers discovered, is that certain, permanently activated enzymes (so-called IKKs) switch off inhibitor proteins that normally retain NF-kappaB in the cell plasma. Furthermore, they were able to show that, in a portion of the patients, the inhibitors are defective due to mutations. All Reed-Sternberg cells studied, in which NF-kappaB could be detected in high concentrations in the cell nuclei, grow uninhibited both in vitro as well as in animal experiments. These cells are no longer able to trigger the cellular protective programme which normally leads to apoptosis in wrongly programmed cells. The researchers managed to stop the malignant growth of the Reed-Sternberg cells by flushing the NF-kappaB out of the cell nucleus into the cell plasma with an artificial inhibitor protein that cannot be inactivated by IKK. The gene on/off switch is thus shackled and can no longer leave the cell plasma. More recently, using DNA chip technology, Prof. Scheidereit and Prof. Dörken were able to identify other factors that interact with NF-kappaB and elucidate their function. As such, they have made a further contribution to the decoding of the complex signal network of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

New therapeutic approaches
Up until now, Hodgkin's lymphoma was treated with radiation therapy and chemotherapy. The work of Prof. Scheidereit and Prof. Dörken has now provided the basis for the development of new therapeutic approaches. In pre-clinical studies, different substances are currently being tested as to their capability to directly or indirectly block IKK activity. It remains to be seen whether this alone will develop into a new and more effective therapy, or whether these approaches will supplement and improve chemo and radiation therapy.

Prof. Claus Scheidereit, born in Schleswig, Germany in 1954, has been Research Group Leader at the MDC since 1995 and is also Associate Professor at the Free University (FU) of Berlin. He studied chemistry at the University of Marburg and was a scientific assistant there after completing his doctoral degree. He completed his post-doc training at Rockefeller University in New York, USA. In 1988, he was given his own research group at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (Berlin). In 1992, he completed his post-doctoral Habilitation thesis at the FU qualifying him to become a professor in biochemistry.

Prof. Bernd Dörken, born in Siegen, Germany in 1947, is an oncologist, haematologist, and tumour immunologist. He studied medicine in Erlangen und Nuremberg and was active for many years at the University of Heidelberg. In 1992, he was appointed as a C4 professor at the Charité in the Rössle Clinic in Berlin-Buch and was Medical Director there at the Medical Clinic with a focus on haematology, oncology, and tumour immunology. Since 2001, he has served as the Medical Director of the Medical Clinic with main focus on haematology and oncology at the Campus Virchow Klinikum of the Charité. In conjunction with his appointment to Berlin-Buch in 1992, Prof. Dörken became Research Group Leader at the then newly founded MDC.

Press Office
Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch
Barbara Bachtler
Robert-Rössle-Straße 10
13125 Berlin
Germany
Phone: 0049/30/94 06 - 38 96
Fax: 0049/30/94 06 - 38 33
e-mail:presse@mdc-berlin.de
http://www.mdc-berlin.de

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Weitere Informationen:

http://www.helmholtz.de/de/Publikationen/Jahresheft_2005.html (contribution of the MDC on NF-kappaB in the new yearbook of the Helmholtz Association)
http://www.ngfn.de

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Prof. Claus Scheidereit (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin-Buch
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Prof. Bernd Dörken (Charité - University Hospital Berlin)
private
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Merkmale dieser Pressemitteilung:
Ernährung / Gesundheit / Pflege, Medizin
überregional
Forschungsergebnisse, Forschungsprojekte
Englisch

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