VCU Massey Cancer Center researcher Gregorio Gil, PhD, studies the functions of cholesterol in the development of colon cancer in order to identify targets for novel therapies to treat or prevent the disease.

Gil said the concept that cholesterol may be related to cancer growth is not new because the progression of a tumor is characterized by rapid cell division.

“For cell division, you need to make membranes. To make membranes, you need to make cholesterol. For the last 40 or so years, there were many attempts to control cancer by controlling cholesterol synthesis, but none of them have been successful,” Gil said.

Although much is already known about the process of cholesterol production, much more remains to be learned about how cholesterol moves around within the cell.

More than 90 percent of cellular cholesterol is located in the plasma membrane, according to the American Society for Microbiology. However, cholesterol is synthesized in a separate organelle, the endoplasmic reticulum, meaning cholesterol has to be transferred within the cell at some point. Likewise, cholesterol taken from the diet has to be distributed to the different organelles.

Based on collaborative research with hematologist–oncologist Bhaumik Patel, MD, a member of the Developmental Therapeutics research program at Massey, and Michael Pandak, Jr., MD, from the VCU Department of Internal Medicine, Gil has discovered strong indications that a specific protein, StarD5, plays a primary role in the mediation of cholesterol movement and, furthermore, the development of colon cancer. He believes that it could become a major target for a novel therapy.

Using cancer mouse models with weakened immune systems, Gil discovered that inhibiting the activity of StarD5 correlated with a significant reduction in the size and number of tumor cells.

“Our most promising data is identifying this protein in the development of colon cancer in vivo,” Gil said.