Page 20 - Hormel Institute Annual Report 2021-22

Ilana Chefetz Menaker, PhD
“Emerging new therapies targeted at activating necroptotic
cell death pathway can be effective new strategy to overcome
chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer.”
Ilana Chefetz Menaker
20 | THE HORMEL INSTITUTE // UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA Cancer Stem Cells and Necroptosis
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Ihave a longstanding interest in women’s health and ovarian cancer. We study cell programmed necrosis (necroptosis). As chemoresistant cancer cells overexpress anti-apoptotic
proteins, necroptosis can be an alternative cell death pathway to eliminate these cells.
Our lab studies the molecular and metabolic aspects of cell programmed necrosis (necroptosis) in order to design targeted therapies and prevent recurrent disease. Cell programmed necrosis or necroptosis is a recently identified novel regulated cell death pathway. Cell death with necrotic morphology and features were thought to be a non-regulated and uncontrollable event associated with cell injury, inflammation or ischemia. However, recent studies now reveal that necrosis can occur in a regulated manner. Necroptosis participates in pathogenies of diseases including neurodegeneration, ischemia, heart disorders, and viral infections; thus targeting necroptosis will prevent or mitigate undesirable cell death. On the other hand, drugs, inducing necroptotic cell death in tumors, can potentially overcome
drug resistance in cancer cells due to elevated expression of anti-apoptotic proteins. Thus, elucidation of necroptosis/cell proliferation or necroptosis/apoptosis balance is essential to trigger cancer cell death or prevent pathological conditions such as ischemia or inflammation. The most studied kind of