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Byers and the research team suspected that beta catenin may interact with vitamin D in some fashion because of another known fact -- activation of beta catenin causes most colon cancers.

To help them understand what vitamin D is doing in the cell, the researchers studied findings by other scientists who had looked at families who develop rickets due to an inherited mutation in their vitamin D receptor. Most of these patients had both rickets and alopecia (baldness). However a small number of families had mutations in the receptor which only led to rickets. "We know beta catenin is also involved in regulation of hair growth and we wondered if these particular mutations might also allow the receptor to regulate beta catenin," Byers said.

"We found a mutation which caused rickets but not alopecia but which still allowed beta catenin to bind to the vitamin D receptor," he said. This suggested to the researchers that it may be possible to separate the anti-cancer role of vitamin D from its effects on bone and calcium.

If a drug mimic of vitamin D can be developed, it could prove useful in preventing some cancers at their earliest stages, but would probably not offer any therapeutic benefit for later stage cancers, Byers said. "That's because we know that by the time colon cancer is well advanced it fails to respond to vitamin D."

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Contact: Liz McDonald
eem6@georgetown.edu
202-687-5100
Georgetown University Medical Center
17-Mar-2006