Musashi protein target in pancreatic cancer

Targeting premalignant pancreatic lesions before they progress to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is challenging. Tannishtha Reya and colleagues have found that the stem cell factor encoding for the RNA-binding protein Musashi (Msi) is critical to this progression in genetic mouse models and patient-derived xenografts. They used an image-based approach to follow the cells as they progress to malignancy, and show that the growth of pancreatic tumours can be halted by targeting Msi with antisense oligonucleotides.