Project information
Silenced Cells Speak Volumes: Dysregulated Gap Junctional Intercellular Communication as a Key Process for Identification of Non-Genotoxic Carcinogens

The global number of patients with cancer is expected to rise over the next 50 years. Chemicals surrounding us are a crucial contributor to cancer development. Therefore, understanding the carcinogenic potential of chemicals is a critical aspect of regulatory assessment to minimize public health risks. The conventional approach to carcinogenicity testing relied on a rodent cancer bioassay (RCB), which has significant drawbacks including limited mechanistic insights and limited predictivity for humans. Therefore, alternative methods have gained significant attention in recent years, providing more efficient and reliable approaches to assessing the carcinogenic potential of chemicals and providing better mechanistic insight. Although gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) has been explored as a cancer hallmark for a long time, its predictive potential for identifying carcinogenic chemicals has not been systematically studied. In this project, we aim to confirm or reject the applicability and usefulness of GJIC in identifying carcinogenic chemicals.