A remarkable number of life-threatening diseases manifest more seriously in males than in females. One current example is the COVID-19 illness caused by SARS CoV-2. Another instance is the significantly higher risk of more serious cancer illnesses for men. A research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now discovered a molecular cause for this difference between the genders.
Compared to women, men have a higher risk of experiencing a serious course of life-threatening diseases such as cancer. For example, every year in Germany over 130,000 male patients die of cancer, whereas the same figure is only approximately 100,000 for female patients.
Comprehensive epidemiological studies conducted in recent years have shown that the increased risk of men experiencing a more serious course of cancer is in no way due solely to a higher-risk lifestyle, for example due to their higher average consumption of tobacco or alcohol.
Thus factors independent of lifestyle have to play a role, making it all the more important to identify parameters which cause the gender-specific course of the disease. This in turn might serve as a basis for reaching appropriate conclusions on treatment approaches.
Increased values indicate higher risk
"TIMP1 is not higher in all males, but the discovery of TIMP1 as a risk parameter which can be identified in blood now lets the clinic identify that group of men who has a higher risk of developing life-threatening liver metastases," says Krüger.
"Previous studies have already shown us the molecular contexts in which TIMP1 promotes liver metastasis," he adds. "In connection with our current discovery, there are now new possibilities for personalized medicine with optimized diagnosis and targeted therapy options."
In a next step Achim Krüger and his working group plan to further investigate the molecular causes of male-specific modifications in the formation of TIMP1.
Publications:
C. D. Hermann, B. Schoeps, C. Eckfeld, E. Munkhbaatar, L. Kniep, O. Prokopchuk, N. Wirges, K. Steiger, D. Häußler, P. Knolle, E. Poulton, R. Khokha, B. T. Grünwald, I. E. Demir, A. Krüger
TIMP1 expression underlies sex disparity in liver metastasis and survival in pancreatic cancer
J Exp Med., Nov 1, 2021; 218(11):e20210911 (Online: Sep 17, 2021) - DOI: 10.1084/jem.20210911
