In recent years, there has been a rise of alcohol-decentred spaces, parties, and opportunities to come together.

This rise is reflective of a general decrease in alcohol consumption in the UK (and specifically for Scotland) and a growing awareness of its adverse health effects. This trend has, in part, been driven by steady scientific discovery as well as ongoing public health campaigns to inform people of alcohol’s health impacts.

Most notably, alcohol is classified as a Type I carcinogen. This is the highest risk category and indicates that there is sufficient evidence that this widely available substance can cause cancer in humans. Cancer Research UK (CRUK) reports that seven types of cancer can be caused by alcohol, including mouth, breast, liver, and bowel cancers.

From the dance floor to the lab…

I help run the bar at an alcohol-free club night here in Glasgow called Good Clean Fun. The party was started by people in recovery looking for a place to connect and dance free from alcohol and drugs. As I am working behind the bar, people often share why they have joined our dancefloor. Some people are in recovery, but I hear myriad motivations for joining us: mental health, medication use, family history of substance abuse, supporting a partner who is in recovery, training for an athletic event, and cancer scares.

It was only recently that I reflected and filtered these conversations through my professional lens. I am a post-doctoral researcher at the CRUK Scotland Institute (CRUKSI) where I work in the lab of Professor Cowling on proteins which modify and bind RNA. We study gene regulation at the transcript level which in turn shapes the functional RNA and protein landscape within the cell.

RNA’s lifecycle is complex. The proteins that bind them and the modifications that mark them can drastically alter their function. RNA dysregulation is characteristic of rapidly proliferating cancer, and we can uncover novel ways to target cancers by studying how regulation of RNA controls cells’ behaviour. Epitranscriptomics and RNA-protein interactions offer an exciting layer of gene regulation, especially as modification can lead to changes in localisation, stability, splicing, and translation of RNAs.

An interesting cancer target

I study cap methyltransferase 1 (CMTR1) – an enzyme which binds and modifies RNA which may influence how efficiently an RNA is delivered to sites of protein production and how long it stays there. CMTR1 is expressed more in numerous cancers, including three of those that can be caused by alcohol: breast, liver, and colorectal cancers. It has a role in inflammation and boosts the expression of proteins linked involved in cell growth and energy production.

Our goal is to understand and interrupt cancer cell growth by targeting RNA modifying enzymes in cancer contexts and boost cancer targeting T-cell function

CMTR1 is an increasingly interesting target in cancer. Work published last year used publicly available patient data to show that in a panel of different cancer types, CMTR1 protein and/or RNA was elevated in tumours compared to a matched normal control tissue. They identify this pattern in bladder, breast, CRC, liver, lung, head and neck, and ovarian cancers. Clinical data in a few cancer types also supports CMTR1 expression as being associated with prognosis, for instance in CRC where its expression correlates positively with progression of disease.

Prevention is key

While it’s a great privilege to work on promising cancer therapeutic targets, potentially lifesaving treatment only comes into effect after a great deal of hardship for patients and their loved ones. Finding ways to reduce risk in the first place is key.

When I speak about GCF, people often voice scepticism towards the existence and value of a social space without alcohol. Spaces centred around alcohol have, for so long, been the hub of people’s social lives in the UK. People, understandably, do not want to let go of their opportunities to socialize and relax – which spaces serving alcohol often give us.

However, I explain that the intention of GCF and events like it is to allow people to still connect in familiar ways. Alcohol-free spaces invite and empower people to make lifestyle interventions such as considering their consumption of a cancer-causing agent.

These spaces help us build a future where cancer prevention is as central as the cures the CRUK community work tirelessly to deliver.