Longevity & AgingCancer Hijacks Muscle's Internal Clock to Drive Deadly Wasting via FOXP1
Researchers discovered that pancreatic cancer upregulates the transcription factor FOXP1 in skeletal muscle, which disrupts the muscle's internal circadian clock. Using ChIP-seq and RNA-seq across 24-hour time courses in mouse models, they showed cancer causes widespread loss of rhythmic gene expression in metabolic pathways while abnormally activating rhythmic patterns in muscle-wasting genes—including autophagy, proteasome, and inflammation pathways. Deleting muscle-specific FoxP1 largely prevented these circadian disruptions, implicating FOXP1 as a central driver of clock reprogramming in cancer cachexia and a potential therapeutic target.
