Diacylglycerol kinase η modulates oncogenic properties of lung cancer cells

Purpose Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths and efforts are underway to identify novel therapies to treat these tumors. Diacylglycerol kinase η (DGKη), an enzyme that phosphorylates diacylglycerol to form phosphatidic acid, has been shown to modulate MAPK signaling downstream of EGFR, which is an oncogenic driver in some lung cancers. Since mutations in EGFR and K-Ras are common in lung cancer, we hypothesized that limiting the function of DGKη would attenuate oncogenic properties of lung cancer cells.