# A novel cancer syndrome in KCNQ1-deficient Syrian Golden hamsters

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2020 · $75,255

## Abstract

Abstract
The Syrian Golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) is an emerging model organism for human diseases that
complements current rodent models. It has been demonstrated to be especially effective in modeling human
disorders such as diet-induced early atherosclerosis, inflammatory myopathies, emerging viral infectious
diseases, Clostridium difficile infection, pancreatitis, diet-induced obesity, insulin resistance, lipid metabolism
and virally and chemically-induced cancers. Moreover, as a designated high-priority animal model the hamster
genome has recently been fully sequenced, along with a full description of the hamster transcriptome. However,
until recently a significant challenge for the use of hamsters in modeling human diseases was the inability to
generate genetically engineered hamsters. This barrier has recently been surmounted by our group resulting in
gene knockouts in hamsters by employing CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene targeting, piggyBac-mediated
transgenesis and pronuclear injection. This permits the creation of the first genetic models of cancer in hamsters.
One of the first genes that we investigated encodes for the KCNQ1 potassium channel. KCNQ1 mutations cause
a range of pathologies in humans such as cardiac arrhythmia, inner ear defects and gastric hyperplasia and we
have shown that deficiency for Kcnq1 enhances GI cancer phenotypes in mouse models and low expression of
KCNQ1 is associated with poor prognosis in stage II, III, and IV colorectal cancer. We generated eight KCNQ1
homozygous KO hamsters that were aged and phenotyped. As early as 50 days of age six of the homozygous
mutants started showing signs of distress and upon necropsy all of the hamsters had visible cancers
(hemangiosarcomas, lymphomas, myeloid leukemias, multiple myelomas), often synchronous, very large and
infiltrating multiple tissues, including liver, lung, pancreas and omentum, intestine, kidney, spleen, ovaries,
sternum, lymph nodes, stomach in addition to systemic myeloid disease involving bone marrow, lung, liver and
spleen. None of the hamsters in our colony that were wildtype or heterozygous for KCNQ1 mutations developed
cancers indicating that the cancer phenotype is linked to KCNQ1-deficiency. The susceptibility or resistance of
hamsters to genetically engineered cancers can inform on how these cancers may develop in humans, help
clarify differences with genetic mouse and rat models of cancer, and may lead to new therapeutic interventions.
To our knowledge, this study represents the creation of the first genetically engineered hamster cancer model.
The challenge now is to characterize these cancers at the molecular level and discover altered genetic and
biochemical pathways that give rise to them.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9850946
- **Project number:** 5R03CA234201-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** Robert T Cormier
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $75,255
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-01-16 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9850946

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9850946, A novel cancer syndrome in KCNQ1-deficient Syrian Golden hamsters (5R03CA234201-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9850946. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*