WRN helicase (MSI-high cancers)
A DNA-unwinding enzyme that mismatch-repair-deficient cancers cannot live without; the first WRN inhibitors are in trials as a chemotherapy-free option for MSI-high tumours that fail immunotherapy. This dossier gathers the 0 products (0 approved), 0 trials, 2 pathways and 0 resistance routes in the corpus that involve it, with external identifiers so it can be joined to UniProt, ChEMBL, Open Targets and the rest of biology.
Biology
RecQ family 3'→5' DNA helicase and exonuclease; germline loss causes Werner progeroid syndrome; in MSI cancers its helicase (not exonuclease) activity prevents replication fork collapse at expanded (TA)n repeats.
- MSI-H colorectal cancer (~15% of CRC; dependency)
- MSI-H endometrial cancer (~30%)
- MSI-H gastric cancer (~20%)
- Lynch syndrome tumours
Elsewhere: identifiers and databases
Built from HGNC, Ensembl, UniProt and ChEMBL idsHow common it is, by cancer
Full matrix →| Cancer | Prevalence | Measure | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Endometrial cancer | 30% | MSI-H | ||
| Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer | 20% | MSI-H | ||
| Colorectal cancer | 15% | MSI-H (WRN-dependent) |
Approximate, population-level figures; the measure column says what was counted. Ranges show the midpoint as a bar.
Products by modality and phase
Browse products →No product in the corpus is aimed at this target yet.
Trials
Evidence ranking →No trial in the corpus names this target or one of its products.
Resistance routes that involve this target
Unaddressed routes →The resistance atlas has no route that names this target.
Pathways where it is a node
Pathway-to-drug matrix →- Mismatch repair & microsatellite instabilityNode: WRN dependence · 2 druggable nodes
After DNA is copied, a proofreading crew fixes the letters the polymerase got wrong. Lose it and the genome fills with thousands of small errors, especially in repetitive stretches (microsatellites). Those errors make abnormal proteins that the immune system can see, which is why immunotherapy works so well in these cancers.
Which nodes have drugs → - Synthetic lethality: paired dependenciesNode: → WRN helicase · 7 druggable nodes
Two genes are synthetically lethal when losing either alone is fine but losing both kills the cell. Cancers that have already lost one (a tumour suppressor you cannot put back) become uniquely dependent on the other, which you can drug. BRCA and PARP was the first proof; a dozen more pairs are now in trials.
Which nodes have drugs →
Companion diagnostics and assays
Assay registry →No companion diagnostic in the registry measures this target.
Preclinical models
All models →No model entry for this target yet; check the cancer entries on the models page.
Open questions
All open questions →No open questions recorded for this target yet. Suggest one.
Key papers and the live literature
Preprints →Query for this target: (TITLE:"WRN helicase" OR ABSTRACT:"WRN helicase" OR TITLE:"MSI-high cancers" OR ABSTRACT:"MSI-high cancers" OR TITLE:"WRN" OR ABSTRACT:"WRN") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about WRN helicase (MSI-high cancers), not a curated reading list.
Export
The dossier as machine-readable JSON: identifiers from HGNC, Ensembl, UniProt and ChEMBL, products with status, trials, pathways, hotspots, open questions and assays. The full entity record is in the open API at /api/v1/entities/wrn.json. Licence CC BY 4.0.