A tumor protein is missing in cat brain tumors but not dog ones
Original title: Analysis of Merlin expression and Hippo pathway in feline and canine meningiomas.
How far along is this research?
- Lab cells
- Animals
- Review
- Tested in people
This was done in animals, not people. Most findings at this stage never become treatments.
This was lab testing on tumor tissue from cats and dogs, not people.
The short version
Cat brain tumors were missing a protein that dog tumors still had.
What was studied. Researchers looked at meningiomas, a kind of brain tumor, in cats and dogs. They tested tumor tissue from 18 cats and 48 dogs for four proteins. They also checked the NF2 gene in the cat tumors.
What they found. The cat tumors had no Merlin and no CD44. But they did have Yap1 in 15 of 18 and WWTR1 in 18 of 18. The dog tumors had Merlin in 41 of 48, CD44 in 18 of 48, Yap1 in 13 of 48, and WWTR1 in 18 of 48. No harmful NF2 gene changes were found in any of the 18 cat cases.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: Cat meningiomas look a lot like some human ones under the microscope. The authors think the loss of Merlin may help these tumors grow in cats. That may make cats a useful way to study this kind of tumor.
What it doesn't mean: This does not mean a new treatment. Nothing here was tested in people, and no drug was tried. The work was done on stored tumor tissue from cats and dogs. It is early lab science, and it is not a cure or a promise of one.
Source: PubMed, July 29, 2026 · Read the original
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