EIF4A1 and cancer: Cancer cells rely on cap-dependent translation of oncogenic mRNA transcripts.34,35 Pro-tumorigenic transcripts exhibit 5′ untranslated regions (UTRs) and high GC content, giving rise to mRNA secondary structures (such as G-quadruplexes) that require unwinding by the eIF4F complex helicase eIF4A.36 Analysis of mRNA transcripts corresponding to human-specific proteins enriched in xenografted AML cells revealed high GC content, which was not detected in transcripts encoding for mouse proteins derived from the host (Figure 3F, left).