According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), 2 in 3 cancers are hormone-driven, meaning breast cancer cells possess proteins that act as hormone receptors and feed off of estrogen and progesterone.
These hormones help the breast cancer to spread, so hormone therapy aims to prevent cancer from spreading or recurring by blocking the hormone receptors.
New research — carried out by scientists from the Karolinska Institutet and Science for Life Laboratory in Solna, Sweden — offers new hope, as the team discovered a way to starve hormone-fueled breast cancer cells of energy. This may lead to better drugs in the future.
The researchers found a protein that helps breast cancer cells to get the energy they need to proliferate. They also found a compound that inhibits this protein. They discovered that NUDT5 is used by breast cancer cells to create energy in their nucleus. The nuclear energy thus created is used to drive cancer-causing gene expression.
This compound is called TH5427, and laboratory experiments revealed that it successfully acts as an NUDT5 inhibitor, stopping the spread of breast cancer cells.
The authors summarize their findings, saying, “Utilizing these state-of-the-art techniques led us to discover TH5427, a potent and cell-active NUDT5 inhibitor that can be used to further understand the role of NUDT5 in biological systems.”
Ultimately, Prof. Helleday and his colleagues hope to be moving toward human clinical trials.
The researchers hope that their findings will help to treat not only breast cancer, but hopefully other forms of cancer, as well.
Each year, American Friends of Rabin Medical Center holds theCheryl Diamond NYC 5K Schlep: Breast and Ovarian Cancer Run / Walk, a certified 5K that brings together hundreds of participants from the New York tri-state area, and across the USA and overseas, ranging in age from 6 – 90 years old, bound together in solidarity to raise the hopes of those battling breast and ovarian cancer as well as awareness and funds to help further research and treatment.
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