Study shows strategy that gives new hope. An enzyme generated in cancer cells is at the origin of the new approach.
From the United States of America, more specifically from Boston, Massachusetts, comes new hope for those who have breast cancer liver.
A study conducted by specialists at the National Institutes of Health and Massachusetts General Hospital showed a promising method in the fight against this cancer. The results were published in the journal Nature Cancer.
At the base, it underlines the portal SciTechDailythere is one enzyme generated in liver cancer cells that can turn certain compounds into anti-cancer agents.
Thus, this enzyme can actually destroy cancer cells – and it reduced the severity of the disease in the mice used in the study.
“We found a molecule that kills cells in rare liver cancer in a unique way”, analyzed scientist Matthew Hall, one of the leaders of the research.
Matthew Hal explained that screening was done to find molecules that selectively kill human liver cancer cells. And that’s when the molecule converted by an enzyme was discovered in these liver cancer cells, creating a anticancer drug.
When studying bile duct cancer, researchers wanted to find compounds and drugs that were effective against HDI1the enzyme (and its mutations) that characterize this cancer.
After thousands of drugs were tested, the molecule was found YC-1which actually killed cancer cells, but was not affecting the IDH1 mutation.
Then they discovered SULT1A1, an enzyme produced by liver cancer cells. That SULT1A1 activated the YC-1 compound, making it toxic to cancer cells and liver cancers in mice.
Mice that were treated with YC-1 got liver tumors smaller.
But cancers in mice that were treated with YC-1 but without the SULT1A1 enzyme, there were no changess.
Further investigation, even looking at US national data, confirmed that there are various types of compounds that rely on SULT1A1 to kill tumors. And, through computer simulations, they came up with a list of other compounds that probably also depend on SULT1A1 for the same purpose.
In other words, scientists came to the conclusion that the SULT1A1 is essential to trigger, develop, processes of elimination of tumors. Not just in the case of the YC-1.
It is a new and promising strategy that can pave the way for a new “age” of cancer drugs, linked to SULT1A1. There is an “unexplored class” in this context.
YC-1 and similar molecules will be prototypes for the development of compounds that may be effective against important proteins in cells. There will be other compounds dependent on SULT1A1, with different targets.
The team of this study defends the creation of a “kit of SULT1A1-activated molecules tools”, which can affect many different targets, reaching many types of enzymes.
Investigators believe they have paved the way for a new approach to some diseases.
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